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Moral Emotions and Partnership

Author

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  • Jürgen Bracht

    (University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom)

  • Tobias Regner

    (Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany)

Abstract

Actual behaviour is influenced in important ways by moral emotions, for instance guilt or shame (see, among others, Tangney et al., 2007). Belief-dependant models of social preferences using the framework of psychological games aim to consider such emotions to explain other-regarding behaviour. Our experimental study links recent advances in psychological theory on moral emotions to belief-dependant models in economics. We find that - in addition to second-order beliefs and promises - individuals' disposition to guilt (their proneness to respond in an evaluative way to personal transgressions) is an important determinant of pro-social behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Jürgen Bracht & Tobias Regner, 2011. "Moral Emotions and Partnership," Jena Economics Research Papers 2011-028, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    • Handle: RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2011-028
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    Cited by:

    1. Attanasi, Giuseppe & Rimbaud, Claire & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2019. "Embezzlement and guilt aversion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 409-429.
    2. Hauge, Karen Evelyn, 2016. "Generosity and guilt: The role of beliefs and moral standards of others," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 35-43.
    3. Nicolas Jacquemet & Stephane Luchini & Antoine Malézieux & Jason Shogren, 2016. "Is tax evasion a personality trait ? An empirical evaluation of psychological determinants of "tax morale" [L'évasion fiscale est-elle un trait de personnalité ? Une évaluation empirique ," Post-Print halshs-01476519, HAL.
    4. Di Bartolomeo, Giovanni & Dufwenberg, Martin & Papa, Stefano & Passarelli, Francesco, 2019. "Promises, expectations & causation," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 137-146.
    5. Pelligra, Vittorio & Reggiani, Tommaso G. & Zizzo, Daniel John, 2016. "Responding to (Un)Reasonable Requests," IZA Discussion Papers 10189, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Mittlaender, Sergio, 2024. "Incomplete promises and the norm of keeping promises," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    7. Bellemare, Charles & Sebald, Alexander & Suetens, Sigrid, 2019. "Guilt aversion in economics and psychology," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 52-59.
    8. Pierpaolo Battigalli & Martin Dufwenberg, 2022. "Belief-Dependent Motivations and Psychological Game Theory," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 833-882, September.
    9. Attanasi, Giuseppe & Rimbaud, Claire & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2023. "Guilt aversion in (new) games: Does partners' payoff vulnerability matter?," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 690-717.
    10. Mills, Paul & Groening, Christopher, 2021. "The role of social acceptability and guilt in unethical consumer behavior: Following the crowd or their own moral compass?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 377-388.
    11. Giuseppe Attanasi & Claire Rimbaud & Marie-Claire Villeval, 2020. "Guilt Aversion in (New) Games: the Role of Vulnerability," GREDEG Working Papers 2020-15, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    12. Paul Harvey & Mark J. Martinko & Nancy Borkowski, 2017. "Justifying Deviant Behavior: The Role of Attributions and Moral Emotions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(4), pages 779-795, April.
    13. Astrid Matthey & Tobias Regner, 2013. "On the independence of history: experience spill-overs between experiments," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 75(3), pages 403-419, September.
    14. Tobias Regner, 2018. "What's behind image? towards a better understanding of image-driven behavior," Jena Economics Research Papers 2018-020, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    15. Garret Ridinger, 2020. "Shame and Theory-of-Mind Predicts Rule-Following Behavior," Games, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-17, September.
    16. repec:hal:wpaper:halshs-03620418 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Peeters, Ronald & Vorsatz, Marc, 2021. "Simple guilt and cooperation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    18. Cartwright, Edward, 2019. "A survey of belief-based guilt aversion in trust and dictator games," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 430-444.
    19. Renaud Foucart & Jonathan H. W. Tan, 2024. "A test of loyalty," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 109-137, August.
    20. J. J. Klerk, 2017. "Nobody is as Blind as Those Who Cannot Bear to See: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Management of Emotions and Moral Blindness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(4), pages 745-761, April.
    21. 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.
    22. Schütte, Miriam & Thoma, Carmen, 2014. "Promises and Image Concerns," Discussion Papers in Economics 20861, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    23. Morell, Alexander, 2019. "The short arm of guilt – An experiment on group identity and guilt aversion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 332-345.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social preferences; other-regarding behaviour; experiments; psychological game theory; guilt aversion; guilt from blame; shame; beliefs; emotions; partnership; moral hazard; principal agent;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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