1,721,001 research outputs found
On the Validity of Probabilistic (and Cost-Saving) Incentives in Dictator Games: A Systematic Test
Get PDFDriven by methodological concerns, theoretical considerations, and previous evidence, we systematically test the validity of common dictator-game variants with probabilistic incentives. We include four approaches and compare them to a standard dictator game: involving fewer receivers than dictators; paying only some subjects or decisions; role uncertainty at the time of the transfer decision. We also relate the dictator-game variants to established complementary individual difference measures of pro-sociality: social value orientation, personal values, a donation to charity, and Big Five personality facors. Our data show that dictator behavior is quite sensitive to the applied methods. The standard version of the dictator game has the highest validity. Involving fewer receivers than dictators and not paying for all decisions yields comparably valid results. By contrast, when only some subjects are paid or where subjects face uncertainty about their final player role, the expected associations with complementary pro-sociality are distorted. Under role uncertainty, generosity is biased upwards. We conclude that the validity of the dictator-game outcomes is highly sensitive to the applied methods
On cooperation and trust in strategic games : Behavioral Evidence from the Middle East and Europe
Get PDFThis thesis is about selected issues of cooperation and trust in strategic games. This first chapter paper investigates the impact of game presentation on cooperation dependent on subject-pool affiliation. Two cooperation games representing the same logical and strategical decision problem are introduced. Accomplishing a cross-cultural experimental study involving subjects from Abu-Dis (West Bank), Chengdu (China), Helsinki (Finland), and Jerusalem (Israel) we test for a strategic presentation bias applying these two conditions. Subjects in Abu-Dis and Chengdu show a substantially higher cooperation level in the positive externality treatment. In Helsinki and Jerusalem no presentation effect is observed. The same findings hold for associated first-order beliefs. Critically discussing our results, we argue that comparisons across subject-pools might lead to only partially meaningful and opposed conclusions if only one treatment condition is evaluated. In chapter two three studies predict and find that the individual's conformism values are one determinant of whether behavior is guided by other personal values or by social norms. In study one, pro-gay law reform participants are told they were either in a minority or a majority in terms of their attitude towards the law reform. Only participants who are high in conformism values conform to the group norm on public behavior intentions. In studies two and three, participants play multiple choice prisoner's dilemma games. Only participants who consider conformism values to be relatively unimportant show the expected connections between universalism values and cooperative behavior. Study three also establishes that the moderating effect of conformism values on the relation between universalism values and cooperative behavior is mediated through experienced sense of moral obligation. In chapter three we study the influence of ethnocentrism on both trusting and reciprocity behavior. We find levels of trust, and partly of reciprocity, to differ significantly in the three subject pools with high Palestinian and low Israeli transfer amounts. The most startling result is the fact that players' beliefs match well the actual behavior of their counterparts from their own country but that they are wrong in predicting the behavior of players located in other countries. Moreover, only slight discrimination among involved cultural groups is found. The data presented support the view that a conflict might not only be triggered by discrimination but may also be enforced by the specific social standards within different societies and ethnocentric biases in beliefs and actions. In chapter four we experimentally investigate whether job seekers or employees holding a criminal record are less trusted and expected to be less trustworthy compared to not previously convicted workers. In addition, we compare employers' discriminative behavior against ex-offenders with their attitudes against other potential target groups of discrimination as foreigners, women, or elder workers. Our results give substantial support for a clear disadvantage of previously convicted and foreign employees who are less preferred for employment and paid significantly lower wages. However, we find associated beliefs about convicted and foreign employees' reciprocity not to play a primary role in interactions with them. We can also show that employers' discrimination against ex-felons is mainly taste based or avoidance driven. Contrary, foreign workers are basically avoided by employers. For females and males the evidence is mixed: Employers slightly preferred females for hire and paid them higher wages. We suggest investing in prison inmates' education, its certification, as well as signalling it adequately
On the Validity of Cost-Saving Methods in Dictator-Game Experiments: A Systematic Test
Get PDFMotivated by methodological concerns, theoretical considerations, and evidence from previous studies, this paper makes a contribution to conducting dictator-game experiments under resource constraints. Using a holistic and strictly controlled approach, we systematically assess the
