DOCSLIB.ORG

Lexical Opportunism and the Limits of Contract Theory

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Lexical Opportunism and the Limits of Contract Theory University of Cincinnati Law Review Volume 84 Issue 1 Article 5 April 2018 Lexical Opportunism and the Limits of Contract Theory Jeffrey M. Lipshaw Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/uclr Recommended Citation Jeffrey M. Lipshaw, Lexical Opportunism and the Limits of Contract Theory, 84 U. Cin. L. Rev. (2018) Available at: https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/uclr/vol84/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Cincinnati Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Lipshaw: Lexical Opportunism and the Limits of Contract Theory LEXICAL OPPORTUNISM AND THE LIMITS OF CONTRACT THEORY* Jeffrey M Lipshaw Abstract This essay is a reflection on the gap between the real- life practice of contract law and some of the academic theory that tries to explain it. I describe "lexical opportunism," an aspect of contract practice having three elements. First, the parties must have reduced a complex business arrangement to contractual text, portions of which text are as devoid of thoughtful drafting or close negotiation as the boilerplate in a consumer contract. Second, an adversary cleverly develops a legal theory based upon a colorable interpretationof that text. Third, this interpretation creates a potential for staggeringliability beyond all common sense. A multi-billion lawsuit, recently settled, serves as an example, and triggers my discussion of (a) what it means to engage in theoretical assessment in contract law; (b) how the justification of contract law by way of inhibiting economic opportunism is based on the simplest examples, rather than the kind of contract discourse found in any real-world contract worth spending millions to litigate; and (c) how normative theory based on upholding the moral sanctity of promise keeping evaporates when the parties disagree about the meaning of their promises. I argue that both economic and moral theories about contract law fail to account for issues in the use of language and depend on the naive adoption of the correspondence theory of truth. The nature of language permits opportunism, and the only check on it is the desire, * Or, Why Litigation Over a Failed Merger with $7 Billion Turning on Interpretation of Twenty-One Words of BoilerplateAffirms My Skepticism About Economic and Moral Theories of ContractLaw. ** Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School. A.B., University of Michigan, 1975; J.D. Stanford University, 1979. 1 am grateful to Dennis Patterson, Rob Kar, Pat Shin, Victor Goldberg, Jeff Harrison, and participants at the 10th International Contracts Conference at the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV for helpful comments. 217 Published by University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications, 2018 1 University of Cincinnati Law Review, Vol. 84, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 5 UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI LAW REVIEW [VOL. 84 from whatever motivation, not to be opportunistic. I conclude with what I hope are some constructive thoughts about the appropriate use of theory in lawyering, and thereby mitigate my skepticism whether any single theory or discipline is capable of meaningful explanation or prediction about lexical opportunism. 'We should be pragmatic about theory It is a tool, rather than a glimpse of ultimate truth, and the criterion of a tool is its utility '4 I. INTRODUCTION This is a reflection on the gap between the real-life practice of contract law and the academic theory that tries to explain it. As someone who used to do mergers and acquisitions as a lawyer and corporate executive, I occasionally get a call to comment on pending litigation. I also happen to be an academic theorist who has written about contract theory, and a teacher who guides first-year law students through the standard fare of casebook law. These interludes in which I leave the ivory tower and revisit contract disputes in the real world cause me to shake my head sadly, as they generally confirm my intuition that trying to connect before-the-fact contracting intentions and behaviors with colorable after-the-fact interpretation disputes misses the point. My skepticism about academic theories of contract law most recently flared up in connection with an eight-year-old dispute, the result of a contested public company takeover, between Johnson & Johnson, the frustrated suitor, and medical device maker Guidant Corporation, now a subsidiary of the winning bidder, Boston Scientific Corporation. The contract issues are straightforward despite having arisen out of the documentation of a deal worth more than $20 billion. I will tell the story of the case and explain the context of relatively standard M&A contract practice. Then I will reflect on the implications of the case for 1. Richard A. Posner, The New Institutional Economics Meets Law and Economics, J. INST. & THEORET. ECON. 73, 77 (1993). 