Gift Economy Games
White Elephant Gift Exchange Game
The $10 Generosity Experiment - Give ten people $10 each. Tell them they may keep it, give it to someone else, or combine it for a collective purpose. No judgment and no obligation. Ask what influenced their decisions. Reveals: Freedom, trust, altruism, and social pressure.
Capitalism vs. Gift Economy - Give each person a card representing a resource—food, housing, medicine, tools, transportation, or knowledge. Give everyone a different need. Round 1: Resources can only change hands through trade. Round 2: Resources can be freely shared, lent, or gifted. Compare how many people's needs are met. Reveals: The difference between exchange according to purchasing power and distribution according to need.
The Traveling Book - Give one audience member a gift-economy book. They may keep it or give it to anyone else. Each recipient has the same choice. Let the book travel until someone keeps it Reveals: How one gift can establish a chain of social relationships.
The Gift Circle - Invite audience members to name something they can offer for free—help with a computer, gardening, a ride, tutoring, or a household object. Others can name something they need. See how many connections emerge. Reveals: Abundance of skills and resources hidden inside a community.
The Potlatch Challenge - Give participants equal numbers of paper tokens. Announce two rounds: in the first, the winner accumulates the most; in the second, the winner gives away the most. Reveals: How changing the definition of prestige changes behavior.
The Free Store Challenge - Set up a table of useful objects, books, and small gifts. Everything is free. Participants may take something, leave something, do both, or do neither. Reveals: How a no-price system works, and what social norms arise without transactions.
The Gratitude Chain - Ask someone to describe a meaningful gift they received that cost little or nothing. Then invite them to describe a gift they subsequently gave someone else. Reveals: How generosity can propagate without direct repayment.