Watching the embezzler: an experiment on antisocial behaviour

Anabel Doñate-Buendía (donatea@uji.es) and Aurora García-Gallego
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Anabel Doñate-Buendía: LEE and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain

No 2023/05, Working Papers from Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain)

Abstract: Embezzlement is a type of antisocial behaviour that occurs in our daily life. In this study, the importance of watching eyes for reducing this type of antisocial behaviour is examined. The embezzlement game is implemented, focusing on the decision of an intermediary, who gets an amount of money donated by some people to an NGO and decides on how much to give to the beneficiaries of that money. Here we propose that implementing watching eyes can effectively reduce embezzlement. The variable sex is also considered, analysing the sex of the subject and the interaction between the sex of the decision maker and the sex of the eyes. A laboratory experiment with four treatments and a baseline is run, controlling for who is watching you (woman vs. man), and how realistic it feels (static image vs. GIF). Gender differences on embezzlement decisions are significant. Furthermore, significant differences are found regarding the realism of the tool of watching eyes and the sex of it. Therefore, it is relevant the type of tool used in order to reduce antisocial behaviour, as well as the sex of that tool (eyes in this case). Also the sex and other individual characteristics of the sample population matter. All these variables should be considered when defining an intervention in order to accurately reduce antisocial behaviour.

Keywords: embezzlement game; experiment; gender; visual cues; antisocial behaviour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D63 D64 D91 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
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