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`Two's Company, Three's a Group' The impact of group identity and group size on in-group favouritism

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Author Info
Donna Harris () (Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge)
Benedikt Herrmann () (CeDEx, School of Economics, University of Nottingham)
Andreas Kontoleon () (Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge)

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Abstract

In this study, we use an allocation experiment to study the effects of group identity and group size on in-group favouritism when the person's own payoff is not affected by her decision. In a triadic setting when subjects are asked to allocate a fixed amount of resource between two other anonymous individuals, the majority of the subjects choose to allocate equal amounts to both the in-group and the out-group members. Telling the subjects that they belong to the same `group' does not increase the amount al- located to the in-group member relative to the out-group member in a triadic setting. However, once the sizes of the in-group and the out-group are increased from one recipient to three (which we refer to as `the favour game'), we observe a sharp increase in in-group favouritism. Our results suggest that no special treatment is needed in a one-shot experiment to induce the distinction between the in-group and the out-group when groups consist of more than two group members.

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Paper provided by The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham in its series Discussion Papers with number 2009-13.

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Date of creation: Jul 2009
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Handle: RePEc:cdx:dpaper:2009-13

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Related research
Keywords: Favouritism; Group Identity; Group Behaviour; Group Size; Design of Laboratory Experiment;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior

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