Self-selection and variations in the laboratory measurement of other-regarding preferences across subject pools: evidence from one college student and two adult samples
Details
Serval ID
serval:BIB_B8AB84F0D47D
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Self-selection and variations in the laboratory measurement of other-regarding preferences across subject pools: evidence from one college student and two adult samples
Journal
Experimental Economics
ISSN
1386-4157
Publication state
Published
Issued date
06/2013
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
16
Number
2
Pages
170-189
Language
english
Abstract
We measure the other-regarding behavior in samples from three related populations in the upper Midwest of the United States: college students, non-student adults from the community surrounding the college, and adult trainee truckers in a residential training program. The use of typical experimental economics recruitment procedures made the first two groups substantially self-selected. Because the context reduced the opportunity cost of participating dramatically, 91 % of the adult trainees solicited participated, leaving little scope for self-selection in this sample. We find no differences in the elicited other-regarding preferences between the self-selected adults and the adult trainees, suggesting that selection is unlikely to bias inferences about the prevalence of other-regarding preferences among non-student adult subjects. Our data also reject the more specific hypothesis that approval-seeking subjects are the ones most likely to select into experiments. Finally, we observe a large difference between self-selected college students and self-selected adults: the students appear considerably less pro-social.
Keywords
methodology, selection bias, laboratory experiment, field experiment, other-regarding behavior, social preferences, prisoner's dilemma, truckload, trucker
Web of science
Create date
23/10/2013 14:48
Last modification date
21/08/2019 6:16