The effect of motivations on social indirect reciprocity: an experimental analysis

Luca Stanca, Luigino Bruni () and Marco Mantovani

Applied Economics Letters, 2011, vol. 18, issue 17, 1709-1711

Abstract: This article investigates the effect of motivations on the perceived kindness of an action within the context of social indirect reciprocity (if A helps B, then C helps A). We test experimentally the hypothesis that, for a given distributional outcome, an action is perceived by a third party to be less kind if it can be strategically motivated. As a consequence, intention-based reciprocity should be stronger in the absence of strategic motivations. The results do not support this hypothesis: social indirect reciprocity is found to be less strong when strategic motivations can be ruled out.

Keywords: indirect reciprocity; motivations; laboratory experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: The Effect of Motivations on Social Indirect Reciprocity: an Experimental Analysis (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:18:y:2011:i:17:p:1709-1711

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DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2011.560105

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