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The Short Arm of Guilt: Guilt Aversion Plays Out More Across a Short Social Distance

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  • Alexander Morell

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods)

Abstract

In a laboratory experiment, I test whether guilt aversion, i.e., a preference to fulfill other people’s expectations, plays out stronger if agents are socially close. I induce two different group identities among participants. They play a dictator game. Dictators either play with a recipient from their own group (ingroup treatment) or from the other group (outgroup treatment). Dictators condition their amount sent on second-order beliefs. I find that, the positive influence of second-order beliefs on how much the dictator sends is stronger in the ingroup treatment than in the outgroup treatment. From this and some corroborating findings I conclude that guilt aversion plays out more strongly across a short social distance.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander Morell, 2014. "The Short Arm of Guilt: Guilt Aversion Plays Out More Across a Short Social Distance," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics 2014_19, Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics, revised Dec 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2014_19
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Marius Alt & Carlo Gallier & Achim Schlüter & Katherine Nelson & Eva Anggraini, 2018. "Giving to versus Taking from In- and Out-Group Members," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-14, August.

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    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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