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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

‘Robber’ experiment tests generosity — with sobering results

People who give freely to a single individual get selfish in a crowd.
A passer-by stops to give money to a homeless man sitting on the street in Hong Kong

A passer-by gives money in Hong Kong. Such generosity to a single person can coexist with a willingness to take advantage of groups of people, a new experiment shows. Credit: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty

A research game called Big Robber might help to explain why a banker would steal money from clients but buy a warm meal for a homeless person: individuals tend to be selfish in their dealings with large groups of people, although they can be generous to just one other person.

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Nature 596, 166 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02120-6

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