A sociological perspective on measuring social norms by means of strategy method experiments

Heiko Rauhut () and Fabian Winter
Additional contact information
Heiko Rauhut: ETH Zurich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

No 2009-054, Jena Economics Research Papers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Abstract: The measurement of social norms plays a pivotal role in many social sciences. While economists predominantly conduct experiments, sociologists rather employ (factorial) surveys. Both methods, however, suffer from distinct weaknesses. Experiments, on the one hand, often fall short in the measurement of more complex elements, such as the conditionality or the level of consensus of social norms. Surveys, on the other, lack the ability to measure actual behavior. This paper argues that the so-called "strategy method" compensates for these weaknesses by combining the observational characteristic of experiments with the conditionality of factorial surveys. We can demonstrate the applicability of the strategy method for the measure- ment of conditional bargaining norms in the case of ultimatum games. To substantiate our claim, we conduct a methodological experiment in which we compare results for the strategy ultimatum game with those from a "conventional" ultimatum game. The strategy method yields higher levels of normative compliance in terms of rejecting "unfair" offers. We conclude that the strategy method rather measures normative expectations whereas the "conventional" ultimatum game the willingness to sacrifice own profits to adhere to these expectations. Our results are consistent with previous comparative research between factorial surveys and observational data.

Keywords: Social norms; measurement; ultimatum game; strategy method; factorial surveys (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D63 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-08-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cse, nep-exp, nep-gth, nep-mic and nep-soc
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
https://oweb.b67.uni-jena.de/Papers/jerp2009/wp_2009_054.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-054

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Jena Economics Research Papers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Markus Pasche ().