2. The case culminated in a bench trial before Judge Richard J. Sullivan of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in late November 2014. The parties submitted their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law on January 16, 2015. The record reflects that the parties settled and the case was dismissed with prejudice on March 30, 2015. United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Civil Docket for Case No. 1:06-cv-07685-RJS, https:/ecf'nysd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/ DktRpt.pl?108224015220512-L_1_0-1. See also Press Release, Boston Scientific, Boston Scientific Announces Agreement With Johnson & Johnson to Resolve Guidant Litigation (Feb. 17, 2015), http://news.bostonscientific.com/2015-02-17-Boston-Scientific- https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/uclr/vol84/iss1/5 2 Lipshaw: Lexical Opportunism and the Limits of Contract Theory 2016] LEXICAL OPPORTUNISM the prevailing economic and moral theories justifying state intervention in the enforcement of private agreements, at least when we put aside the abstractions and get down to cases. With the disclaimer that I had no stake in the outcome of the case and no particular sympathy for Boston Scientific's uncomfortable situation, digging into J&J's claim caused me to have flashbacks to my most frustrating experiences as a general counsel: contending with a phenomenon I am here calling "lexical opportunism," an aspect of contract practice having three elements. First, the parties must have reduced a complex business arrangement to contractual text, portions of which text are as devoid of thoughtful drafting or close negotiation as the boilerplate in a consumer contract. Second, an adversary cleverly develops a legal theory based upon a colorable interpretation of that text. Third, this interpretation creates a potential for staggering liability beyond all common sense.3 I have long harbored two bugaboos about contract theory, at least when thinking about the complex deals I did versus the "Dick and Jane" 4 contracts that are the necessary fodder for broad theory. The first is the fantasy that contract law actually does much to limit opportunism except in the arid laboratories where law professors conduct their thought-experiments. The second is the illusion of mutual consent against which to measure the putative opportunism or the moral force of the promise as a rational process in either contract formation or interpretation. 5 Most business agreements worth litigating over were, at Announces-Agreement-With-Johnson-Johnson-To-Resolve-Guidant-Litigation. None of that matters to me because the mere fact that this litigation occurred, rather than how it might have concluded, is what interests me. 3. It is a fair question whether I ever authorized the very kind of lexically opportunistic lawsuits I am criticizing here. When I was representing a client as advocate in a contract claim, I did the best I could with the language I had, but I always thought that being credible was important. As the chief lawyer for several businesses, I heeded the teaching of one of my mentors to the effect that once you get around to litigating a contract case, it doesn't matter who the plaintiff or defendant is;there's only a "****er" and a "****ee" and your job as a lawyer is to make sure it's clear your client is the latter and the other side is the former. In other words, I will simply say that I put the burden on anyone trying to make a lawyer's case for us also to demonstrate that we would be able to show we were the ",****ee."1 4. I am indebted to Victor Goldberg for the phrase "Dick and Jane" contracts. 5. My particular b~e noire on this topic is the contract law professoriate's fascination with Raffles v. Wichelhaus (1864) 159 Eng. Rep. 375. Raffles was the famous case in which the parties referred in the contract to a ship named Peerless traveling from India to Liverpool. Amazingly, there were two ships named Peerless, one departing Bombay in October and the other in December. The parties claimed to have been referring subjectively to the different ships. The court held no contract to have been formed. What I find astounding is that we have not been able to find another more modem case in 150 years. I do not teach it anymore, because it strikes me as the casebook equivalent of basing an entire unit of a medical school anatomy course on Joseph Merrick, also known as the "Elephant Man." Mirror Online referred to Merrick as "the best known 'human curiosity' in history," and that is how I feel about the good ships Peerless. Bodyshocked: Elephant Man Joseph Merrick and other Published by University of Cincinnati College of Law Scholarship and Publications, 2018 3 University of Cincinnati Law Review, Vol.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • How to Tell If You Are a Victim of Bullying at the Workplace
    https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/lifestyle/pfinance/-victim-bullying-workplace/4258410-3842046- kls3ly/index.html How to tell if you are a victim of bullying at the workplace Wednesday, March 8, 2017 16:48 An illustration of an office bully . PHOTO | PHOEBE OKALL | NMG The recently reported episodes of secondary school bullying, torture and hazing shocked the nation in the past week. In its wake, Kenya ponders what sick institutional cultures must exist in order to promulgate regularised repeated physical violence by and against students in varying high schools. Many might not realise that the depravity of bullying exists beyond schools and sports fields. Duncan Chappell and Vittorio Di Martino of the International Labor Office highlight deviant behaviour at workplaces as one of the most pertinent emerging issues in organisations across the globe. Executives and social scientists alike maintain many terms to describe deviant counterproductive behaviour in work settings including delinquency, deviance, retaliation, revenge, violence, emotional abuse, mobbing, bullying, misconduct, and organisational aggression. Social scientists Eleanna Galanaki and Nancy Papalexandris define workplace bullying as recurring persistent negative acts directed to one or more persons that create a negative work environment. In bullying, the targeted person experiences difficulty in defending and protecting themselves. Therefore, bullying does not refer to conflicts between two parties of equal strength but rather a more influential aggressor in an imbalance of power. Managers might not understand the severe depths and prevalence of workplace bullying. Workers in some industries report versions of bullying at rates of 70 per cent. Researchers Ståle Einarsen and Anders Skogstad detail that male-dominated industries valuing machismo and masculinity or efficiency at any and all costs increases workplace tensions and provides greater tolerance for aggressive behaviour.
