Peer effects on compliance with extortive requests

We conduct laboratory experiments to study peer effects on compliance with extortive requests. To this aim, we use an "extortion game" with multiple victims. In agreement with our hypothesis, our results show that when the information on peers' behavior is available, compliance with a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2020-04, Vol.15 (4), p.e0231879-e0231879
Main Authors: Andrighetto, Giulia, Grieco, Daniela
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asymmetry
Biology and Life Sciences
Compliance
Compliance (Psychology)
Cooperation
Criminal psychology
Experiments
Extortion
Games
human
Hypotheses
Laboratory experiments
Organized crime
Peer relations
Peers
Physical Sciences
Psychological aspects
Punishment
Social aspects
Social Sciences
Taxation
victim
Victims
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Summary:We conduct laboratory experiments to study peer effects on compliance with extortive requests. To this aim, we use an "extortion game" with multiple victims. In agreement with our hypothesis, our results show that when the information on peers' behavior is available, compliance with appropriative requests is triggered by conformism among victims rather than by punishment. Moreover, we find that extorted sums are rather small, requests are proportional to the victim's earnings, similar across victims, and are significantly lower when the extorter self-selects into this role. Punishment is rare, but effective. Finally, our results indicate that fairness concerns matter even in a context of extra-legal taxation, shaping both extorters' requests and victims' compliance.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0231879