Know your neighbor: The impact of social context on fairness behavior

Laboratory experiments offer an opportunity to isolate human behaviors with a level of precision that is often difficult to obtain using other (survey-based) methods. Yet, experimental tasks are often stripped of any social context, implying that inferences may not directly map to real world context...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2018-04, Vol.13 (4), p.e0194037
Main Authors: Sircar, Neelanjan, Turley, Ty, van der Windt, Peter, Voors, Maarten
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Altruism
Behavior
Biology and Life Sciences
Civil war
Computer and Information Sciences
Cooperative Behavior
Development Economics
Development Economics Group
Female
Games
Games, Experimental
Human behavior
Humans
Interpersonal relations
Laboratories
Laboratory experiments
Leerstoelgroep Ontwikkelingseconomie
Male
Middle Aged
Ontwikkelingseconomie
People and places
Physical Sciences
Rural areas
Sierra Leone
Social aspects
Social Behavior
Social Environment
Social networks
Social Sciences
WASS
Young Adult
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Summary:Laboratory experiments offer an opportunity to isolate human behaviors with a level of precision that is often difficult to obtain using other (survey-based) methods. Yet, experimental tasks are often stripped of any social context, implying that inferences may not directly map to real world contexts. We randomly allocate 632 individuals (grouped randomly into 316 dyads) from small villages in Sierra Leone to four versions of the ultimatum game. In addition to the classic ultimatum game, where both the sender and receiver are anonymous, we reveal the identity of the sender, the receiver or both. This design allows us to explore how fairness behavior is affected by social context in a natural setting where players are drawn from populations that are well-acquainted. We find that average offers increase when the receiver's identity is revealed, suggesting that anonymous ultimatum games underestimate expected fair offers. This study suggest that researchers wishing to relate laboratory behavior to contexts in which the participants are well-acquainted should consider revealing the identities of the players during game play.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0194037