World

How to deal with freeloaders: modern countries are world’s apart.

By team ⋅ March 29, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

The Herald, 7 March

Freeloaders can best be described as people who put their town interests ahead of the common good and try to manipulate the generosity of others to their advantage. The research, which involved tests in 16 countries, shed new light on this group of people, and what happens when they are punished. The findings help understand the impact of their behaviour upon everyday actions which require cooperation, such as voting, recycling, and abiding by basic laws.

The survey highlighted marked national differences between the residents of the UK, US, and Switzerland, compared with those in more traditional societies such as Oman, Saudi Arabia, Greece and Russia. In some countries, Freeloaders who were punished for their selfishness took the route of revenge, further limiting the amount of cooperation.

The survey made use of a game, which examined behaviour in 16 cities around the world. Volunteers were given tokens and told they could either keep them, or put them in a common pot which would yield extra interest for all the players.

Levels of cooperation were remarkably similar across all the nations, the study concluded. However, behaviour changed dramatically when contributions were revealed and players were able to inflict punishments, such as removing tokens. The study uncovered a new phenomenon when, in subsequent rounds of the game, the punished freeloaders took revenge and hit back in what is described as ‘anti-social punishment’. This happened most in cities in more traditional societies based on authoritarian and parochial social institutions, for example Greece and South Korea. British, Australian, Chinese, German and Swiss freeloaders become more cooperative after being punished.