Pub Date : 2026-01-05DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2026.102509
J. Jobu Babin , Haritima S. Chauhan
This paper explores how the source of advice – human or generative AI (genAI) – relates to behavior in three classic bargaining games commonly used to assess prosociality and cooperative welfare gains. Utilizing a novel experiment, we show that the source of advice matters. While both sources of advice increased prosociality, players preferred human advice over that from genAI and were more willing to pay for it. Prosocial behavior was more prevalent when players received human advice — advice increased the probability of adopting the Pareto-optimal strategy by 14% in the stag hunt and boosted contributions of 19% to the public goods game and 8% in dictator. Leveraging language AI advances, we demonstrate that the advice corpora differ significantly. Humans were more objective, specific, intuitive, and norm-oriented; genAI offered guided reasoning and targeted concepts of risk and strategy. Entities adopting genAI technologies should balance AI agency with human oversight and judgment, mindful of behavioral salience and moral credibility.
{"title":"Chatbot or humanaut? How the source of advice impacts prosocial behavior","authors":"J. Jobu Babin , Haritima S. Chauhan","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102509","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102509","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores how the source of advice – human or generative AI (genAI) – relates to behavior in three classic bargaining games commonly used to assess prosociality and cooperative welfare gains. Utilizing a novel experiment, we show that the source of advice matters. While both sources of advice increased prosociality, players preferred human advice over that from genAI and were more willing to pay for it. Prosocial behavior was more prevalent when players received human advice — advice increased the probability of adopting the Pareto-optimal strategy by 14% in the stag hunt and boosted contributions of 19% to the public goods game and 8% in dictator. Leveraging language AI advances, we demonstrate that the advice corpora differ significantly. Humans were more objective, specific, intuitive, and norm-oriented; genAI offered guided reasoning and targeted concepts of risk and strategy. Entities adopting genAI technologies should balance AI agency with human oversight and judgment, mindful of behavioral salience and moral credibility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102509"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145928769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-05DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102508
Siho Park , Syngjoo Choi , Hyuncheol Bryant Kim , Yasuyuki Sawada , Takashi Yamano
This study aims to analyze the behavioral consequences of people’s beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. We employ unique panel data to examine the relationship among belief in misinformation, vaccination behavior, and labor supply of tricycle drivers in the Philippines. We find that individuals with higher risk preference are more likely to hold misinformed beliefs. These beliefs, in turn, are associated with reductions in vaccination and other preventive health behaviors. We also find that beliefs in misinformation delay workplace recovery.
{"title":"Misinformation belief, health behavior, and labor supply during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from tricycle drivers in the Philippines","authors":"Siho Park , Syngjoo Choi , Hyuncheol Bryant Kim , Yasuyuki Sawada , Takashi Yamano","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102508","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102508","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study aims to analyze the behavioral consequences of people’s beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. We employ unique panel data to examine the relationship among belief in misinformation, vaccination behavior, and labor supply of tricycle drivers in the Philippines. We find that individuals with higher risk preference are more likely to hold misinformed beliefs. These beliefs, in turn, are associated with reductions in vaccination and other preventive health behaviors. We also find that beliefs in misinformation delay workplace recovery.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102508"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145980183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102482
Åshild A. Johnsen , Henning Finseraas , Torbjørn Hanson , Andreas Kotsadam
{"title":"Corrigendum to “The malleability of competitive preferences” [Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics Volume 104 (2023) 102015]","authors":"Åshild A. Johnsen , Henning Finseraas , Torbjørn Hanson , Andreas Kotsadam","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102482","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102482","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"120 ","pages":"Article 102482"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145925045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-23DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102504
Penélope Hernández , Antonio J. Morales , Zvika Neeman , Jose M. Pavía
This paper utilizes (an observational approach within) a controlled laboratory experiment to investigate the nature of the privacy paradox. Participants are assigned a type exogenously and engage in online shopping to earn monetary rewards, while their shopping behavior is observed by an AI that aims to learn their type. Our findings indicate that participants willingly disclose significant amounts of private information, and persist in doing so even after receiving explicit information regarding the AI’s ability to learn about their type. However, we observe that the adoption of two mechanisms, namely “explainable AI” and a “privacy APP”, leads participants to adopt privacy-preserving shopping habits. Notably, this change in behavior occurs even in scenarios where the disclosure of private information has no impact on the monetary rewards. Our findings suggest that a plausible reason individuals share extensive personal information online stems from their lack of access to technologies enabling them to engage online while safeguarding their privacy.
