Pub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-03DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102476
Raúl López-Pérez , Diego Santamaría
The way individuals perceive free markets plays a pivotal role in shaping policy preferences. In this study, we investigate the potential correlation between beliefs about human pro-sociality and the perception that free markets contribute to overall societal well-being. To explore this relationship, we employ incentivized belief elicitation techniques, capturing individuals' perspectives on the prevalence of self-interested, damaging, and helping behavior across diverse situations in four experimental games. Our findings reveal that the most significant predictor of a high confidence in free markets is an optimistic or uncynical worldview. Specifically, this refers to the belief that disinterested and reciprocal helping behavior occurs frequently. In contrast, interpersonal trust and beliefs about the frequency of some specific pro-social and anti-social behaviors do not influence confidence in free markets.
{"title":"Optimism about human pro-sociality correlates with higher confidence in free markets","authors":"Raúl López-Pérez , Diego Santamaría","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102476","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102476","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The way individuals perceive free markets plays a pivotal role in shaping policy preferences. In this study, we investigate the potential correlation between beliefs about human pro-sociality and the perception that free markets contribute to overall societal well-being. To explore this relationship, we employ incentivized belief elicitation techniques, capturing individuals' perspectives on the prevalence of self-interested, damaging, and helping behavior across diverse situations in four experimental games. Our findings reveal that the most significant predictor of a high confidence in free markets is an optimistic or uncynical worldview. Specifically, this refers to the belief that disinterested and reciprocal helping behavior occurs frequently. In contrast, interpersonal trust and beliefs about the frequency of some specific pro-social and anti-social behaviors do not influence confidence in free markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102476"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145528498","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 : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-10-25DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102472
Zacharias Maniadis
Scientists are under pressure to adhere to best practices for enhancing reproducibility, such as preregistration and data sharing. This tendency will certainly increase with the unfolding reforms in researcher assessment, and it brings new challenges. Heterogeneity in the amenability of different domains to reproducibility-enhancing practices raises an issue of possible inequity: will different scientific domains bear disparate adjustment costs? Is this justified and efficient? To illustrate the problem, we consider recent concerns expressed by experimental economists, namely that they are unfairly burdened relative to other economics domains. Our analysis indicates that such fairness concerns may have merit, but only insofar as research assessment does not fully internalize the costs of adjusting to new practices.
{"title":"Best practices for reproducibility, research assessment reforms, and implications for experimental economists","authors":"Zacharias Maniadis","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102472","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102472","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Scientists are under pressure to adhere to best practices for enhancing reproducibility, such as preregistration and data sharing. This tendency will certainly increase with the unfolding reforms in researcher assessment, and it brings new challenges. Heterogeneity in the amenability of different domains to reproducibility-enhancing practices raises an issue of possible inequity: will different scientific domains bear disparate adjustment costs? Is this justified and efficient? To illustrate the problem, we consider recent concerns expressed by experimental economists, namely that they are unfairly burdened relative to other economics domains. Our analysis indicates that such fairness concerns may have merit, but only insofar as research assessment does not fully internalize the costs of adjusting to new practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102472"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145528423","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 : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-10-16DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102465
Madison Ashworth , Linda Thunström , Klaas van't Veld , Robin A. Thompson , David Johnson
Substance use disorder (SUD) is a public health and economic crisis in the United States, yet funding for recovery services remains limited. We designed an experiment to examine whether presenting people in SUD recovery as having high or low agency impacts how much donors give in support of SUD recovery, and how donors allocate donations across paternalistic and non-paternalistic aid. Participants in our experiment could donate up to $100 to paternalistic and non-paternalistic SUD recovery support (aid to a recovery house and direct aid to those with SUD, respectively). We found that participants donated about $40 to SUD recovery, of which two-thirds was allocated to recovery houses (paternalistic aid). Both the low and high agency treatments increased recovery house donations, and the high agency treatment significantly increased overall donation amounts. In a follow-up experiment, we tested two additional treatments to rule out alternative explanations (besides agency) for our treatment effects, namely empathy towards residents (tested for by eliminating the description of the residents) and perceived recovery housing effectiveness (tested for by using an agency neutral description). The follow-up experiment replicated the main findings and the agency neutral treatment weakly increased overall donations in support of SUD recovery. These findings suggest that donors have strong preferences for providing paternalistic rather than non-paternalistic aid when supporting a stigmatized population. They also suggest that communicating characteristics of a stigmatized population may help increase donations, particularly if beneficiaries’ positive characteristics (such as agency) are emphasized and donors have the option to provide paternalistic aid.
