From economic man to cultural man: an introduction

Scientists have developed different conceptions of human beings. While the idea of an economic man assumes that human beings behave in a rational way (economic man), an experiment called the ultimatum game with two players shows that both parties often behave irrationally (psychological man). But even the idea of a psychological man falls too short: Human behavior is heavily influenced by culture-specific norms and values (cultural man). This chapter outlines the transition from the idea of an economic man to a psychological man, explaining the ultimatum game in more detail, and shows that the cultural man exists, using an illustrative example: The percentage of people who would lie for their own benefit correlates with the cultural value dimension of power distance.