I found the beginning half of this reading to be extremely interesting. As more changes were made to the experiment, I was able to start connecting these experiments to real life. I was not surprised at all by the results, as I would have expected things to go similarly. The chimpanzee experiment was an interesting addition to the article, but I feel that it was not very applicable to what they were looking for. Once they started relating it to what Obama and Palin were saying, I kind of got lost. Relating the kids to big companies being in cahoots with the government was illogical, as they did not mention anything about the kids and the experimenter colluding. However, their point was not lost as it is clear that corporations do buy laws from the government.
Anyway, individual production and team production are displayed very well in the article. When kids pulled the individual ropes on their own, they took what they got because they did not feel that the other kid helped them get what they received, which is a reasonable argument. However, when they helped one another by each pulling on a connected rope, they generally shared, which is expected and should be the case in most scenarios. At first glance into real life situations that this experiment applies to, it doesn't look like marbles are being traded. Through gift exchange, marbles can be shared from one person to the other. For example, every once in awhile an NFL kick returner will bring a kickoff all the way back to the end zone for a touchdown. This results in praise for the man who ran it back. However, often times if you look at the tape of the play, the blockers on the return team all just made their blocks and the runner was able to run through a straight path, but that goes unnoticed to the public, so he is getting the endorsements and fame. This fills their hypothetical cup with a handful of marbles. In contrast to that, NFL teams' staff is very talented and can notice the players making the big blocks, and they get big money for their role on the team, so they get a couple marbles thrown in their cup.
It may seem like the star player is far better off, which realistically he probably is, but his blockers are being taken care of too. There are many instances where players buy things for their supporting cast. A couple years ago NFL running back Arian Foster broke out to be one of the best players in the league. While the public thinks he is just a god, he knows that he wouldn't be as good as he is without his linemen. To thank them for their effort and helping him earn his big money contract, Foster bought all of his offensive linement segways (http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8765459/arian-foster-houston-texans-rewards-linemen-segways).
An example of the disconnected rope where each person pulls their rope and gets a random amount of marbles is slot machines. Slot machines are individual production and most people, upon winning money from a slot machine, are not going to share with the person at the machine next to them. Even though it was complete luck, they are not going to say "hey, let's split this." On rare occassions a jackpot winner will share with the people around them, but that is generally only when they either know the people from before, have just met them and have been talking while playing, or sometimes people consider the people around them good luck charms. However, those cases do not relate to the experiment because the kids just walked into a room and had no connections to the other children.
The NFL story you told is a good one. The stars do tend to "take care" of the guys who block for them. I believe many quarterbacks do that for their offensive line. I'm less sure about whether this sort of things also happens for defensive players. But I suspect that it does on many good teams. How else does a bond get created among the players. Such a bond is needed for performance.
ReplyDeleteAnd while it is not the same thing, if you've read anything at all about Lamar Odom's recent tragedy, it is painfully evident that many of his former teammates cared deeply for him, as a human being. The concerns are there even though Odom's playing days are in the past. This says it is something else beyond contributing to the team success that matters in caring about the welfare of a former teammate.
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I have heard a fair amount about Lamar Odom and his incident. It is great that he had so much support from former teammates. Makes me think that the relationships he built in the NBA is part of what contributed to his succcess and the back to back championships that the Lakers won from 2009-2010 when he was a part of that team. Kobe doesn't come off as being very friendly with his teammates, so hearing that he was at the hospital very shortly after news broke really goes to show how much of an impact Lamar made.
ReplyDeleteI am sure gift exchange occurs in sports more than is made public. Another quick example I just thought of that is a bit different from my previous example involves rookies. Traditionally rookies in the NFL (and likely other sports) buy the veterans dinner during training camp. In return they gain some respect from the veterans, which is critical to evolving into a great professional player.