 Facing yourself – A note on self-imageJournal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, vol. 186, issue C, 724-734 Abstract: The concern for a positive self-image is a central assumption in a large class of signaling models. In this paper, we exogenously vary the impact of self-image concerns by manipulating self-directed attention and study the impact on moral behavior. The choice context in the experiment is whether subjects inflict a painful electric shock on another subject to receive a monetary reward. In the main treatment, subjects see their own face on the decision screen in a real-time video feed. In three control conditions, subjects see either no video at all or a neutral video, or they see themselves in a mirror. We find that increasing self-awareness significantly reduces the fraction of subjects inflicting pain. The finding emphasizes the importance of self-image concerns for moral decision making with implications for theory as well as practical applications to promote socially desirable outcomes. Keywords: Self-image; Moral behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:186:y:2021:i:c:p:724-734 DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.11.003 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D. More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier |
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