Conveniently Upset: Avoiding Altruism by Distorting Beliefs about Others' Altruism

Rafael Di Tella, Ricardo Perez-Truglia, Andres Babino and Mariano Sigman

American Economic Review, 2015, vol. 105, issue 11, 3416-42

Abstract: We present results from a "corruption game" (a dictator game modified so that recipients can take a side payment in exchange for accepting a reduction in the overall size of the pie). Dictators (silently) treated to be able to take more of the recipient's tokens, took more of them. They were also more likely to believe that recipients had accepted side payments, even if there was a prize for accuracy. The results favor the hypothesis that people avoid altruistic actions by distorting beliefs about others' altruism. (JEL C72, D63, D64, D83)

JEL-codes: C72 D63 D64 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20141409
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (127)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.20141409 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/app/10511/20141409_app.pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/10511/20141409_data.zip (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10511/20141409_ds.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

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:aea:aecrev:v:105:y:2015:i:11:p:3416-42

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().