Determinants of In-group Bias: Group Affiliation or Guilt-aversion?

Werner Güth (), Matteo Ploner and Tobias Regner

No 2008-046, Jena Economics Research Papers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Abstract: In-group favoritism in social dilemma situations is one of the main findings of studies in Social Identity Theory. We investigate what causes the in-group bias: is it due to mere group affiliation or, alternatively, is guilt-aversion a possible explanation? We induce group membership in a minimal group setting, observe in-/out-group transfers and elicit re- spective beliefs. We ?nd that mere group affiliation affects beliefs and explains a substantial part of the bias, but we also ?nd evidence in favor of guilt-aversion as a source of motivation.

Keywords: social preferences; experiments; social dilemma; group identity; guilt aversion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C91 C92 D01 D84 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-06-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-gth, nep-soc and nep-upt
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2008-046

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