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

Jon Anderson, Stephen Burks, Jeffrey Carpenter, Lorenz Goette, Karsten Maurer, Daniele Nosenzo, Ruth Potter, Kim Rocha and Aldo Rustichini
Additional contact information
Jon Anderson: University of Minnesota, Morris
Karsten Maurer: Iowa State University
Ruth Potter: University of Minnesota, Morris
Kim Rocha: University of Minnesota, Morris
Aldo Rustichini: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

No 2010-22, Discussion Papers from The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham

Abstract: We measure the other-regarding behavior in samples from three related populations in the upper Midwest of the United States: college students, non-student adults from the community surrounding the college, and adult trainee truckers in a residential training program. The first two groups were recruited according to procedures commonly used in experimental economics 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. At the same time, we find a large difference between self-selected students and self-selected adults: the students appear considerably less pro-social.

Keywords: methodology; selection bias; laboratory experiment; field experiment; other-regarding behavior, social preferences, truckload, trucker (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-12
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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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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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:not:notcdx:2010-22

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