About 90 percent of the population fall within four basic personality types: Optimistic, Pessimistic, Envious and Trusting. And the most common of these? Envious, according to Spanish researchers.
In a study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers from the the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the Universities of Zaragoza, Rovira I Virgili and Barcelona worked with 540 volunteers, analyzing their responses to hundreds of social dilemmas. Based on collective or individual interests, the subjects were given options that could lead to either conflict or collaboration with others.
Specifically, the study is within the realm of game theory, a branch of mathematics that has economic and sociological applications, and which assesses human behavior when people are faced with situations necessitating decision-making. The decisions people make in turn will lead to different consequences that will be determined by what an involved party decides to act on.
For the study, the subjects formed pairs, which can change with each round and when the game changes. Depending then on the situation, it's possible for cooperation and betrayal to both be considered the best options.
After the social aspect of the experiment, a computer algorithm was then developed to classify the subjects according to behavior. Ninety percent of the subjects were categorized into the Optimistic, Pessimistic, Envious and Trusting groups, split into a 20-20-30-20 ratio.
The remaining 10 percent of the subjects belong to an undefined group, a fifth group of people whose reactions to the presented dilemmas could not be categorized by the algorithm.
Optimists believe that the best choice is what will benefit both people in the pairing, while Pessimists will go for the lesser evil. Those Envious, on the other hand, will not mind what's achieved as long as it results in them being better than anyone else, and those Trusting will always favor cooperation and collaboration without caring who wins or loses.
According to Anxo Sánchez, one of the authors of the study, the computer algorithm has been successfully used in other fields, like biology. Its use in assessing human behavior is considered revolutionary because earlier studies already had pre-set behaviors identified.
"This is of capital importance because it isn't something imposed by the researchers. The objective of using mathematics was precisely to guarantee impartiality," said Sánchez.
The researchers believe the results of the study shed light on what moves individual or collective interest in negotiations, suggesting that the research will be helpful for those in business management. Those in the robotics industry may also see benefit in the research as it helps in humanizing robots.
Photo: Mike Nelson | Flickr