{"title":"Perceived agency and paternalism: Increasing support for people with substance use disorder","authors":"Madison Ashworth , Linda Thunström , Klaas van't Veld , Robin A. Thompson , David Johnson","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102465","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102465","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Substance use disorder (SUD) is a public health and economic crisis in the United States, yet funding for recovery services remains limited. We designed an experiment to examine whether presenting people in SUD recovery as having high or low agency impacts how much donors give in support of SUD recovery, and how donors allocate donations across paternalistic and non-paternalistic aid. Participants in our experiment could donate up to $100 to paternalistic and non-paternalistic SUD recovery support (aid to a recovery house and direct aid to those with SUD, respectively). We found that participants donated about $40 to SUD recovery, of which two-thirds was allocated to recovery houses (paternalistic aid). Both the low and high agency treatments increased recovery house donations, and the high agency treatment significantly increased overall donation amounts. In a follow-up experiment, we tested two additional treatments to rule out alternative explanations (besides agency) for our treatment effects, namely empathy towards residents (tested for by eliminating the description of the residents) and perceived recovery housing effectiveness (tested for by using an agency neutral description). The follow-up experiment replicated the main findings and the agency neutral treatment weakly increased overall donations in support of SUD recovery. These findings suggest that donors have strong preferences for providing paternalistic rather than non-paternalistic aid when supporting a stigmatized population. They also suggest that communicating characteristics of a stigmatized population may help increase donations, particularly if beneficiaries’ positive characteristics (such as agency) are emphasized and donors have the option to provide paternalistic aid.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102465"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145361962","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 : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-09-24DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102449
Yukinori Iwata
When should a policymaker require active choosing or use a default rule to get people to make better choices? Are default rules unjustly manipulative, even if their use improves people’s welfare? This study addresses these questions by evaluating choice architecture in the limited attention with status quo bias model (Dean et al., 2017). We first show that an axiom that justifies default rules in terms of non-manipulation is inherently incompatible with another axiom that requires that revealed preferences be respected. Furthermore, we propose that there exists a welfarist justification for the argument that a policymaker should not set a worse alternative for a person as the default option, even if he or she gets better off. Based on these results, we define act-consequentialism and libertarian paternalism as evaluations of choice architecture and discuss their policy implications for policymakers.
什么时候政策制定者应该要求人们主动选择，或者使用默认规则来让人们做出更好的选择？默认规则是不公正的操纵吗，即使它们的使用提高了人们的福利？本研究通过使用现状偏见模型评估有限注意力中的选择架构来解决这些问题（Dean et al., 2017）。我们首先表明，一个以非操纵来证明默认规则的公理与另一个要求尊重揭示的偏好的公理本质上是不相容的。此外，我们提出存在福利主义的理由，即政策制定者不应该为一个人设置一个更坏的选择作为默认选择，即使他或她变得更好了。基于这些结果，我们将行为后果主义和自由意志家长式主义定义为选择架构的评估，并讨论了它们对决策者的政策含义。
{"title":"Active choosing or default rules? A revealed preference approach","authors":"Yukinori Iwata","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102449","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102449","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>When should a policymaker require active choosing or use a default rule to get people to make better choices? Are default rules unjustly manipulative, even if their use improves people’s welfare? This study addresses these questions by evaluating choice architecture in the limited attention with status quo bias model (Dean et al., 2017). We first show that an axiom that justifies default rules in terms of non-manipulation is inherently incompatible with another axiom that requires that revealed preferences be respected. Furthermore, we propose that there exists a welfarist justification for the argument that a policymaker should not set a worse alternative for a person as the default option, even if he or she gets better off. Based on these results, we define act-consequentialism and libertarian paternalism as evaluations of choice architecture and discuss their policy implications for policymakers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102449"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145218962","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 : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-03DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102478
Xuezheng Chen , Yang Sun , Hongru Tan
This study introduces a new experimental framework to examine how team incentives and social learning contribute to dishonest behavior within groups. The experimental framework can be applied to measure dishonesty both at the aggregate and individual levels, and it can be used to study the spread of unethical behavior under various scenarios. The analytical results show that both social learning and team incentives can significantly promote dishonesty, independently or in combination. When both social learning and team incentives are present, they can interact and amplify each other's impact on promoting dishonesty. Moreover, we find that while both honesty and dishonesty are contagious, dishonest behavior is more readily imitated by individuals. This implies that social learning is self-serving, hence, moral standards are subject to being progressively undermined in the process of social learning, when there is no punishment on unethical behaviors. Furthermore, the analysis on round-to-round interactions show that social learning’s effect on dishonesty emerges gradually without team incentives. However, team incentives amplify and accelerate this effect, influencing behavior immediately.
