The Many Faces of Human Sociality: Uncovering the Distribution and Stability of Social Preferences

Adrian Bruhin (), Ernst Fehr and Daniel Schunk
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Adrian Bruhin: University of Lausanne

No 2018-079, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: We uncover heterogeneity in social preferences with a structural model that accounts for outcome-based and reciprocity-based social preferences and assigns individuals to endogenously determined preferences types. We find that neither at the aggregate level nor when we allow for several distinct preference types do purely selfish types emerge, suggesting that other-regarding preferences are the rule and not the exemption. There are three temporally stable other-regarding types. When ahead, all types value others' payoffs more than when behind. The first, strongly altruistic type puts a large weight on others' payoffs even when behind and displays moderate levels of reciprocity. The second, moderately altruistic type also puts positive weight on others' payoff, yet at a lower level, and displays no positive reciprocity. The third, behindness averse type puts a large negative weight on others' payoffs when behind and is selfish otherwise. In addition, we show that individual-specific estimates of preferences offer only very modest improvements in out-of-sample predictions compared to our three-type model. Thus, a parsimonious model with three types captures the bulk of the information about subjects' social preferences.

Keywords: social preferences; heterogeneity; Stability; finite mixture models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C49 C91 D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp and nep-neu
Note: IP
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (40)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Bruhin ... -human-sociality.pdf First version, February 8, 2018 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The many Faces of Human Sociality: Uncovering the Distribution and Stability of Social Preferences (2019)
Working Paper: The Many Faces of Human Sociality: Uncovering the Distribution and Stability of Social Preferences (2018)
Working Paper: The Many Faces of Human Sociality: Uncovering the Distribution and Stability of Social Preferences (2018)
Working Paper: The Many Faces of Human Sociality: Uncovering the Distribution and Stability of Social Preferences (2016)
Working Paper: The Many Faces of Human Sociality: Uncovering the Distribution and Stability of Social Preferences (2016)
Working Paper: The Many Faces of Human Sociality:Uncovering the Distribution and Stability of Social Preferences (2016)
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