Would you trust me please? - ` `%%%`#`&12 ` ~~~ alsecahern/slides/Ahern-Quinley-ICL2013... · 2013....

Introduction Politeness Trust Games Solutions Conclusions

Would you trust me please?ling.upenn.edu/~cahern/

Christopher Ahern and Jason Quinley

University of Pennsylvania and University of Tubingen

July 23, 2013

Ahern (UPENN) Would you trust me please? July 23, 2013 1 / 35

ling.upenn.edu/~cahern/


Goals

Model of polite linguistic behavior in requests.

What are polite linguistic expressions?

How do we use polite expressions?

Why do we use polite expressions?



Talk Outline

1 Introduction

2 Politeness

3 Trust Games

4 Solutions

5 Conclusions



Consider the following...

What are polite expressions?(1) a. Could you lend me a dollar/euro/franc?

b. I would be forever in your debt if you could lend me adollar/euro/franc.

(2) a. Could you lend me 1,000 dollars/euros/francs?b. I would be forever in your debt if you could lend me 1,000

dollars/euros/francs.

(3) a. Excuse me Sir/Ma’am, If it isn’t too much trouble, would you beable to tell me the time?

b. Could you tell me the time?c. What time is it?d. Tell me the time!



Why be polite?

AsymmetryIndividuals possess different aptitudes and abilities.

ScarcityResources are limited.

SocietyPoliteness increases range of interactions between individuals withother-regarding preferences.



Crucial points for Politeness theory

1 Face2 Face-threatening acts (FTAs)3 Strategies to mitigate FTAs



Face

What is face?

Brown and Levinson (1978)Face (Goffman, 1967) consists of an individual’s basic social needs:

Negative face: Autonomy

Positive face: Acceptance



Face

Face Threats

Face-Threatening Acts (FTAs):An action that threatens an individual’s positive or negative face.

Requests threaten negative face

Insults threaten positive face



Face-threatening acts

Mitigating FTAs

When situations call for it......speakers must commit a face-threatening act (FTA). In order to mitigate theweight of a FTA, speakers may use several strategies.

Intention

Don’t do FTA

Do FTA

Off Record

On Record

Redress

Negative Politeness

Positive Politeness

Don’t Redress




Threats at Lunch!!!

What to do if you forget your wallet going to lunch:Don’t do FTA: (Don’t ask for money)

Off Record:“Oh no! I forgot my wallet at my hotel!”

Negative Politeness:“You don’t have to, but would you mind lending mea bit of money?”

Positive Politeness:“Congratulations on your promotion! You reallydeserve it! You’re the best! Lend me a few dollars.”

Don’t Redress:“Give me some money.”




Goldilocks and the three FTAs

Too much“Please, if you could, move out of the way of that speeding car,”

“Excuse me Sir/Ma’am, if it’s not too much trouble could tell me thetime.”

Too little“Could you give me a thousand dollars?”

“Tell me the time!”

Just right(Excuse me,) could you tell me the time?

Could you find it in your magnificent heart to loan me a thousanddollars? I’d be forever in your debt!



Crucial points for Trust Games

1 Game Structure2 Backward Induction3 Requests as Trust Games



Trust Games

Trust Games

Consist of...An Investor and a Trustee.

Investor begins with an initial endowment, e, which she can keep orinvest any amount of.

If she invests the endowment with the Trustee it grows by some positiverate, r.

The Trustee must then decide what proportion, p, if any, to return to theInvestor.

Backward InductionTrustee does best when she keeps all money invested.

Knowing this, Investor should never invest.

Everyone does worse than they could by cooperating. (pr > 1)



Trust Games

Game Structure

I

(e,0)

0

T

(0,re)

0

(pre,(1−p)re)

p

e



Trust Games

Requests

Requests as Trust Games (Quinley, 2012)Asymmetries in abilities lead to requests. Requests involve a loss of face onthe part of the requester, and carry a risk that the request will be denied.

X can ask (A) or not ask Y (¬A) to grant a request.

Y can grant (G) or not grant (¬G) the request.

Requests as Extended Trust GamesX can ask (A) or not ask Y (¬A) to grant a request.

Y can grant (G) or not grant (¬G) the request.

X can thank (T) Y for granting the request, or not (¬T).



Trust Games

Game Structure

X

¬A

Y

¬G

X

¬T T

G

A



Trust Games

Payoff Structure

Costscx is the cost to X to achieve desired outcome.

cy is cost to Y . (cx > cy)

bx is the benefit to X of desired outcome (cx > bx)

FaceA requires face “payment” fr by X

Y receives mrfr from A. (mr ≥ 1)

T requires face “payment” ft by X

Y receives mtft from T . (mt ≥ 1)

Benefit outweighs face costs, (fr + ft)> bx



Trust Games

Game Structure

X

(bx− cx, 0)

¬A

Y

(bx− cx− fr, mrfr)

¬G

X

(bx− fr, mrfr− cy)

¬T

(bx− fr− ft, mrfr +mtft− cy)

T

G

A



Trust Games

What to expect

Backward InductionX prefers ¬T to T Ux(¬T)> Ux(T)

Y prefers ¬G to ¬T Uy(¬G)> Uy(¬T)

X prefers ¬A to ¬G Ux(¬A)> Ux(¬G)

ResultNo one should ever make requests because they will never be granted. Yet wecan, and do, make polite requests of others. Why is this possible?