validity of common cost-saving dictator-game variants. We include five common approaches and compare them to a standard dictator game: involving fewer receivers than dictators; paying only some subjects or decisions; role uncertainty at the time of the transfer decision; a combination of random decision payment and role uncertainty. To test the validity of subjects’ dictator-game decisions, we relate them to complementary individual difference measures of generosity: social value orientation, personal values, and a donation to charity. In line with previous evidence, our data show that dictator behavior is quite sensitive to the applied methods. The standard version of the dictator game has the highest validity. Involving fewer receivers than dictators and not paying for all decisions yields comparably valid results. These methods may, therefore, represent feasible alternatives for the conduct of dictator games under contraints. By contrast, in the dictator-game variants where only some subjects are paid or where subjects face uncertainty about their final player role, the expected associations with other measures of generosity are distorted. Under role uncertainty, generosity is also biased upwards. We conclude that these methods are inappropriate when the researchers are interested in valid individual measures of generosity
Slipping on stereotypes – Interactive gender effects in the erosion of ethical behavior
Get PDFWe investigate how gender affects ethical outcomes in repeated same- or mixed-gender interactions. In our first study (N = 681), we use an experimental slippery-slope audit setting (Gino and Bazerman, 2009), in which an “auditor” makes an approval decision about the emerging unethical behavior of an “estimator” whose gender has been made salient. Based on previous evidence, unethical behavior is more likely to be accepted when it emerges gradually compared to a situation where it occurs abruptly. While we do not find a general slippery-slope effect across the whole sample, a significant slippery-slope effect is detected when the estimator is male (d = 0.36) or when the auditor is female (d = 0.27). We observe no slippery-slope effects in same-gender estimator-auditor constellations. However, in mixed-gender constellations, we find opposite effects: when male estimators are audited by females, we observe a significant slippery-slope effect (d = 0.53), driven by a high approval rate in the slippery-slope treatment. Conversely, when female estimators are audited by males, the approval rate increases in the abrupt treatment (d = 0.33). To better understand the drivers of these findings, we asked a different sample of participants (N = 90) to indicate the level of competence or honesty they attribute to male and female estimators in the estimation task. Responses suggest that the detected slippery-slope effects may be driven by auditors (especially females), attributing more competence to male estimators (d = 0.62), which is particularly relevant in the slippery-slope treatment where unethical behavior is difficult to detect. Moreover, our finding that male auditors are particularly inclined to approve overvaluations by females in the abrupt treatment, where unethical behavior becomes salient, may be driven by a more ethical assessment of female estimators (d = 0.90)
Positive and Negative Team Identity in a Promotion Game
Get PDFIn this paper we experimentally investigate whether the so-called in-group/out-group bias leads to a favoring of own team members as candidates in promotion (by voting for them) relative to other teams and their members. In contrast to psychological approaches, mon- etary incentives for voting choices are implemented and objective performance criteria defined and thus the extent of the in-group/out-group bias is exactly measured. Our data show that face-to-face interaction with team members leads more subjects to favor own team-mates than in anonymous interaction. Moreover, not only the frequency but also the average extent of positive team identity is higher with face-to-face interaction according to objective performance measures. A further finding suggests that only anonymous team interaction often leads to substantial discrimination of own team members (i.e., negative team identity), which also is an interesting new finding and extends previous indings of psychologists on the in-group/out-group bias
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Experimentally Induced Empathy Has No Impact on Generosity in a Monetarily Incentivized Dictator Game
Get PDFIn a monetarily incentivized Dictator Game, we expected Dictators' empathy toward the Recipients to cause more pro-social allocations. Empathy was experimentally induced via a commonly used perspective taking task. Dictators (N = 474) were instructed to split an endowment of 10(sic) between themselves and an unknown Recipient. They could split the money 8/2 (8(sic) for Dictator, 2(sic) for Recipient) or 5/5 (5(sic) each). Although the empathy manipulation successfully increased Dictators' feelings of empathy toward the Recipients, Dictators' decisions on how to split the money were not affected. We had ample statistical power (above 0.99) to detect a typical social psychology effect (corresponding to r around 0.20). Other possible determinants of generosity in the Dictator Game should be investigated.Peer reviewe
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
- …
