Piff discusses a recent series of behavioral experiments centered on the game of Monopoly. These experiments –conducted at the UC Berkeley campus — involved the secret recording of multiple “rigged” games of monopoly in which one randomly-chosen player in a randomly selected group was given certain
a priori advantages…such as: twice the money, greater ability to move around the board (more than two dice!), and more access to resources (higher bonuses for passing ‘go’).
According to Piff, the goal here was to study how “a privileged player in a rigged game behaves”. After just fifteen minutes of play for each game, the researchers began noticing “dramatic” behavioral changes in the advantaged players…observed changes ranged from louder, more forceful movement of their game piece (and
other “displays of power”) to seemingly trivial things like
eating more pretzels.
In one humorously shocking (or shockingly humorous) example, one of the advantaged players, after successfully winning the game, was heard explaining what he had done, strategically, to succeed and win. This example speaks to “how we make sense of advantage”, says Piff
Over all, the most consistent behavioral change observed is one that may not come as a great surprise to those of us with more worldly experience…
manners, or rather, the lack thereof…
