Let’s talk about a specific example: the Ultimatum Game. According to EY the rational strategy for the responder in the Ultimatum Game is to accept if the split is “fair” and otherwise reject in proportion to how unfair he thinks the split is. But the only reason to reject is to penalize the proposer for proposing an unfair split—which certainly seems to be “doing something conditional on the other actor’s utility function disvaluing it”. So why is the Ultimatum Game considered an “offer” and not a “threat”?
I can’t tell, if saying that you will reject unfair splits would be a threat by the definition in my above comment.
For it to be a threat, you would have to only do it if the other person cares about the thing being split. But in the Ultimatum Game both players per definition care about it, so I have a hard time thinking about what you would do if someone offers you a unfair split of something they don’t care about (how can a split even be unfair, if only one person values the thing being split?).
Let’s talk about a specific example: the Ultimatum Game. According to EY the rational strategy for the responder in the Ultimatum Game is to accept if the split is “fair” and otherwise reject in proportion to how unfair he thinks the split is. But the only reason to reject is to penalize the proposer for proposing an unfair split—which certainly seems to be “doing something conditional on the other actor’s utility function disvaluing it”. So why is the Ultimatum Game considered an “offer” and not a “threat”?
Good question.
I can’t tell, if saying that you will reject unfair splits would be a threat by the definition in my above comment. For it to be a threat, you would have to only do it if the other person cares about the thing being split. But in the Ultimatum Game both players per definition care about it, so I have a hard time thinking about what you would do if someone offers you a unfair split of something they don’t care about (how can a split even be unfair, if only one person values the thing being split?).