IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/2gvy8.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Price of Dignity: Measuring Migrants' Metaperceptions using Behavioral Games

Author

Listed:
  • Zhou, Yang-Yang

    (University of British Columbia)

  • , Rojas Daniel
  • Peters, Margaret E.
  • Kappos, Cybele

Abstract

How do migrants perceive host citizens’ stereotypes about them, and can these metaperceptions change behaviors? We theorize that migrants are cognizant of hosts' stereotypes against them, which drive them to make choices that seem irrational based on economic cost-benefit calculations but are rational to restore status and dignity. To test our argument, we conducted behavioral lab games in Colombia, with 600 citizens and Venezuelan migrants. By randomizing partners and varying the information on partners' nationalities, we identify bias for and against outgroups. We find across games that Venezuelans give more to Colombians when both players' nationalities are known, compared to the baseline of no information and when playing with other Venezuelans. These findings suggest that migrants may act against their own financial self-interest to counteract prevalent stereotypes, such as being freeloaders on state welfare. We also find qualitative evidence that migrants desire to regain dignity by countering hosts' negative stereotypes.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Yang-Yang & , Rojas Daniel & Peters, Margaret E. & Kappos, Cybele, 2025. "The Price of Dignity: Measuring Migrants' Metaperceptions using Behavioral Games," OSF Preprints 2gvy8, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:2gvy8
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/2gvy8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/677f33040c1a045bbf34caf4/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/2gvy8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. D'Adda, Giovanna & Drouvelis, Michalis & Nosenzo, Daniele, 2016. "Norm elicitation in within-subject designs: Testing for order effects," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1-7.
    2. Samuelson, Larry, 2001. "Analogies, Adaptation, and Anomalies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 320-366, April.
    3. Lars Ivar Oppedal Berge & Kjetil Bjorvatn & Simon Galle & Edward Miguel & Daniel N Posner & Bertil Tungodden & Kelly Zhang, 2020. "Ethnically Biased? Experimental Evidence from Kenya," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 134-164.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:osf:osfxxx:2gvy8_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Philippe Jehiel, 2022. "Analogy-Based Expectation Equilibrium and Related Concepts:Theory, Applications, and Beyond," Working Papers halshs-03735680, HAL.
    3. Aycinena, Diego & Bogliacino, Francesco & Kimbrough, Erik O., 2024. "Measuring norms: Assessing the threat of social desirability bias to the Bicchieri and Xiao elicitation method," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 225-239.
    4. Benjamin Enke & Ricardo Rodríguez-Padilla & Florian Zimmermann, 2019. "Moral Universalism: Measurement and Heterogeneity," CESifo Working Paper Series 7921, CESifo.
    5. Tracy Xiao Liu & Jenna Bednar & Yan Chen & Scott Page, 2019. "Directional behavioral spillover and cognitive load effects in multiple repeated games," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 22(3), pages 705-734, September.
    6. Moritz Hetzer & Didier Sornette, 2013. "An Evolutionary Model of Cooperation, Fairness and Altruistic Punishment in Public Good Games," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-13, November.
    7. Huber, Christoph & Huber, Jürgen, 2020. "Bad bankers no more? Truth-telling and (dis)honesty in the finance industry," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 472-493.
    8. Ghassan Baliki & Tilman Brück & Neil T. N. Ferguson & Sindu Workneh Kebede, 2022. "Fragility exposure index: Concepts, measurement, and application," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 639-660, May.
    9. Attanasi, Giuseppe & Rimbaud, Claire & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2019. "Embezzlement and guilt aversion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 409-429.
    10. Marco LiCalzi & Roland Mühlenbernd, 2022. "Feature-weighted categorized play across symmetric games," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(3), pages 1052-1078, June.
    11. Binmore, Ken & McCarthy, John & Ponti, Giovanni & Samuelson, Larry & Shaked, Avner, 2002. "A Backward Induction Experiment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 104(1), pages 48-88, May.
    12. Mohlin, Erik, 2012. "Evolution of theories of mind," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 299-318.
    13. Jehiel, Philippe, 2005. "Analogy-based expectation equilibrium," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 81-104, August.
    14. Bicchieri, Cristina & Dimant, Eugen & Xiao, Erte, 2021. "Deviant or wrong? The effects of norm information on the efficacy of punishment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 209-235.
    15. Denis Tverskoi & Andrea Guido & Giulia Andrighetto & Angel Sánchez & Sergey Gavrilets, 2023. "Disentangling material, social, and cognitive determinants of human behavior and beliefs," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    16. Daniele Condorelli & Massimiliano Furlan, 2024. "Deep Learning Across Games," Papers 2409.15197, arXiv.org, revised May 2025.
    17. Fabrizio Germano, 2006. "On some geometry and equivalence classes of normal form games," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 34(4), pages 561-581, November.
    18. Behnk, Sascha & Hao, Li & Reuben, Ernesto, 2022. "Shifting normative beliefs: On why groups behave more antisocially than individuals," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    19. Bartoš, Vojtěch & Levely, Ian, 2021. "Sanctioning and trustworthiness across ethnic groups: Experimental evidence from Afghanistan," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    20. repec:osf:osfxxx:b5682_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Bicchieri, Cristina & Dimant, Eugen & Gächter, Simon & Nosenzo, Daniele, 2022. "Social proximity and the erosion of norm compliance," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 59-72.
    22. Berg, Nathan & Biele, Guido & Gigerenzer, Gerd, 2010. "Does consistency predict accuracy of beliefs?: Economists surveyed about PSA," MPRA Paper 26590, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:2gvy8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.