    [Show full text]
  • Effects of Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism on Donation Intentions: the Moderating Role of Donation Information Openness
    sustainability Article Effects of Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism on Donation Intentions: The Moderating Role of Donation Information Openness Hyeyeon Yuk 1, Tony C. Garrett 1,* and Euejung Hwang 2 1 School of Business, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea; [email protected] 2 Department of Marketing, Otago Business School, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +82-2-3290-2833 Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between two subtypes of narcissism (grandiose vs. vulnerable) and donation intentions, while considering the moderating effects of donation information openness. The results of an experimental survey of 359 undergraduate students showed that individuals who scored high on grandiose narcissism showed greater donation intentions when the donor’s behavior was public, while they showed lower donation intentions when it was not. In addition, individuals who scored high on vulnerable narcissism showed lower donation intentions when the donor’s behavior was not public. This study contributes to narcissism and the donation behavior literature and proposes theoretical and practical implications as per narcissistic individual differences. Future research possibilities are also discussed. Keywords: narcissism; grandiose narcissism; vulnerable narcissism; donation intentions; donation Citation: Yuk, H.; Garrett, T.C.; information openness Hwang, E. Effects of Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism on Donation Intentions: The Moderating Role of Donation Information Openness. Sustainability 2021, 13, 7280. 1. Introduction https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137280 Nowadays, it is not only a firm’s social responsibility but also an individual’s proso- cial behavior that is crucial to the sustainable development of society [1].
    [Show full text]
  • Shedding Light on Psychology's Dark Triad | Psychology Today
    Find a Therapist Topics Get Help Magazine Tests Experts Click Here f or FullPrescribing Inf ormation Prescription Toujeo® is a long-acting insulin used US.GLT.15.10.114© 2002- to control blood sugar in adults with diabetes 2015sanof i-av entis U.S. mellitus. LLC.All rights reserv ed. Toujeo® contains 3 times as much insulin Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D. Fulfillment at Any Age Shedding Light on Psychology’s Dark Triad A dirty dozen test to detect narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Like 567 psychopathy Posted Jan 26, 2013 Most Popular SHARE TWEET EMAIL MORE All Work and No Play 1 Make the Baining the Lurking beneath the surface of people who use others to their own advantage is psychology’s "Dullest Culture" “Dark Triad.” Defined as a set of traits that include the tendency to seek admiration and 5 Sex/Relationship Myths special treatment (otherwise known as narcissism), to be callous and insensitive 2 Therapists Should Stop (psychopathy) and to manipulate others (Machiavellianism), the Dark Triad is rapidly Believing becoming a new focus of personality psychology. The Two Things That 3 Make a Breakup open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com 3 Make a Breakup Researchers are finding that the Dark Triad underlies a host of undesirable behaviors Devastating including aggressiveness, sexual opportunism, and impulsivity. Until recently, the only way to capture the Dark Triad in the lab was to administer lengthy tests measuring each personality The Trouble With Bright 4 Girls trait separately. With the development of the “Dirty Dozen” scale, however, psychologists Peter Jonason and Gregory Webster (2010) are now making it possible to spot these Are You With the Right potentially troublesome traits with a simple 12-item rating scale.
    [Show full text]
  • Male and Female Face of Machiavellianism: Opportunism Or Anxiety?
