The Impact of Social Ties on Group Interactions: Evidence from Minimal Groups and Randomly Assigned Real Groups

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_C655A6298958
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
The Impact of Social Ties on Group Interactions: Evidence from Minimal Groups and Randomly Assigned Real Groups
Journal
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
Author(s)
Goette  L., Huffman  D., Meier  S.
ISSN
1945-7669
Publication state
Published
Issued date
02/2012
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
4
Number
1
Pages
101-115
Language
english
Abstract
Economists are increasingly interested in how group membership affects individual behavior. The standard method assigns individuals to "minimal" groups, i.e. arbitrary labels, in a lab. But real group often involve social interactions leading to social ties between group members. Our experiments compare randomly assigned minimal groups to randomly assigned groups involving real social interactions. While adding social ties leads to qualitatively similar, although stronger, in-group favoritism in cooperation, altruistic norm enforcement patterns are qualitatively different between treatments. Our findings contribute to the micro-foundation of theories of group preferences, and caution against generalizations from "minimal" groups to groups with social context.
Keywords
Group membership, individual behavior, norm enforcement, dictator games, identity, economics, altruism, empathy, friends
Web of science
Create date
15/09/2011 10:47
Last modification date
21/08/2019 5:14
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