The humanizing effect of market interaction

Colin Harris, Andrew Myers and Adam Kaiser

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2023, vol. 205, issue C, 489-507

Abstract: The quality and quantity of intergroup contact affects how outgroups are perceived. Positive interaction tends to have a humanizing effect of moral inclusion. Negative interaction instead tends towards dehumanization and moral exclusion. One avenue of intergroup contact that has been empirically underexplored is interaction in a market. Do markets generate moral sympathy, or do they allow us to ignore or deny the moral status of others? We create a measure of moral sentiment that captures the frequency, valence, and type of moral language used about an outgroup. We match our novel sentiment data to dyadic measures of market interaction to test if markets act as a (de)humanizing force. We find a positive relationship between market interaction and the use of (1) moral, (2) virtuous (but not vice), (3) bridging, and (4) bonding language to talk about a contacted outgroup. Our results suggest market interaction has a humanizing effect.

Keywords: Humanization; Dehumanization; Intergroup contact; Market interaction; Moral sentiment; Text analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 F60 J15 P17 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:205:y:2023:i:c:p:489-507

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.11.028

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