IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ter/wpaper/00141.html

The rationale of in-group favoritism: An experimental test of three explanations

Author

Listed:
  • Ciccarone Giuseppe
  • Di Bartolomeo Giovanni
  • Papa Stefano

Abstract

We aim to empirically investigate the rationale of in-group-favoritism. As potential explanations, we concentrate on intrinsic preferences for own-group members and motivations related to individuals caring about the beliefs of others (founded on guilt aversion). We also consider their intersection. Our evidence shows that in-group-favoritism cannot be accounted for by changes in expectations. This suggests that preferences per se are the most powerful explanation of social identity.

Suggested Citation

  • Ciccarone Giuseppe & Di Bartolomeo Giovanni & Papa Stefano, 2018. "The rationale of in-group favoritism: An experimental test of three explanations," wp.comunite 00141, Department of Communication, University of Teramo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ter:wpaper:00141
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.dipecodir.it/wpcom/data/wp_no_141_2018.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Charness, Gary & Bartolomeo, Giovanni Di & Papa, Stefano, 2024. "A stranger in a strange land: Promises and identity," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 13-28.
    2. Daniela Grieco, 2022. "What Economists Can Learn from “The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities for Personal and Collective Success” by Jay J. Van Bavel and Dominick J. Packer," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-3, March.
    3. Giovanni Di Bartolomeo & Martin Dufwenberg & Stefano Papa & Laura Razzolini, 2024. "Guilt aversion and moral commitment: Eve versus Adam," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 10(2), pages 578-594, December.
    4. 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.
    5. repec:hal:wpaper:halshs-03620418 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Renaud Foucart & Jonathan H. W. Tan, 2024. "A test of loyalty," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 109-137, August.
    7. Cai, Qingfeng & Li, Dongxu & Liu, Hao, 2025. "Gender minority: A non-pecuniary approach to political capital," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 834-855.
    8. Mathieu Lefebvre & Lucie Martin-Bonnel de Longchamp, 2022. "Knowledge acquisition or incentive to foster coordination? A real-effort weak-link experiment with craftsmen," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 6(S1), pages 93-107, July.
    9. Giovanni Di Bartolomeo & Stefano Papa & Alessandra Pelloni, 2025. "Beyond Colors: Communication and Social Identity in Natural Groups," CEIS Research Paper 610, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 10 Sep 2025.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General

    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:ter:wpaper:00141. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Giovanni Di Bartolomeo (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://sites.google.com/a/uniroma1.it/cimeo/home .

    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.