PTFT Applet

I personally have not been able to get this applet to work in Internet Explorer. It works great in FireFox and any other Mozilla browsers (all derivatives of Netscape).

If you are using the FireFox browser and the applet still doesn't load, download the java plug-in at java.sun.com/products/plugin/ (JRE). If it still doesn't work, make sure you have the latest web browser and make sure java is enabled in your browser.


 

Software written by William Braynen for published research by Grim, Selinger, Braynen, Rosenberger, Au, Louie, Connolly. (Here's the source code if you are interested.)

Random Mode:
Select the "random" radio button. To modify Hold down Ctrl or Shift to select more than one strategy or ethnicity from the list. Press Ctrl-\ or Ctrl-A to select the entire list. Press the grid button.

Paint Mode:
Select the "paint" radio button. To change the strategy or ethnicity of a cell, select the strategy or ethnicity from the legend list you want and click on the cell. Hold down your mouse button and drag just as you would in a paint program to change multiple cells.

Strategy/Ethnicity View:
Whether you are painting/randomizing the cells' strategies or ethnicities depends on which ones are displayed. Use the button to switch views (this buton might also say "show strategies" if you are already in ethnicities view).

 

What the applet shows

[Do not cite this. For an accurate and more true description/explanation, read our paper]

The applet shows that integration of a neighborhood will reduce prejudice. Or rather that rational self-interest alone is enough to get rid of prejudiced behavior when there is "contact" between different groups.

This is in contrast to belief-changing theories; for example, that you come in contact with members of the other group and realize that they are not as bad as you thought and then you generalize and you're not prejudiced any more. We say, that may well be true, or not -- we just don't know. But here's an alternate explanation based on behavior and rational self-interest only. Kind of like opening up a bodega in a russian-english neighborhood:
if you want to get the most business, you better have signs up in both languages, although you could still remain the biggest bigot (we just don't know).

The white cells (PTFT strategy) are bad guys. PTFT stands for prejudicial tit-for-tat. They play tit-for-tat against their own kind (ethnicity) and always defect against those who are different. If you run the applet, you'll end up with 50% TFT (color-blind cells who play tit-for-tat against
everyone regardless of ethnicity)and 50% PTFT. Pause it.

Then press the "show ethnicities" and you'll see that they're segregated: green guys on the left and red guys on the right (or vice versa). Then press the "integrate" button to mix up the ethnicities. Then switch back to viewing strategies (press the "show strategies" button). Unpause it and you'll see the PTFT (white) cells go away! Prejudice is reduced!