Social Status and Peer-Punishment: Findings from Two Road Traffic Field Experiments

Ben Jann and Elisabeth Coutts

No 27, University of Bern Social Sciences Working Papers from University of Bern, Department of Social Sciences

Abstract: In a seminal experiment, Doob and Gross (1968) examined the influence of social status on peer-punishment of norm violations in traffic. They observed an inverse relationship between the economic status indicated by a car that was blocking an intersection and the punishment meted out to the driver of that car, with "punishment" taking the form of a honk of the car horn. In a more recent experiment, Diekmann et al. (1996) noted the status and reactions of the cars blocked by a single mid-status car. Blocked drivers at the wheel of a higher-status car were found to punish more aggressively than drivers of a lower-status car. Our study employs a combined design to separate the effects of driver and blocker status. In two field experiments, we varied the status of the norm-violating car and recorded the status of the blocked driver's (i.e. the experimental subject's) car. Our results provide evidence that social distance facilitates peer-punishment. Punishment was expressed less readily when the blocked and blocking cars indicated a similar social status.

Keywords: social status; peer-punishment; horn honking; field experiment; road traffic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2017-03-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-tre and nep-ure
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https://boris.unibe.ch/113480/1/Jann-Coutts-2017.pdf working paper (application/pdf)
https://boris.unibe.ch/113480/2/Jann-Coutts-2017-Supplement.pdf documentation of analysis (log files) (application/pdf)
https://boris.unibe.ch/113480/3/honk-1995.dta data file (Stata 11) (application/x-stata)
https://boris.unibe.ch/113480/4/honk-2005.dta data file (Stata 11) (application/x-stata)

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