Economics and Social Conflict brings a classic thought experiment to life; social interaction in the natural state. Examining the behaviour of almost 400,000 people living in the virtual anarchy of the online computer game EVE Online, it highlights the economic aspects of these people's 'evil' behaviour. The social conflict the players are engaging in is characterized by non-instrumental violence, a phenomenon that has not yet been the focus of economic research. In this book, Mildenberger shows that evil actions seemingly motivated by a 'taste for harming' are increasingly relevant for the performance of the online economy and that the commonly held belief that social rules that foster conflict will be eventually overcome might be too optimistic.
