Facing Yourself: A Note on Self-Image

Armin Falk

No 10606, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Numerous signaling models in economics assume image concerns. These take two forms, as relating either to social image or self-image. While empirical work has identified the behavioral importance of the former, little is known about the role of self-image concerns. We exogenously vary self-image concerns in manipulating self-directed attention and study the impact on moral behavior. The choice context in the experiment is whether subjects inflict a painful electric shock on another subject to receive a monetary payment. Three between-subjects conditions are studied. In the main treatment, subjects see their own face on the decision screen in a real-time video feed. In the two control conditions, subjects see either no video at all or a neutral video. We find that the exogenous increase in self-image concerns significantly reduces the fraction of subjects inflicting pain.

Keywords: moral behavior; self-image (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-hpe and nep-neu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Facing yourself – A note on self-image (2021)
Working Paper: Facing Yourself - A Note on Self-image (2017)
Working Paper: Facing Yourself: A Note on Self-Image (2017)
Working Paper: Facing Yourself: A Note on Self-image (2017)
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