Performance curiosity

Carlos Alós-Ferrer, Jaume García-Segarra and Alexander Ritschel

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2018, vol. 64, issue C, 1-17

Abstract: We show that performance curiosity – the desire to know one’s own (relative) performance – can trump inequality aversion. In two experiments (combined N=450), participants chose between an equal allocation and a performance-based one after generating surplus in a real-effort task. In the experimental treatment, choosing an equal allocation came at the cost of not knowing the own performance, which led to a substantial increase of performance-based choices in comparison with the control treatment. The effect seems especially pronounced for women, but the gender effect is due to a difference in expectations regarding performance. Interestingly, the manipulation equalized the proportion of equal allocation choices between males and females compensating for their difference in expectations.

Keywords: Social preferences; Egalitarian behavior; Expectations; Performance curiosity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:64:y:2018:i:c:p:1-17

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2017.08.002

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