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Disappointment Aversion and Social Comparisons in a Real-Effort Competition

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  • Simon Gaechter
  • Lingbo Huang
  • Martin Sefton

Abstract

We present an experiment to investigate the source of disappointment aversion in a sequential real-effort competition. Specifically, we study the contribution of social comparison effects to the disappointment aversion previously identified in a two-person real-effort competition (Gill and Prowse, 2012). To do this we compare “social” and “asocial” versions of the Gill and Prowse experiment, where the latter treatment removes the scope for social comparisons. If disappointment aversion simply reflects an asymmetric evaluation of losses and gains we would expect it to survive in our asocial treatment, while if losing to or winning against another person affects the evaluation of losses/gains we would expect treatment differences. We find behavior in social and asocial treatments to be similar, suggesting that social comparisons have little impact in this setting. Unlike in Gill and Prowse we do not find evidence of disappointment aversion.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Gaechter & Lingbo Huang & Martin Sefton, 2017. "Disappointment Aversion and Social Comparisons in a Real-Effort Competition," CESifo Working Paper Series 6489, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6489
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    3. Patrick Maus & Maria Montero & Martin Sefton, 2023. "Social reference points and real-effort provision," Discussion Papers 2023-03, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    4. Huang, Lingbo & Murad, Zahra, 2021. "Fighting alone versus fighting for a team: An experiment on multiple pairwise contests," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 616-631.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    real effort competition; social comparison effects; disappointment aversion; reference-dependent preferences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations

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