    Personality and Individual Differences 117 (2017) 221–229 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid Male and female face of Machiavellianism: Opportunism or anxiety? Andrea Czibor a,⁎, Zsolt Peter Szabo b,DanielN.Jonesc, Andras Norbert Zsido a,TundePaala, Linda Szijjarto a, Jessica R. Carre c,TamasBereczkeia a University of Pecs, Hungary b Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary c The University of Texas at El Paso, United States article info abstract Article history: The relationship between Machiavellianism and emotion management features is highly debated. In our study Received 6 March 2017 we try to clarify the controversial findings by highlighting the role of gender differences. Three studies with dif- Received in revised form 31 May 2017 ferent (undergraduate and employed) participants were conducted to investigate gender differences in Machia- Accepted 1 June 2017 vellianism-related personality characteristics. We used different measures of Machiavellianism and explored their connection with temperament and character traits (Study 1), with scales of six-factor (HEXACO) model of personality (Study 2), and with different types of psychopathy and narcissism (Study 3). Our results show Keywords: Machiavellianism that there are gender differences in the connection of Machiavellianism and other personality traits, and that Gender most of the differences were found in the field of emotion management. We found that women's Machiavellian- Opportunism ism scores were correlated with harm avoidant, anxious, vulnerable, hypersensitive features, while Machiavel- Anxiety lianism among men was associated with risk taking, self-confidence, and an opportunistic worldview. Dark Triad © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. HEXACO TCI 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Strategic Empathy the Afghanistan Intervention Shows Why the U.S
    New America Foundation Strategic Empathy The Afghanistan intervention shows why the U.S. must empathize with its adversaries. Matt Waldman, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University April 2014 As the United States withdraws from Afghanistan, it leaves mistakes were made. To name but a few, the U.S. backed violence and uncertainty in its wake. The election of a new power-holders widely seen by Afghans as abusive and Afghan president gives some grounds for optimism and unjust, which undermined the Afghan government’s could improve the fraught relationship between legitimacy and generated powerful grievances; coalition Afghanistan and the U.S. But no Afghan election since the forces caused too many civilian casualties; aid was often 2001 intervention has brought about a diminution in wasteful or ineffective, and swung from being insufficient, violence – and the conflict shows no signs of abating. The in the early 2000s, to excessive, thereby fueling corruption; Taliban is powerful, tenacious and increasingly deadly. and there was no effective U.S. political strategy for Civilian casualties are rising and the fighting forces some Afghanistan or the region.* 10,000 Afghans from their homes every month.1 The linchpin of the U.S. exit strategy, Afghan national security But the most egregious error of the United States was to forces, have critical capability gaps and are suffering huge pursue a strategy founded on a misreading of its enemy. As losses of up to 400 a month due to escalating insurgent former Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledges, the attacks.2 The Afghan government is corrupt and anemic, United States was “profoundly ignorant about our reconstruction is faltering and the region continues to be adversaries and about the situation on the ground….
    [Show full text]
  • Opportunism in Corporate Management
    Folia Oeconomica Acta Universitatis Lodziensis ISSN 0208-6018 e-ISSN 2353-7663 www.czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/foe/ 6(345) 2019 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/0208-6018.345.04 Stanisław Rudolf WSB University in Gdańsk, Institute of Management and Finance, Department of Management [email protected] Opportunism in Corporate Management Abstract: A growing interest in the phenomenon of economic opportunism can be mainly explained by new institutional economics (NIE). It has changed the limitation of that phenomenon into the main method of increasing the efficiency of business entities. Opportunistic attitudes and behaviour can be particularly observed in a business entity. A tendency towards opportunism should be considered both while entering contracts and while developing a strategy for a company. The article is aimed at presenting the essence of opportunism and at defining its place in new institutional economics. It is also aimed at identifying opportunistic attitudes in corporate operation and at indicating the ways to limit such attitudes. While analysing the role of opportunism in corporate management, the main focus shall be set on op‑ portunistic interdependencies in corporate governance. Opportunistic attitudes may be presented not only by the management board of a company but also by its other stakeholders. They may use incompleteness of agreements that have been entered into or asymmetry of information in order to increase their gain at the expense of others. The article provides a more detailed analysis of op‑ portunistic attitudes presented by employee organisations in highly developed countries as well as in post‑communist countries, where opportunism is manifested in demanding attitudes or in pro‑ tection of monopolist positions.
