Doing Bad to Look Good: Negative Consequences of Image Concerns on Pro-social Behavior

Ivan Soraperra, Anton Suvorov, Jeroen van de Ven (j.vandeven@uva.nl) and Marie Villeval (villeval@gate.cnrs.fr)
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Marie Villeval: GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Several studies show that social image concerns stimulate pro-social behavior. We study a setting in which there is uncertainty about which action is pro-social. Then, the quest for a better social image can potentially conflict with genuinely pro-social behavior. This conflict can induce \bad" behavior, where people lower both their own and others' material payoffs to preserve a good image. This setting is relevant for various types of credence goods. For example, recommending an inexpensive treatment reduces the expert's profits and may not satisfy the true needs of the client, but is generally good for the expert's image (as it signals the lack of greed). We test experimentally if people start to act bad in order to look good. We find that people care about their social image, but social image concerns alone do not induce them to act bad. That is, without future interactions, social image concerns do not lead to bad behavior. However, with future interactions, where building up a good image has instrumental value (reputational concerns), we do find evidence of bad behavior in the short run to secure higher earnings in the long run.

Keywords: Social image; credence goods; prosocial behavior; reputation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-hpe and nep-soc
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02285897v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Doing Bad to Look Good: Negative Consequences of Image Concerns on Prosocial Behavior (2019)
Working Paper: Doing Bad to Look Good: Negative Consequences of Image Concerns on Pro-social Behavior (2019)
Working Paper: Doing bad to look good: Negative consequences of image concerns on pro-socal behavior (2019)
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