Religion, minority status, and trust: Evidence from a field experiment

Gautam Gupta (), Minhaj Mahmud, Pushkar Maitra, Santanu Mitra and Ananta Neelim

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2018, vol. 146, issue C, 180-205

Abstract: This paper reports the results from a lab-in-the-field experiment conducted in Bangladesh and India that examines the influence of religion and relative status on trust and trustworthiness. We find that in both locations individuals with minority status, irrespective of their religion, exhibit positive in-group bias in trust, while individuals with majority status show positive out-group bias in trustworthiness. This suggests that behavior is not driven by religious identity per se but is highly influenced by the relative status it generates within the population. Within both groups, heterogeneity with respect to how strongly individuals associate with the group identity affects behavior.

Keywords: Trust; Religion; Status; In-group and out-group; Field experiment; South asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D03 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Religion, Minority Status and Trust: Evidence from a Field Experiment (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:146:y:2018:i:c:p:180-205

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2017.11.028

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