Another Reason for the Russian Bride Phenomenon

In addition to their notorious beauty, there could be another reason to mail-order a Russian bride. In a study that compared donations to a public goods game by Russian and Italian men and women, Russian females were constantly and, more interesting, increasingly cooperative.

The experiment involved 12 Russians and 12 Italians, made up equally of both genders, who played a public goods game on a computer. Each player started every new round with 10 'currency units' -- which the experimenters would then translate into extra credit in their course. Players have choice of donating none, a portion, or all of their money to a public pool where it is multiplied by a factor of 1/3 and then redistributed evenly among all players. This kind of game exhibits the real world tension between group and self-interest. Here are the results:

i-dc8044b12bd8f213cc2e87820d3097d9-Belianin2005-thumb-437x314-41755.png

The sample size might be small, but the results do seem to suggest Russian women were uniquely cooperative. Now, if only we could get Russian women more involved in conservation...

Source: Belianin, A. and M. Novarese. 2005. Trust, communication and equlibrium behaviour in public goods.

More like this

When it comes to encouraging people to work together for the greater good, carrots work better than sticks. That's the message from a new study showing that rewarding people for good behaviour is better at promoting cooperation than punishing them for offences. David Rand from Harvard University…
There are so many stupid studies of the gendered brain that it's easy to conclude that good research into psychological sex differences is impossible. But that would be a mistake. I think one of most interesting recent investigations into the cognitive differences of men and women comes from a…
The social interactions that come naturally to most people are difficult for people with autism and Asperger syndrome. Simple matters like making eye contact, reading expressions and working out what someone else is thinking can be big challenges, even for "high-functioning" and intelligent…
Ever wonder if acts of kindness or malice really do ripple outwards? If you give up a seat on a train to a stranger, do they go onto "pay it forward" to others? Likewise, if you steal someone's seat, does the bad mood you engender topple over to other people like a set of malicious dominoes? We'd…

OK, let me apply my amazing graph-reading skills to that figure 3 right there.

Hmm...looks like the average Italian male is always dancing around the Italian female. No real surprise there.

The average Russian male, however, seems to be vacillating between wanting to be with with the Russian female and wanting to be with the Italian male, while the Russian female is slowly moving away from him. Uh...no real surprise there, either.

(This graph is 'dancefloor, viewed from above', right?)

By Phillip IV (not verified) on 05 Mar 2010 #permalink

That is a really unusual anomaly for the Russian women in comparison to the other participants. I want to know why they are more attuned to collaborate.

This is an interesting exploration. I would really love to see this âPublic Goodsâ internet game made available and played with results documented from cross sections of American participants, with some additional questions introduced to the research such as: Are we humans happier (more fulfilled, valued, appreciated, more intrinsically engaged in life...) being involved socially collaboratively, or being socially insular? We obviously have the capacity to be either, and both have hugely different outcomes personally and socially.

Reading this post, made me think of the board game âOur Townâ versus the board game âMonopolyâ and the consequences of nurturing collaborative thinking, or individual motivation. These two games encourage polar opposite thinking. Maybe we need to imagine developing an environmental conservation game entitled: Our Planet... ?!?! I would most certainly be willing to help develop such a tool.

So much of what we are facing on so many levels of life is essentially derived from the struggle between âMeâ thinking versus âWeâ thinking, and perhaps more importantly, feeling. Environment, education, employment, housing, food security, family, sexuality and geopolitical thinking changes dramatically when our mind sets have different motivations. Motivation of self versus others competition takes an extraordinary amount of psychic energy to maintain, and also defend...

Our Town: http://www.boardgameratings.com/game/1052/

By Chris Martell (not verified) on 05 Mar 2010 #permalink

The data from the Russian men also looks interesting . . . like they're switching back and forth between strategies. Wonder if it's a manifestation of the same ESS seen in the Prisoner's Dilemna.

The degree of correlation you need for *probable* reidentification can be quite a good deal less than for *definite* reidentification. Sometimes quite a bit less. Which is one reason that projects releasing aggregated personal information have to very careful about it, to make sure one can't make mischief by probabilistic slicing and dicing.

It may be that, in the particular setting, the Russian men were more experimental than the Russian women. Maybe they were more inclined to have fun than to ploddingly "maximize the profit function." Maybe they think "mischievous pirate" is a sexier style than "bank teller." Their behavior seems explicable in so many ways, and I wonder whether Russian and Italian men and women would also show differing tendencies to draw unwarranted conclusions from experiments.

What an appalling lead.

okay. i need a cultural phenomen for school. what can i use for this? plaese help me!! post a comment with the answer. thanks! <333

"Now, if only we could get Russian women more involved in conservation..."

I am a Russian female. Hello!

My question is - when do Americans intend on stopping their Nazie experiments on people? Especially Russian women. Not only that, by marrying an American male, a typical Russian woman has to tolerate not only all their physical, mental and financial abuse in the United States, she also has to undergo the psychological and, perhaps, even physical and, often times, cruel experiments on part of dumn American scientists.

Are American men really worth it? Well, let's see...

When you're vulnerable as a Russian woman might be in the states, being separated from her family, without any income, because her education is considered inferior to American, when she's not allowed to have friends, or may not have friends because Americans have prejudice against Russians, or simply because they don't like her for any reason, such as bad looks, being too Slavic, backwards, dumn, poor, cheesy... oh, here is another one - CRAZY... how great do Americans might seem to her?

They always want to be the best and great, right?

Well, if a Russian woman refuses to recognize American men's and even womens' "greatness", they can always drill a hole in her scull, put a device in her brain, and force her to think the way Americans do about themselves. Americans should also make sure that she's not a spy, but reading all her thoughts using their superior, only compatible with Nazie technology, state-of-the-art technology. And guess what, she may not even be able to prove that she's being experimented on. Wow!

