Physical Distance and Cooperativeness Towards Strangers

Leonie Kühl () and Nora Szech
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Leonie Kühl: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

No 2017-087, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: Cooperativeness among genetically unrelated humans remains a major puzzle in the social sciences. We explore the causal impact of physical distance on willingness to help. In a field setting, participants decide about supporting local refugees at the dispense of money to themselves. We vary physical distance only, and keep other factors such as cultural distance fixed. The data shows that an increase in local physical distance decreases willingness to donate. A laboratory experiment confirms this finding. We further explore the causal roles of exposure (in the field) and of larger distances (in the lab) with a total of 475 participants.

Keywords: cooperativeness; physical distance; strangers; morally relevant behavior; local neighborhoods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C93 D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
Note: MIP
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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Kuhl_S ... -cooperativeness.pdf First version, December, 2017 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Physical Distance and Cooperativeness Towards Strangers (2017)
Working Paper: Physical distance and cooperativeness towards strangers (2017)
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