    [Show full text]
  • Shirking, Opportunism, Self-Delusion and More: the Agency Problem Today Jayne W
    College of William & Mary Law School William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository Faculty Publications Faculty and Deans 2013 Shirking, Opportunism, Self-Delusion and More: The Agency Problem Today Jayne W. Barnard William & Mary Law School, [email protected] Repository Citation Barnard, Jayne W., "Shirking, Opportunism, Self-Delusion and More: The Agency Problem Today" (2013). Faculty Publications. 1720. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs/1720 Copyright c 2013 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs SHIRKING, OPPORTUNISM, SELF-DELUSION AND MORE: THE AGENCY PROBLEM LIVES ON Jayne W. Barnard* One would think, after nearly a century of effort to limit the self-serving and wealth-destroying practices of corporate executives and their board of directors, Americans could finally feel confident that the goals of corporate leaders were now fully aligned with those of their investors.' We should now be able to observe these men and women acting with integrity, diligence, and grace. Investor anxiety about shirking, opportunism, self-promotion, and outsized greed should be, one would think, an artifact of the past. Alas, we cannot say we have achieved that enlightened state of affairs. It is still all too possible to find evidence of executive sloth, corruption, mendacity, and hubris. All the gatekeepers, media scoldings, scholarly inquiries, and judicial sermons aimed at curbing the agency problem have failed to restrain the worst in human impulses. Should we be surprised? In thinking about the failures of the law and the culture of business to counteract the predictable weaknesses (and sometimes worse) of human beings, several high-profile examples quickly come to mind: Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers, Jon Corzine of MF Global Holdings, Ken Lewis of Bank of America, Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial, Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy, and Rajat Gupta of McKinsey and Goldman Sachs.
    [Show full text]
  • Can Government Think?
    Can Government Think? Climate change, fi nancial crises, and other issues of global scale no longer concern only the developed world. The binding power of globalization has placed these challenges at the doorstep of almost every country, testing the evolutionary capacity of monolithic governance systems burdened by institutional legacy and administrative stagnation. This book locates the concept of adaptive governance, used primarily in environmental management, within the context of economic policy. Introducing fl exible economic opportunism, it argues that a particular style of institutional and administrative versatility enables innovative, evidence- based policy development. This book mines institutional economics, public administration, and research theory and practice for complementary elements that can inform an emerging governance paradigm based on fl exible economic opportunism. Through an eclectic suite of cases from the developing and developed worlds, including Asia and North America, this book reveals how patterns of institutional and adminis- trative change impact the effi cacy of public policy. Flexibility may be this century’s most critical dimension of global competitiveness, and systems confi gured to quickly and comprehensively capture economic opportunities will win the mar- ketplace of development ideas. This book advances that discussion. Kris Hartley is a Singapore-based researcher and consultant focusing on eco- nomic development, public policy, and urbanization. With a decade of public and private sector experience, he has consulted on a variety of topics, including earth- quake recovery, fi nancial regulation, infrastructure asset management, and nuclear energy policy. Working on solutions with high economic and social impact, Kris is currently conducting research about urban revitalization and water resource management in Singapore and Hong Kong, provincial governance and economic competitiveness in Vietnam, and industrial estate development in Thailand.
    [Show full text]
  • Dangerous Love Lecture Notes (PDF)
    Dangerous Love Deborah Schiller, LPC, CSAT-S, CMAT-S Clinical Consultant Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services Objectives At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to: 1. Describe theories concerning the possible reasons for attraction to those who may have unhealthy traits. 2. Outline the dynamics that can occur in clients presenting with the “Dark Triad” personality traits (a combination of narcissism, psychopathology, and Machiavellianism), including in conjunction with the presence of sexual addiction. 3. Review the impact of parenting and attachment styles on future psychopathology in adults. 4. Describe processes involved within a partnership when one person displays the Dark Triad features and sexual addiction. 5. Apply therapeutic interventions in assisting individuals and couples experiencing these difficulties. © 2020 Pine Grove Clinicians want to know… Is my client suffering from sexual addiction and/or is there something darker I may be missing? Why are my clients attracted to people who are unhealthy for them? Why do they stay in harmful relationships? © 2020 Pine Grove Sex Addiction? But it is not in the DSM. Until the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth addition (DSM-5) the term addiction did not appear in any version of the American Psychiatric Association’s manual. Addiction is now included as a category and, the description contains both substance use disorders and non-substance use disorders. Harvard Health Blog © 2020 Pine Grove What is addiction? Is it physical or psychological? Is it a disease? If so does it involve the body or brain? Is it secondary to a personality flaw or lack of morality? Is it due to a lack of spirituality? © 2020 Pine Grove According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine Addiction is a primary, chronic, disease of the brain reward, motivation, memory, and related circuitry.
