Self Selection Does Not Increase Other-Regarding Preferences among Adult Laboratory Subjects, but Student Subjects May Be More Self-Regarding than Adults

Jon E. Anderson (), Stephen Burks, Jeffrey Carpenter, Lorenz Götte (), Karsten Maurer, Daniele Nosenzo, Ruth Potter, Kim Rocha and Aldo Rustichini
Additional contact information
Jon E. Anderson: University of Minnesota, Morris
Lorenz Götte: National University of Singapore
Karsten Maurer: Iowa State University
Ruth Potter: University of Minnesota, Morris
Kim Rocha: University of Minnesota, Morris
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Lorenz Goette

No 5389, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We use a sequential prisoner's dilemma game to measure the other-regarding behavior in samples from three related populations in the upper Midwest of the United States: 100 college students, 94 non-student adults from the community surrounding the college and 1,069 adult trainee truckers in a residential training program. Both of the first two groups were recruited according to procedures commonly used in experimental economics (i.e., via e-mail and bulletin-board advertisements) and therefore subjects self-selected into the experiment. Because the structure of their training program reduced the opportunity cost of participating dramatically, 91% of the solicited trainees participated in the third group, so there was little scope for self-selection in this sample. We find no differences in the elicited other-regarding preferences between the self-selected adults and the adult trainees, suggesting that selection into this type of experiment is unlikely to bias inferences with respect to non-student adult subjects. We also test (and reject) the more specific hypothesis that approval-seeking subjects are the ones most likely to select into experiments. At the same time, we find a large difference between the self-selected students and the self-selected adults from the surrounding community: the students appear considerably less pro-social. Regression results controlling for demographic factors confirm these basic findings.

Keywords: other-regarding behavior; selection bias; laboratory experiment; truckload; social preferences; methodology; field experiment; trucker (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2010-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published - revised version published as 'Self-Selection and Variations in the Laboratory Measurement of Other-Regarding Preferences Across Subject Pools: Evidence From One College Student and Two Adult Samples' in: Experimental Economics, 2013, 16 (2), 170-189

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Working Paper: Self Selection Does Not Increase Other-Regarding Preferences among Adult Laboratory Subjects, but Student Subjects May Be More Self-Regarding than Adults (2010)
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