Fairness and retaliation in a rural Nigerian village

Results from ultimatum and dictator games played in western societies routinely violate the canonical economic model. Results from non-western societies are even more problematic. In this study ultimatum and dictator games were played in the small Igbo village of Umuluwe in southeastern Nigeria. Follow-up interviews to high acceptance rates suggested that fairness, not fear of retaliation, was the overwhelming reason for high offers, suggesting the limited predictive power of the neoclassical behavioral model. The economically rational prediction of a high acceptance rate of ultimatum game offers holds in traditional societies but not for the reasons the standard model assumes. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.