{"title":"Lying in groups: Team incentives and social learning","authors":"Xuezheng Chen , Yang Sun , Hongru Tan","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102478","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102478","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study introduces a new experimental framework to examine how team incentives and social learning contribute to dishonest behavior within groups. The experimental framework can be applied to measure dishonesty both at the aggregate and individual levels, and it can be used to study the spread of unethical behavior under various scenarios. The analytical results show that both social learning and team incentives can significantly promote dishonesty, independently or in combination. When both social learning and team incentives are present, they can interact and amplify each other's impact on promoting dishonesty. Moreover, we find that while both honesty and dishonesty are contagious, dishonest behavior is more readily imitated by individuals. This implies that social learning is self-serving, hence, moral standards are subject to being progressively undermined in the process of social learning, when there is no punishment on unethical behaviors. Furthermore, the analysis on round-to-round interactions show that social learning’s effect on dishonesty emerges gradually without team incentives. However, team incentives amplify and accelerate this effect, influencing behavior immediately.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102478"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145527994","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 : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-11-07DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102475
C. Mollier , A. García-Gallego , T. Jaber-Lopez , S. Zaccagni
We investigate how competition outcomes and the opponent’s gender affect the decision to compete again, using a lab experiment. Our experimental design adopts the strategy method to measure individuals’ reactions to winning or losing. Subjects indicate their willingness to compete again based on performance gaps with their opponents. Furthermore, gender is inferred from participant-selected-names, allowing us to explore the role of the opponent’s gender. Against our main hypothesis, after winning against a female opponent men exhibit a decrease in their willingness to compete again. The primary mechanism underlying men’s behavior appears to be the presence of inaccurate beliefs—specifically, expecting to win but ultimately losing. Our main finding is that men with inaccurate beliefs, when competing against women, are significantly more likely to re-enter the competition and to outperform their female opponents in subsequent rounds.
{"title":"Gender of the opponent and reaction to competition outcomes","authors":"C. Mollier , A. García-Gallego , T. Jaber-Lopez , S. Zaccagni","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102475","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102475","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigate how competition outcomes and the opponent’s gender affect the decision to compete again, using a lab experiment. Our experimental design adopts the strategy method to measure individuals’ reactions to winning or losing. Subjects indicate their willingness to compete again based on performance gaps with their opponents. Furthermore, gender is inferred from participant-selected-names, allowing us to explore the role of the opponent’s gender. Against our main hypothesis, after winning against a female opponent men exhibit a decrease in their willingness to compete again. The primary mechanism underlying men’s behavior appears to be the presence of inaccurate beliefs—specifically, expecting to win but ultimately losing. Our main finding is that men with inaccurate beliefs, when competing against women, are significantly more likely to re-enter the competition and to outperform their female opponents in subsequent rounds.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102475"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145528499","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}
This study explores the effectiveness of behavioral interventions, specifically edutainment rooted in environmental education, in fostering pro-environmental behavior (PEB) among primary school students. Through a lab-in-the-field experiment, the research focuses on the impact of an environmental edutainment game on children's monetary donations to environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) as PEB. Findings suggest that having played an environmental edutainment game does not significantly affect the amount donated, though it appears to influence the likelihood of making a donation, particularly among male and students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Besides, female participants and students with a higher socio-economic and cultural profile exhibit higher likelihood to donate and higher effective donations, regardless of the edutainment intervention.
{"title":"Environmental edutainment games and pro-environmental behavior of primary school students: Evidence from a field experiment","authors":"Emmanuel Dubois , Stefano Farolfi , Lisette Hafkamp-Ibanez , Sébastien Roussel","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102474","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102474","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores the effectiveness of behavioral interventions, specifically edutainment rooted in environmental education, in fostering pro-environmental behavior (PEB) among primary school students. Through a lab-in-the-field experiment, the research focuses on the impact of an environmental edutainment game on children's monetary donations to environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) as PEB. Findings suggest that having played an environmental edutainment game does not significantly affect the amount donated, though it appears to influence the likelihood of making a donation, particularly among male and students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Besides, female participants and students with a higher socio-economic and cultural profile exhibit higher likelihood to donate and higher effective donations, regardless of the edutainment intervention.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102474"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145528500","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 : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-09-11DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102445
David Boto-García , Alessandro Bucciol
This paper examines the role of peers’ performance feedback on individual productivity in competitive environments. We specifically study the link between individual performance and the past performance of teammates and opposing teams. We use a dataset on all the penalty kicks in knockout stages of World Cup and European Cup competitions in male soccer from 1976 to 2024. We find that the probability of scoring a penalty kick is 17.9 percentage points lower after the opponent team scored a kick but does not change with the outcome of a teammate’s penalty kick. Our evidence supports the notion that individuals’ underperformance when feeling pressure (“choking under pressure”) is primarily driven by feedback on competitors’ performance, rather than by teammates’ performance.
