The influences of social context on the measurement of distributional preferences

Matthias Greiff, Kurt A. Ackermann () and Ryan O. Murphy ()
Additional contact information
Kurt A. Ackermann: Fehr Advice & Partners
Ryan O. Murphy: University of Zürich

MAGKS Papers on Economics from Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung)

Abstract: A variety of different social contexts have been used when measuring distributional preferences. This could be problematic as different degrees of social interdependence may affect people’s distributional preferences, and this contextual variance may inadvertently muddle the measurement process and complicate comparisons between different strands of research. In the present study, we systematically measure distributional preferences embedded within different social contexts, as well as cooperative choices in a strategic setting. More specifically, we use a within-subjects design and compare the choices people make in resource allocation tasks with role certainty, role uncertainty, decomposed games, and matrix games. Results show that, at the aggregate level, role uncertainty and decomposed games both lead to higher degrees of prosociality when compared to role certainty. At the individual level, we observe considerable differences in behavior across the social contexts, indicating that the majority of people are sensitive to these different social settings but respond in different ways. We conclude with some recommendations for measuring distributional preferences as an individual difference and reiterate that social context is an inherent part of measurement methodology when considering social motivations.

Keywords: Distributional Preferences; Social Preferences; Other Regarding Preferences; Social Value Orientation (SVO); Measurement Methods; Individual Differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb02/makro/forschung/mag ... 6/06-2016_greiff.pdf First 201606 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The influences of social context on the measurement of distributional preferences (2016)
Working Paper: The influences of social context on the measurement of distributional preferences (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mar:magkse:201606

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