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Status groups and altruistic behaviour in dictator games

Author

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  • Ulf Liebe

    (Universität Leipzig, Germany, liebe@sozio.uni-leipzig.de)

  • Andreas Tutic

    (Universität Leipzig, Germany)

Abstract

We provide evidence on the effects of social status in the dictator game. With regard to average donations from and to status groups, it turns out that (a) the higher the status of the dictator, the more she donates, and (b) the higher the status of the recipient, the less she receives in donations. Both tendencies are proposed by altruism. On a lower level of aggregation, we find that altruism has the highest proportion of correct predictions among all theoretical concepts under consideration (i.e. altruism, warm-glow giving, in-group bias, noblesse oblige). Surprisingly, there are rarely pure altruists on the individual level. This points at well-known problems of aggregation in social science research and challenges, among others, experimental studies on the in-group bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Ulf Liebe & Andreas Tutic, 2010. "Status groups and altruistic behaviour in dictator games," Rationality and Society, , vol. 22(3), pages 353-380, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:22:y:2010:i:3:p:353-380
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463110366232
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    3. Antinyan, Armenak & Baghdasaryan, Vardan & Grigoryan, Aleksandr, 2021. "Charitable giving, social capital and positional concerns," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2021/33, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    4. Jin Zheng & Arthur Schram & Tianle Song, 2023. "Social status and prosocial behavior," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(5), pages 1085-1114, November.
    5. Peter Bußwolder & Swetlana Dregert & Peter Letmathe, 2019. "Consequences of Unfair Job Promotions in Organizations," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 71(1), pages 3-26, February.
    6. Markus Tepe & Fabian Paetzel & Jan Lorenz & Maximilian Lutz, 2021. "Efficiency loss and support for income redistribution: Evidence from a laboratory experiment," Rationality and Society, , vol. 33(3), pages 313-340, August.
    7. Amelie Aidenberger & Heiko Rauhut & Jörg Rössel, 2020. "Is participation in high-status culture a signal of trustworthiness?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-23, May.
    8. Antinyan, Armenak & Baghdasaryan, Vardan & Grigoryan, Aleksandr, 2022. "Charitable giving, social capital, and positional concerns," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    9. Robert Neumann, 2019. "The framing of charitable giving: A field experiment at bottle refund machines in Germany," Rationality and Society, , vol. 31(1), pages 98-126, February.
    10. Giuseppe Ciccarone & Giovanni Di Bartolomeo & Stefano Papa, 2018. "Is social identity belief independent?," Working Papers in Public Economics 183, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.
    11. Armenak Antinyan & Vardan Baghdasaryan & Aleksandr Grigoryan, 2018. "Social Preferences, Public Good Provision, Social Capital and Positional Concerns: Empirical Evidence from the South Caucasus," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp625, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    12. Ciccarone, Giuseppe & Di Bartolomeo, Giovanni & Papa, Stefano, 2020. "The rationale of in-group favoritism: An experimental test of three explanations," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 554-568.
    13. Rhosyn A. Almond, 2021. "Are you worthy of my help? An experiment in worthiness framing on charitable donations," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) 21-03, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    14. Hagen von Hermanni & Andreas Tutić, 2019. "Does economic inequality moderate the effect of class on prosocial behavior? A large-scale test of a recent hypothesis by Côté et al," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-17, August.
    15. Zakharov, Alexei & Bondarenko, Oxana, 2021. "Social status and social learning," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

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