{"title":"Peers’ performance feedback: Evidence from soccer penalty shootouts","authors":"David Boto-García , Alessandro Bucciol","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102445","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102445","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the role of peers’ performance feedback on individual productivity in competitive environments. We specifically study the link between individual performance and the past performance of teammates and opposing teams. We use a dataset on all the penalty kicks in knockout stages of World Cup and European Cup competitions in male soccer from 1976 to 2024. We find that the probability of scoring a penalty kick is 17.9 percentage points lower after the opponent team scored a kick but does not change with the outcome of a teammate’s penalty kick. Our evidence supports the notion that individuals’ underperformance when feeling pressure (“choking under pressure”) is primarily driven by feedback on competitors’ performance, rather than by teammates’ performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102445"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145104975","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 : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-09-04DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102438
Grant S. Shields , Trey Malone
Perhaps all of us have heard of the term “comfort eating,” and many of us likely engage in the practice occasionally. Despite an intuitive understanding of at least one influence of stress on food choices, the influence of stress has largely gone unconsidered in economic models of food choice and consumer behavior. A growing body of literature, from a wide array of disciplines, has highlighted the importance of considering stress within food choices and consumer behavior. In this review, we survey this growing literature, focusing as narrowly as neurobiological mechanisms linking stress to food choices and as broadly as population-level studies that have examined such influences. Considered together, the literature suggests that even a mild nationwide stressor may alter food consumption patterns. Such effects have nontrivial implications, ranging from production considerations for major snack manufacturers to public health for policymakers. We conclude with recommendations for future work on the subject, including work aiming to understand food choices on a national scale.
{"title":"A narrative review of stress, food choices, and eating behavior: Integrating psychoneuroendocrinology and economic decision-making","authors":"Grant S. Shields , Trey Malone","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102438","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102438","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Perhaps all of us have heard of the term “comfort eating,” and many of us likely engage in the practice occasionally. Despite an intuitive understanding of at least one influence of stress on food choices, the influence of stress has largely gone unconsidered in economic models of food choice and consumer behavior. A growing body of literature, from a wide array of disciplines, has highlighted the importance of considering stress within food choices and consumer behavior. In this review, we survey this growing literature, focusing as narrowly as neurobiological mechanisms linking stress to food choices and as broadly as population-level studies that have examined such influences. Considered together, the literature suggests that even a mild nationwide stressor may alter food consumption patterns. Such effects have nontrivial implications, ranging from production considerations for major snack manufacturers to public health for policymakers. We conclude with recommendations for future work on the subject, including work aiming to understand food choices on a national scale.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102438"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145105010","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 : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-09-30DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102453
Annamaria Nese , Patrizia Sbriglia , Luigi Senatore
This study examines the relationship between trust, social capital, and migration decisions through theoretical and experimental analyses of how social perception influences behaviour in trust games. Small societies are more likely to develop higher levels of cooperation and trust due to closer social bonds and informal mechanisms of social control. Also, related researches on emigration in some European countries stress the negative impact of such phenomenon both on human (brain drain hypothesis) and on social capital. In this paper, we take a different perspective. We conducted a field experiment in small towns of Southern Italy (2023), recruiting both migrants and non-migrants. Our evidence demonstrates that individuals who chose to stay exhibit higher levels of trust compared to those who left their community of origin. These results prompt the development of a theoretical model in which migration operates as a social perception filter affecting trust. In this framework, the greater trust observed among non-migrants is interpreted not simply as a consequence of staying, but as a pre-existing trait that may have influenced their decision not to leave. The main contribution of this study is to build a psychological game that formalizes how social perception mechanisms interact with migration decisions.
{"title":"Go your own way? social perception, migration and trust","authors":"Annamaria Nese , Patrizia Sbriglia , Luigi Senatore","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102453","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102453","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the relationship between trust, social capital, and migration decisions through theoretical and experimental analyses of how social perception influences behaviour in trust games. Small societies are more likely to develop higher levels of cooperation and trust due to closer social bonds and informal mechanisms of social control. Also, related researches on emigration in some European countries stress the negative impact of such phenomenon both on human (brain drain hypothesis) and on social capital. In this paper, we take a different perspective. We conducted a field experiment in small towns of Southern Italy (2023), recruiting both migrants and non-migrants. Our evidence demonstrates that individuals who chose to stay exhibit higher levels of trust compared to those who left their community of origin. These results prompt the development of a theoretical model in which migration operates as a social perception filter affecting trust. In this framework, the greater trust observed among non-migrants is interpreted not simply as a consequence of staying, but as a pre-existing trait that may have influenced their decision not to leave. The main contribution of this study is to build a psychological game that formalizes how social perception mechanisms interact with migration decisions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102453"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145265486","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}
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