This is a cross post from 250bpm.com.

INTRODUCTION
There's a trope among Slovak intellectual elite depicting an average Slovak as
living in a village, sitting a local pub, drinking Borovička, criticizing
everyone and everything but not willing to lift a finger to improve things.
Moreover, it is assumed that if you actually tried to make things better, said
individual would throw dirt at you and place obstacles in your way.

I always assumed that this caricature was silly. It was partly because I have a
soft spot for Slovak rural life but mainly because such behavior makes
absolutely no sense from game-theoretical point of view. If a do-gooder is
stupid enough to try to altruistically improve your life, why go into trouble of
actively opposing them? Why not just sit safely hidden in the pub, drink some
more Borovička and wait until they are done?

Well, it turns out that the things are far more complex then I thought.

PUBLIC GOODS GAME
Benedikt Herrmann, Christian Thöni and Simon Gächter did a study of how people…