{"title":"Exploring the privacy paradox: An experimental investigation of privacy-preserving behavioral responses in online shopping","authors":"Penélope Hernández , Antonio J. Morales , Zvika Neeman , Jose M. Pavía","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102504","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102504","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper utilizes (an observational approach within) a controlled laboratory experiment to investigate the nature of the privacy paradox. Participants are assigned a type exogenously and engage in online shopping to earn monetary rewards, while their shopping behavior is observed by an AI that aims to learn their type. Our findings indicate that participants willingly disclose significant amounts of private information, and persist in doing so even after receiving explicit information regarding the AI’s ability to learn about their type. However, we observe that the adoption of two mechanisms, namely “explainable AI” and a “privacy APP”, leads participants to adopt privacy-preserving shopping habits. Notably, this change in behavior occurs even in scenarios where the disclosure of private information has no impact on the monetary rewards. Our findings suggest that a plausible reason individuals share extensive personal information online stems from their lack of access to technologies enabling them to engage online while safeguarding their privacy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102504"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145903910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-23DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102498
Lorena Heller , Rodrigo López , Ricardo Nogales
Over 30% of female workers are self-employed across Latin America, often without health insurance and pension benefits. To understand why and explore potential solutions, we conducted a laboratory experiment in Bolivia to assess the efficacy of interventions to influence the behavior of self-employed women. Participants were randomly assigned to one of six groups, receiving either a message on pension benefits, a message on health insurance advantages, or reduced enrollment non-monetary cost for savings or retirement plans. Our findings indicate that informative messages alone were effective in increasing voluntary contributions to experimental pension and health insurance schemes. Reductions in time, physical and cognitive fatigue required for enrollment did not lead to a significant increase of voluntary contributions. Moreover, we found that the effectiveness of these interventions varied depending on the type of worker, with high-effort workers being the most responsive.
{"title":"Motivating self-employed women to contribute to social security in Bolivia","authors":"Lorena Heller , Rodrigo López , Ricardo Nogales","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102498","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102498","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Over 30% of female workers are self-employed across Latin America, often without health insurance and pension benefits. To understand why and explore potential solutions, we conducted a laboratory experiment in Bolivia to assess the efficacy of interventions to influence the behavior of self-employed women. Participants were randomly assigned to one of six groups, receiving either a message on pension benefits, a message on health insurance advantages, or reduced enrollment non-monetary cost for savings or retirement plans. Our findings indicate that informative messages alone were effective in increasing voluntary contributions to experimental pension and health insurance schemes. Reductions in time, physical and cognitive fatigue required for enrollment did not lead to a significant increase of voluntary contributions. Moreover, we found that the effectiveness of these interventions varied depending on the type of worker, with high-effort workers being the most responsive.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"120 ","pages":"Article 102498"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-20DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102507
Chandan Kumar Jha , Ghanshyam Sharma
We study the effects of a comprehensive, statewide alcohol ban on attitudes towards spousal violence in the Indian state of Bihar. Using a triple-difference framework, we document significant improvements in attitudes towards spousal violence involving scenarios reflecting an increase in women’s personal freedom, such as going out without telling the husband and arguing with the husband. We observe no change in attitudes involving a wife’s supposedly traditional responsibilities, such as looking after kids, cooking, and having sex with the husband. We argue and provide evidence that alcohol consumption exerts a significant income effect, souring spousal relations that causes men’s attitudes towards wife-beating to worsen. Our findings suggest that the alcohol ban benefited women of weaker sections (SC/ST communities) of society the most. We conclude that while such policies can empower women in certain walks of life, they are insufficient to alter long-rooted patriarchal beliefs.
{"title":"Alcohol Prohibition and attitudes towards spousal violence against women","authors":"Chandan Kumar Jha , Ghanshyam Sharma","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102507","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102507","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study the effects of a comprehensive, statewide alcohol ban on attitudes towards spousal violence in the Indian state of Bihar. Using a triple-difference framework, we document significant improvements in attitudes towards spousal violence involving scenarios reflecting an increase in women’s personal freedom, such as going out without telling the husband and arguing with the husband. We observe no change in attitudes involving a wife’s supposedly traditional responsibilities, such as looking after kids, cooking, and having sex with the husband. We argue and provide evidence that alcohol consumption exerts a significant income effect, souring spousal relations that causes men’s attitudes towards wife-beating to worsen. Our findings suggest that the alcohol ban benefited women of weaker sections (SC/ST communities) of society the most. We conclude that while such policies can empower women in certain walks of life, they are insufficient to alter long-rooted patriarchal beliefs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"120 ","pages":"Article 102507"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-18DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102505
Orhan Erdem, Ragavi Pobbathi Ashok
In this paper, we explore how large language models (LLMs) make financial decisions by systematically comparing their responses with those of human participants across the world. We presented a set of commonly used financial decision-making questions to several leading LLMs, GPT-4, GPT-4o, GPT-5, Gemini 2.0 Flash, and DeepSeek R1, each evaluated across multiple temperatures, yielding a total of 21 model-temperature combinations. We then compared their outputs to human responses drawn from a dataset covering 53 nations. Our analysis reveals three main results. First, in cross-national comparisons, the aggregate responses of LLMs cluster together, forming a distinct group separate from all nations, clearly not WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic), contrary to what has been suggested in previous studies conducted in other contexts. Second, LLMs generally exhibit a risk-neutral decision-making pattern, favoring choices aligned with expected value calculations in lottery-type questions. Third, when evaluating intertemporal trade-offs between present and future rewards, LLMs often generate internally consistent and economically rational responses. These findings contribute to the understanding of how LLMs emulate human-like decision behaviors and highlight potential cultural and training influences embedded within their outputs.
