Saving Face and Group Identity

Tor Eriksson, Lei Mao () and Marie Claire Villeval
Additional contact information
Lei Mao: School of Insurance, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China

No 1515, Working Papers from Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon

Abstract: Are people willing to sacrifice resources to save one’s and others’ face? In a laboratory experiment, we study whether individuals forego resources to avoid the public exposure of the least performer in their group. We show that a majority of individuals are willing to pay to preserve not only their self- but also other group members’ image. This behavior is frequent even in the absence of group identity. When group identity is more salient, individuals help regardless of whether the least performer is an in-group or an out-group. This suggests that saving others’ face is a strong social norm.

Keywords: Saving face; social image; pro-social behavior; group identity; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 D03 M52 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cdm, nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
ftp://ftp.gate.cnrs.fr/RePEc/2015/1515.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Saving face and group identity (2017)
Working Paper: Saving Face and Group Identity (2017)
Working Paper: Saving Face and Group Identity (2015)
Working Paper: Saving Face and Group Identity (2015)
Working Paper: Saving Face and Group Identity (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gat:wpaper:1515

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