Paradigmatic Experiments: The Ultimatum Game from Testing to Measurement Device

The Ultimatum Game is one of the most successful experimental designs in the history of the social sciences. In this article I try to explain this success-what makes it a paradigmatic experiment-stressing in particular its versatility. Despite the intentions of its inventors, the Ultimatum Game was never a good design to test economic theory, and it is now mostly used as a heuristic tool for the observation of nonstandard preferences or as a social thermometer for the observation of culture-specific norms.