{"title":"LLMs are not weird: Comparing AI and human financial decision-making","authors":"Orhan Erdem, Ragavi Pobbathi Ashok","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102505","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102505","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we explore how large language models (LLMs) make financial decisions by systematically comparing their responses with those of human participants across the world. We presented a set of commonly used financial decision-making questions to several leading LLMs, GPT-4, GPT-4o, GPT-5, Gemini 2.0 Flash, and DeepSeek R1, each evaluated across multiple temperatures, yielding a total of 21 model-temperature combinations. We then compared their outputs to human responses drawn from a dataset covering 53 nations. Our analysis reveals three main results. First, in cross-national comparisons, the aggregate responses of LLMs cluster together, forming a distinct group separate from all nations, clearly not WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic), contrary to what has been suggested in previous studies conducted in other contexts. Second, LLMs generally exhibit a risk-neutral decision-making pattern, favoring choices aligned with expected value calculations in lottery-type questions. Third, when evaluating intertemporal trade-offs between present and future rewards, LLMs often generate internally consistent and economically rational responses. These findings contribute to the understanding of how LLMs emulate human-like decision behaviors and highlight potential cultural and training influences embedded within their outputs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"120 ","pages":"Article 102505"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102501
Paul Clist , Ying-yi Hong
The widely-adopted die rolling experiment measures average lying behaviour. Its original design uses so-called control rolls; subjects should roll twice before reporting their first roll, for which they are paid. The second roll is a control, which is neither paid nor reported. This detail has received little attention in economics, but is the basis for Justified Dishonesty. This popular psychological idea argues observing counterfactuals reduces the internal lying cost. Specifically, it predicts subjects report the higher of their two rolls, switching relevant and irrelevant rolls if it pays to do so. Initial evidence appears compelling as data resemble its predictions. However current tests cannot distinguish between explanations, as we show other models can make virtually identical predictions without invoking counterfactuals. We test Justified Dishonesty’s mechanisms. First, we conduct a placebo test, finding that Justified Dishonesty’s predictions are accurate even when the proposed mechanism is not present. Second, we record both first and second (control) rolls. This enables a more direct test of the mechanism, which is strongly rejected in preregistered tests. Our results imply that whilst control rolls may slightly encourage cheating, they do so by altering standard lying costs rather than through a mechanism of switching rolls. This result underlines the importance of apparently inconsequential experimental features in influencing levels of lying behaviour.
{"title":"Dishonesty and justifications: Evidence from the second roll of a dice game","authors":"Paul Clist , Ying-yi Hong","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102501","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102501","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The widely-adopted die rolling experiment measures average lying behaviour. Its original design uses so-called control rolls; subjects should roll twice before reporting their first roll, for which they are paid. The second roll is a control, which is neither paid nor reported. This detail has received little attention in economics, but is the basis for Justified Dishonesty. This popular psychological idea argues observing counterfactuals reduces the internal lying cost. Specifically, it predicts subjects report the higher of their two rolls, switching relevant and irrelevant rolls if it pays to do so. Initial evidence appears compelling as data resemble its predictions. However current tests cannot distinguish between explanations, as we show other models can make virtually identical predictions without invoking counterfactuals. We test Justified Dishonesty’s mechanisms. First, we conduct a placebo test, finding that Justified Dishonesty’s predictions are accurate even when the proposed mechanism is not present. Second, we record both first and second (control) rolls. This enables a more direct test of the mechanism, which is strongly rejected in preregistered tests. Our results imply that whilst control rolls may slightly encourage cheating, they do so by altering standard lying costs rather than through a mechanism of switching rolls. This result underlines the importance of apparently inconsequential experimental features in influencing levels of lying behaviour.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"120 ","pages":"Article 102501"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145790323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102503
Li Jia , Yi Yuan , Yuxuan Dong , Gerrit Antonides
The effect of trust on household risky financial investments was investigated using a recently developed measure of trust radius. Using data from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies, we show that trust affected both the household decision to invest and the amount of risky investments. These effects were inverted U-shaped. Also, we found that the perceived importance of information from traditional media sources moderated this effect, such that higher importance of information turned the effect of trust on risky investments from inverted U-shaped into U-shaped. The effect of trust was significant only for wealthier households and for households in regions with more inclusive financial development. Several robustness checks and endogeneity analyses corroborated our results. Implications for policy making are included.
{"title":"The effect of trust and information on household risky financial investments","authors":"Li Jia , Yi Yuan , Yuxuan Dong , Gerrit Antonides","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102503","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102503","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The effect of trust on household risky financial investments was investigated using a recently developed measure of trust radius. Using data from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies, we show that trust affected both the household decision to invest and the amount of risky investments. These effects were inverted U-shaped. Also, we found that the perceived importance of information from traditional media sources moderated this effect, such that higher importance of information turned the effect of trust on risky investments from inverted U-shaped into U-shaped. The effect of trust was significant only for wealthier households and for households in regions with more inclusive financial development. Several robustness checks and endogeneity analyses corroborated our results. Implications for policy making are included.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"120 ","pages":"Article 102503"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145790324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102500
William Wical
{"title":"","authors":"William Wical","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102500","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102500","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"120 ","pages":"Article 102500"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145737190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}