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
Author(s)
Anderson  J, Burks  S. V., Carpenter  J., Goette  L., Maurer  K., Nosenzo D., Potter R., Rocha K., Rustichini A.
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 13:48
Last modification date
21/08/2019 5:16
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