Crucial points for Solutions

1 Observation2 Sympathy



Observation

Observation

Bateson et al. (2006)



Observation

Formulation

New Utility Functionh(A,cx,cy, fr, ft): a function that takes the outcome and the parameters of therequest and returns a positive or negative valuation (a postive or negative lossin face):

Vi(A) = Ui(A)+h(A,cx,cy, fr, ft) (1)

New Thresholds

EVx(A)> Vx(¬A) (2)

EVy(G)> Vy(¬G) (3)

Vx(T)> Vx(¬T) (4)



Observation

An Example

You see a stranger with arms full of boxes struggling to open a doorX: “Would you mind opening the door for me?”

Y: “Sure!”/“No!”

X: “Thanks”/...

Saying “No!” or being ungrateful cause a loss in face on the part of theunwilling in the estimation of third-party observers.

h(G,cx,cy, fr, ft)> h(¬G,cx,cy, fr, ft)

h(T,cx,cy, fr, ft)> h(¬T,cx,cy, fr, ft)

f >−f

(5)



Observation

Problem

What about......when we interact with strangers without observation? Imagine encounteringa stranger struggling to open the door, and no one is around to guilt you intohelping.

Conscience is just......an “inner voice that tells us that somebody might be looking” (Mencken,1949)



Sympathy

Sympathy

Homo economicus vs. Homo empathicusTheoretical (Rabin 1993, Fehr & Schmidt 1999, Levine 1998)

Behavioral (Fehr & Schmidt 2003, Camerer 2003)

Neurobiological (Fehr 2009)



Sympathy

Formulation

Sympathy (Sally 2000, 2001)For each agent, there is a distribution, δi ∈ ∆(U), such that ∑j δi(Uj) = 1,which determines how much that agent cares about her own payoffs and thoseof others.

Homo economicusδi(Uj) = 0 for all j 6= i.

New utility functionVi(A) = δi(Ui(A)) ·Ui(A)+(1−δi(Ui(A))) ·Uj(A)

This is the limiting case of a single interlocutor.



Sympathy

When to thank?

ConditionIt suffices for X to prefer T to ¬T for Vx(T)> Vx(¬T), which is true when:

δx(Uy)>1

1+mt

InterpretationThe greater the benefit to Y for thanking, the less X has to care about Y’spayoff to do so.



Sympathy

When to grant a request?

ConditionIt suffices for Y to prefer T to ¬G for Vy(T)> Vy(¬G), which is true when:

δy(Ux)>(cy−mtft)

(cy−mtft)+bx+cx−ft

InterpretationWhen cy is low relative to bx and cx, this is very small. The greater the benefitto the other relative to cost, the less sympathy required.



Sympathy

Some Examples

You see a stranger with arms full of boxes struggling to open a doorX: “Would you mind opening the door for me?”

Y: “Sure!”

You forgot your watch and your phone has died (Asher, 2012)X: “Excuse me. Could you tell me the time please?”

Y: “F*!k you!”



Sympathy

Broader Impact

X

(bx− cx, 0)

¬A

Y

(bx− cx, 0)

¬G

X

(bx, −cy)

¬T

(bx, −cy)

T

G

A



Sympathy

Broader Impact

What happens without face?System without face boils down to a choice on the part of Y , where granting isbetter if Vy′(G)> Vy′(¬G), which holds when:

δy′(Ux′)>cy

cy +bx + cx(6)

Compared to system with faceSystem with face has lower threshold when δy′(Ux′)> δy(Ux), which is truewhen:

mt >cy

bx+cx

Given that cx > cy and mt ≥ 1, this is always true.



Sympathy

The main effect of politeness

What face buys youA system of requests with polite forms that address face wants requires alower threshold of other-regarding preferences than one without a means toaddress face wants. This result can be thought of in two ways:

1 The same requests can be made between more distant individuals.2 More requests can be made between individuals with a given

relationship.

What face gets youWhen groups reach a certain size, first- or even second-knowledge of others ishard to come by. Sharing politeness norms acts as an incremental test of a setof shared obligations. They are used to build trust at a low level andeventually lead to cooperation in possibly more substantial endeavors.



Conclusions

Polite expressions are used to mitigate face-threatening acts.

They are used strategically to balance the face wants of the requester andthe requestee.

Sympathy or other-regarding preferences are necessary to account for alluses.

With other-regarding preferences, politeness strategies allow requestsand trust between a wider range of individuals and relationship types.



Thanks!



References

Asher (2012) The Non Cooperative Basis of Implicatures

Bateson et al. (2006) Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting

Brown & Levinson (1978) Politeness

Camerer (2003) Behavioral Game Theory

Fehr (2009) Social Preferences and the Brain

Fehr & Schmidt (1999) A Theory of Fairness, Competition, and Cooperation

Fehr & Schmidt (2003) Theories of Fairness and Reciprocity: Evidence and EconomicApplications

Goffman (1967) Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior

Levine (1998) Modeling Altruism and Spitefulness in Experiments

Quinley(2012) Trust Games as a Model for Requests

Rabin (1993) Incorporating Fairness into Game Theory and Economics

Sally (2000) A General Theory of Sympathy, Mind-Reading, and Social Interaction, withan Application to the Prisoners’ Dilemma.

Sally (2001) On Sympathy and Games


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