    [Show full text]
  • Customers and Employees Need Your Empathy
    Customers and Employees Need Your Empathy Your company’s actions during this crisis will demonstrate to people whether your relationships with them are genuine. By Rob Markey and Maureen Burns Rob Markey founded and led Bain & Company’s Global Customer Strategy & Marketing practice, he is based in the New York office and he is coauthor of the best seller The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World. Maureen Burns is a partner with Bain’s Customer Strategy & Marketing practice, and she is based in the firm’s Boston office. Net Promoter®, Net Promoter System®, Net Promoter Score® and NPS® are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc. Elements of Value® is a registered trademark of Bain & Company, Inc. Copyright © 2020 Bain & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Customers and Employees Need Your Empathy For most of us around the world, the Covid-19 crisis came very slowly—then all at once. While unique, this crisis shares at least some characteristics with prior situations. Some solutions and approaches in this setting will be new because we haven’t encountered this situation before. Others, however, we can adapt from prior experience. When dealing with a crisis such as this, we often use some version of the following categories to help organize actions on different time horizons. • Urgent actions: Actions required for business survival, stabilizing and reassuring stakeholders. • Anticipatory actions: Anticipate customer, employee and business needs. • Relationship investments: Invest in relationships to create future value. • Strategic investments: This is the time to build enduring capabilities.
    [Show full text]
  • Institutions, Opportunism and Prosocial Behavior: Some Experimental Evidence
    Chapman University Chapman University Digital Commons ESI Working Papers Economic Science Institute 5-2020 Institutions, Opportunism and Prosocial Behavior: Some Experimental Evidence Antonio Cabrales Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Irma Clots-Figueras University of Kent Roberto Hernán-González Burgundy School of Business Praveen Kujal Chapman University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/esi_working_papers Part of the Econometrics Commons, Economic Theory Commons, and the Other Economics Commons Recommended Citation abrales, A., Clots-Figueras, I., Hernán-González, R., & Kujal, P. (2020). Institutions, opportunism and prosocial behavior: Some experimental evidence. ESI Working Paper 20-17 . https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/esi_working_papers/312/ This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Economic Science Institute at Chapman University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in ESI Working Papers by an authorized administrator of Chapman University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Institutions, Opportunism and Prosocial Behavior: Some Experimental Evidence Comments ESI Working Paper 20-17 This article is available at Chapman University Digital Commons: https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/ esi_working_papers/312 Institutions, opportunism and prosocial behavior: Some experimental evidence Antonio Cabrales, Irma Clots-Figueras, Roberto Hernán-González and Praveen Kujal Abstract: Formal or informal institutions have long been adopted by societies to protect against opportunistic behavior. However, we know very little about how these institutions are chosen and their impact on behavior. We experimentally investigate the demand for different levels of institutions that provide low to high levels of insurance and its subsequent impact on prosocial behavior. We conduct a large-scale online experiment where we add the possibility of purchasing insurance to safeguard against low reciprocity to the standard trust game.
    [Show full text]
  • The Predictive Power of Machiavellianism, Emotional
    THE PREDICTIVE POWER OF MACHIAVELLIANISM, EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION, AGREEABLENESS, AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON COUNTERPRODUCTIVE WORK BEHAVIORS A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science by RYAN L. WALTERS B.A., Hope College, 2016 Wright State University 2021 APPROVAL SHEET (M.S.) WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL NOVEMBER 17, 2020 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY Ryan L. Walters ENTITLED The Predictive Power of Machiavellianism, Emotional Manipulation, Agreeableness and Emotional Intelligence on Counterproductive Work Behaviors BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Science. David LaHuis, Ph.D. Thesis Director Gary Burns, Ph.D. Thesis Co-Director David LaHuis, Ph.D. Graduate Program Director Debra Steele-Johnson, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Psychology Committee on Final Examination David LaHuis, Ph.D. Gary Burns, Ph.D. Debra Steele-Johnson, Ph.D. Barry Milligan, Ph.D. Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Dean, Graduate School Abstract Walters, Ryan L. M.S. Department of Psychology, Wright State University, 2021. The Predictive Power of Machiavellianism, Emotional Manipulation, Agreeableness and Emotional Intelligence on Counterproductive Work Behaviors Characteristics of Machiavellian individuals include a propensity to manipulate and deceive others, making them susceptible to committing counterproductive work behaviors (Deshong et al., 2014). Machiavellians endorse emotional manipulation as a tactic to achieve desirable outcomes, and experience deficits in emotional intelligence and agreeableness (Austin at al., 2007). The purpose of my study is to examine Machiavellianism and emotional intelligence and their relationships to counterproductive work behaviors. I collected survey results via Amazon MTURK with a sample of 153 participants.
    [Show full text]