Self-Selection and Variations in the Laboratory Measurment of Other-Regarding Preferences Across Subject Pools: Evidence from One College Student and Two Adult Samples

Daniele Nosenzo, Jon Anderson, Stephen Burks, Jeffrey Carpenter, Lorenz Gottee, Karsten Maurer, Ruth Potter, Kim Rocha and Aldo Rustichini
Additional contact information
Jon Anderson: Division of Science and Mathematics, University of Minnesota
Lorenz Gottee: Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Lausanne
Karsten Maurer: Department of Statistics, Iowa State University
Ruth Potter: Division of Social Science, University of Minnesota
Kim Rocha: Division of Social Science, University of Minnesota

No 2012-14, 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 use of typical experimental economics recruitment procedures made the first two groups substantially self-selected. Because the context reduced the opportunity cost of participating dramatically, 91% of the adult trainees solicited participated, leaving little scope for self-selection in this sample. We find no differences in the elicited other-regarding preferences between the selfselected adults and the adult trainees, suggesting that selection is unlikely to bias inferences about the prevalence of other-regarding preferences among non-student adult subjects. Our data also reject the more specific hypothesis that approval-seeking subjects are the ones most likely to select into experiments. Finally, we observe a large difference between self-selected college 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, prisoner's dilemma, truckload, trucker. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo and nep-exp
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Self-selection and variations in the laboratory measurement of other-regarding preferences across subject pools: evidence from one college student and two adult samples (2013)
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