[ultrasaurus]

To some extent it's important to remember that Burners tend to be richer on average and on vacation (it's a little like a university campus that way, it's just more priviledged than average).

I think the real reason it works so well, is there are huge numbers of people who go there because they have an insatiable desire to build things, (both physically and in terms of a community) and making your neighbour's burn better makes yours better.

[drusenko]

This resonates well with my experience. One of the first-time burners in our group said that the most shocking thing to her was that "everybody is doing exactly what they want to do at that particular moment".

It's like vacation on steroids -- everybody is happy because they are doing exactly what they want to do right then (in the context of the event, of course).