(Self-)regulation of selfish behavioral tendencies – perspectives from Japan and Germany

Human beings can show both selfish and other-regarding behavior, as has been shown in many experiments in economics and other social sciences. Whether they show one or the other is, among others, determined by existing social norms and rules, and by personal characteristics. These aspects differ between situations and contexts, but also between cultures. In Heidelberg and in Kyoto and Osaka researchers work in this field and have published a relevant amount of papers on their respective context or on the US context.

The aspect of cultural influence has not been studied that much, and usually with a focus of “culture” as distinguishing factor, not specifying in detail what aspects of culture might play a role and what can be learned from a more basic, general perspective from the study of cultural differences.

The workshop thus aims at bringing together researchers from several of the HEKKSAGON universities that do work in that area, present their work and discuss in detail the questions described above. The aim of the workshop would be to come up with a joint research plan that can be transformed into a joint grant application. The scientific aim is to deepen our understanding of what conditions allow people to act selfish and under what conditions do people act in an other-regarding way. By including also people from the area of agent-based modeling, a field were Japan is leading, we hope to be able to develop models in the future that can test macro-predictions based on that micro behavior. 

Contact:

Prof. Christiane Schwieren
AWI Universität Heidelberg
Bergheimer Straße 58
69115 Heidelberg

Ansprechpartnerin:
Fr. Rosa Huhn
AWI Universität Heidelberg
Bergheimer Straße 58
69115 Heidelberg
Tel.: +49 (0) 54 2934
Fax: +49 (0) 54 3592
Email: rosa.huhn@awi.uni-heidelberg.de