The answer to the question I asked above is - Does anyone know the email address for alkaida? I am sure Americans wouldn't mind a nuclear war on Russia... Sorry, but you didn't have to do all that!

"Now, if only we could get Russian women more involved in conservation..."

I say, just keep these bitches quiet, and use them exclusively for sex, right, right?

"Now, if only we could get Russian women more involved in conservation..."

Well...you asked for it...

The problem with Americans, both men and women or whatever they are, is that, sometimes, they fail to realize that learning a foreign language is extremely time consuming. Not to mention, the transition from one culture to another requires an immense mental effort. The time that is spent on this type of transition, could have been used for learning something useful, if the person had made the choice to always remain in the same culture throughout their lifetime.

Moreover, Americans tend to judge the person's accomplishments by the final outcome. If your English is imperfect because it's your second language, or even tenth, to them you are simply an imperfect person. They usually discredit all the efforts you poured into it, and everything else you had to go through in order to arrive at where you are because what really matters to them is how perfect your English is.

Instead of giving the person a credit for such efforts, not necessarily monetary, just mere recognition of them, they simply trash you for your imperfection. This can be really disturbing and traumatizing. Next time, I'll just choose a better country to explore!

And, honestly, if there was something really to talk about with American men, or if they were worth the efforts, then may be you could engage them in a verbal conversation. You don't want to call a Russian woman crazy, dumn and boring just because you're a total moronic psychopathic asshole.

I totally understand why American men choose Russian women as their brides. You don't want to be constantly bitten and torn apart by American women. That's all they do. Trust me, I am a woman, and even I find this quality of American women quite repulsive.

I think the reasons for the whole brutal and hostile American woman phenomenon lie in chemically induced food, almost forced inter-racial and inter-ethnic mixing that occurred within an extremely short period of time, saddistic Nazie-type education, extremely high survival pressure, unnecessarily high standards, constant trashing, and easy substitution of one woman by another. What Americans are doing to themselves is absolutely rediculous. Unfortunately, there is a cause and effect, and everything has its consequences. Therefore, the final outcome.

Another reason why a Russian woman might hesisitate talking to an American is because she might not want to piss them off. One wrong word might cost her her face, head, brain and even life. Furthermore, a lot of them don't even care what you think or have to say anyway, especially if you're trying to introduce new ideas that they are not familiar with. So why bother?

A Russian bride can also conduct experiments on her husband in order to measure American people's love for money. Retaliation is not an exclusively American phenomenon.

By Russian Bride … (not verified) on 29 Mar 2011 #permalink

"Well, if a Russian bride refuses to recognize American men's and even womens' "greatness", they can always drill a hole in her scull, put a device in her brain, and force her to think the way Americans do about themselves."

By the device that is implanted in the brain, I meant the notorious mind-controlling microchip that half of the country is claiming to be implanted with. I hope it's at least subcutaneous and not intrusive. Unless schizophrenia is too much of a stigma to be addressed and treated. You don't want to run around American cities prophesizing on the Apocalapse, unless that's all you have left to do.
Perhaps, it would be a great trade-off for an unattractive unsexy appearance.

The only way to save the earth, dear, is to stop people like you.

By I am trying to… (not verified) on 29 Mar 2011 #permalink

Americans are psychopathic murders. If they screw you over in some way, and you complain, they will tear you apart. They'll be waging a war with you until you die completely. This ruthless scum should be wiped out from the face of the earth.

By Russian Bride … (not verified) on 30 Mar 2011 #permalink

Americans are extremely cruel and saddistic. Poor Americans!

By Russian Bride … (not verified) on 30 Mar 2011 #permalink

I hope Russians will, some day, start respecting themselves enough as to not allow American Nazies conduct experiments and medical studies on them. America and its people are not worth it. There is absolutely nothing special about America. Russians can use themselves to build a better life in Russia, versus letting Americans use them to benefit Americans. If Russians are too corupt and dumn to build a better country out of Russia, where you should, at least, be able to buy food whenever you're starving, then may be American Nazies are right about using Russians as cattle and meat in order to please their own people.

Russians themselves are willing to sacrifice their dignity for material things that Americans are constantly enticing them with.

By People equals shit (not verified) on 30 Mar 2011 #permalink

Instead of giving the person a credit for such efforts, not necessarily monetary, just mere recognition of them, they simply trash you for your imperfection. This can be really disturbing and traumatizing. Next time, I'll just choose a better country to explore!

"Well, if a Russian bride refuses to recognize American men's and even womens' "greatness", they can always drill a hole in her scull, put a device in her brain, and force her to think the way Americans do about themselves."

By the device that is implanted in the brain, I meant the notorious mind-controlling microchip that half of the country is claiming to be implanted with. I hope it's at least subcutaneous and not intrusive. Unless schizophrenia is too much of a stigma to be addressed and treated. You don't want to run around American cities prophesizing on the Apocalapse, unless that's all you have left to do.
Perhaps, it would be a great trade-off for an unattractive unsexy appearance.

Russians themselves are willing to sacrifice their dignity for material things that Americans are constantly enticing them with.

By the device that is implanted in the brain, I meant the notorious mind-controlling microchip that half of the country is claiming to be implanted with. I hope it's at least subcutaneous and not intrusive. Unless schizophrenia is too much of a stigma to be addressed and treated. You don't want to run around American cities prophesizing on the Apocalapse, unless that's all you have left to do...

Why with Russian women ? I think Russian women are similar then other women.

I've been to different countries before, if you start to know someone better, you see they're all equal, no matter where they live.