Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Rules: You should abstain from applying concepts and theories unrelated to topic 1. Answers
must not exceed 1,500 words. (Use the integrated word count tool.) Any text exceeding the
first 1,500 words will not be considered.
I. REVIEW QUESTIONS:
1. Schematically explain the organization of economic activity of our hunter-gathering
ancestors.
2. What does it mean that we have an ecological mind for our rationality and
cooperation? Briefly explain the maladaptation hypothesis in terms of cooperation and
rationality, and provide an example of each case.
3. What is the role of the emotions in human behavior?
4. Provide several examples in which emotionsyours or of somebody you knowhave
brought to a less rational and cooperative behavior.
5. Provide several examples in which emotionsyours or of somebody you knowhave
brought to a more rational and cooperative behavior.
6. How would you make sense of the discussion about to what extent our behavior is
determined by our biology and to what extent by our culture?
7. What is the function of culture and institutions from an evolutionary point of view?
1
II. CASES AND EXERCISES
2. Gossip
Why is gossip prevalent in all types of cultures and societies? Could you provide an explanatory
hypothesis rooted in natural selection? Why does gossip focus on sex, power, relatives, power,
health and similar issues? What do they have in common? Does it makes sense to gossip about
movie stars? And about soap opera characters? How can these ideas be applied to advertising?
Illustrate your answers with examples from current advertising campaigns for popular products.
How do advertisers select public figures for this gossip-based advertising? How would you
apply this theory of gossip to the use and abuse of social networks?
3. Withholding taxes
First, using some of the models of human rationality, analyze these features, common of many
income tax codes: (a) Most of the taxes to be paid are collected by income payers (employers,
banks) by withholding an estimation of the tax due by the taxpayer before the net income tax is
paid to the taxpayer, instead of paying the taxpayer the gross income and having him or her
paying the precise tax due afterwards. (b) Tax withholding is structured usually in such a way
that most citizens get a positive refund or tax rebate once a year.
Second, discuss the welfare consequences of a constitutional rule preventing the government
from using withholding taxes.