Greedy bankers & other phenomenon....

In his book "The Decisive Moment", which explores the workings of the human brain, Jonah Lehrer describes a number of Psychological experiments exploring the nature of the sympathetic brain. In one experiment two participants were paired and one was given $10. This person was then asked to divide the money as he liked. The only rule was, that if the offer was rejected, both participants got nothing.

The results surprised the organizers. They expected the proposer to offer the other participant a couple of dollars but in reality the division was nearly always 50/50.

The experiment was repeated many times in different locations but always with similar results. The proposer was sympathetic to the receiver's feelings and knew that if the offer were deemed to be unfair it would be rejected and both participants would leave with nothing.

The experiment was then repeated with the recipient in a different location out of sight of the donor.

The result was dramatically different. The donor now offered a significantly lower amount to the donor, his sympathetic response was significantly impeded.

Could this phenomenon go some way to explaining the greed and excess of those at the top of the banking system who's members clearly inhabit a different world to the rest of us.

When did you last see your CEO ?