Identity, morals, and taboos: beliefs as assets

Distinguishing Underlying, Inferred, and Expressed Preferences, Attitudes, and Beliefs: An Absence of (Mental) Flatness?

People's choices of food and drink, the attitudes they express, and the beliefs that they state are influenced by their political and other identities. At the same time, people's everyday choices depend on the context of available options in ways that are difficult to explain in terms of the choosers' preferences and beliefs. Such phenomena provoke various questions. Do partisans or conspiracy theorists really believe what they are saying? Given the systematic inconsistency of their choices, in what sense do consumers prefer the items they purchase? More generally, how "flat" is the mind-do we come to decision-making and choice with pre-existing preferences, attitudes, and beliefs, or are our explanations for our behavior mere post-hoc narratives? Here, we argue that several apparently disparate difficulties are rooted in a failure to separate psychologically different types of preferences, attitudes, and beliefs. We distinguish between underlying, inferred, and expressed preferences. These preferences may be expressed in different coordinate spaces and hence support different types of explanatory generalizations. Choices that appear inconsistent according to one type of preference can appear consistent according to another, and whether we can say that a person "really" prefers something depends on which type of preference we mean. We extend the tripartite classification to the case of attitudes and beliefs, and suggest that attributions of attitudes and beliefs may also be ambiguous. We conclude that not all of the mental states and representations that govern our behavior are context-dependent and constructed, although many are.

Bottling it? Consumer responses to less environmentally friendly products: A choice experiment for water in plastic packaging in the UK

Consumers have several options when confronted with less environmentally friendly packaging like water in single use plastic bottles - they can ignore environmental concerns and proceed with a purchase, refuse to buy any such product, seek out a less damaging version like water in biodegradable bottles, and/or engage in offsetting/compensatory behavior such as donating to a charity. Understanding how consumers value these options is an important academic and management challenge. To address this, a stated choice experiment is employed. It considers the preferences of a representative sample of UK consumers for bottled water with the attributes: packaging (PET versus biodegradable), charity donation (environment/social/none), origin (domestic/foreign), and price. Data were analyzed using random parameter logit modeling, incorporating a latent variable into the model, which captured environmentally conscious behavior. Based on the model estimations, domestic origin, biodegradable packaging, and charity donations (both for environmental and social causes) positively affect decision-makers' perceived utility. In keeping with moral consistency theory, as consumers' level of nature relatedness and green consumption values increase, biodegradable packaging becomes more preferable than non-biodegradable packaging, and the likelihood of refusing to purchase any bottled water option, rises, respectively. In contrast, high levels of materialist values are associated with lower environmental consciousness. The paper provides evidence to managers regarding consumers' valuation of more environmentally friendly packaging, and strategies to increase uptake.

The more the better? Synergies of prosocial interventions and effects on behavioural spillovers

Incentivising prosocial and pro-environmental behaviours is a sensitive endeavour. While behavioural change is urgently needed to mitigate the consequences of climate change, monetary interventions often have negative side effects. Such interventions are prone to motivation crowding, which can impede lasting positive behavioural change and stimulate negative temporal spillovers to other prosocial behaviours. In this study, we investigate whether implementing monetary interventions as part of policy mixes can mitigate these negative side effects. In an online experiment involving 3782 participants, we test whether the use of nudges that make personal and social norms salient can counteract the motivation-crowding effect and explore the effects of such policy mixes on temporal spillovers. We find that policy mixes of norm-based nudges and monetary incentives are more effective at stimulating engagement in targeted prosocial behaviour than no intervention when controlling for sample characteristics. Analysing the temporal spillover effects of these interventions reveals that policy mixes can alleviate the tendency of monetary incentives to negatively affect subsequent prosocial behaviour. This indicates that norm-based nudges are suitable complements to monetary interventions, facilitating long-lasting positive effects.

Correcting Misperceptions about Support for Social Distancing to Combat COVID-19

Can informing people of high community support for social distancing encourage them to do more of it? We randomly assigned a treatment correcting individuals' underestimates of community support for social distancing. In theory, informing people that more neighbors support social distancing than expected encourages free-riding and lowers the perceived benefits from social distancing. At the same time, the treatment induces people to revise their beliefs about the infectiousness of COVID-19 upwards; this perceived infectiousness effect as well as the norm adherence effect increase the perceived benefits from social distancing. We estimate impacts on social distancing, measured using a combination of self-reports and reports of others. While experts surveyed in advance expected the treatment to increase social distancing, we find that its average effect is close to zero and significantly lower than expert predictions. However, the treatment's effect is heterogeneous, as predicted by theory: it decreases social distancing where current COVID-19 cases are low (where free-riding dominates), but increases it where cases are high (where the perceived-infectiousness effect dominates). These findings highlight that correcting misperceptions may have heterogeneous effects depending on disease prevalence.

Measuring norm pluralism and perceived polarization in US politics

Recent research has shown how norms shape political and economic decision-making. Much of this work assumes that a single norm influences the behavior of all people, but in fact, many situations are characterized by the existence of competing normative viewpoints. We apply a method for measuring belief in the simultaneous existence of multiple norms. Such multiplicity arises naturally when norms are associated with distinctive groups, and thus political polarization can be characterized, in part, as a product of diverging norms between groups. We thus assess the validity of our measurement technique by testing whether it can recover polarization on seven salient political issues on which US Democrats and Republicans tend to hold different views. We then compare the norms elicited by our method to the norms of Democrats and Republicans elicited in a separate sample using an established and validated-but methodologically less rich-measurement approach. Our study uncovers a wide range of co-existing views between and within political groups. Partisans understand their group's norms and hold personal views that align with them. They can also recognize the diversity and polarization in US public opinion by identifying norms specific to political parties and acknowledging the variety of views within their own parties, which may indicate internal divisions. This research underscores the importance of nuanced approaches to political norms that go beyond party lines. By acknowledging a plurality of views, we can encourage productive discussions and bridge ideological divides.

Morality and political economy from the vantage point of economics

Political disagreement is increasingly moral, rather than economic, in nature, raising the question how the fields of political economy and moral psychology relate to each other. While these disciplines were initially deeply intertwined, cross-disciplinary exchange became rare throughout the 20th century. More recently, the tide has shifted again-social scientists of different backgrounds recognized that morality and politico-economic outcomes influence each other in rich bidirectional ways. Because psychologists and economists possess distinct and complementary skill sets, part of this movement consists of productive "economic imperialism"-economists leveraging their empirical toolkit to test and substantiate theories from moral psychology at scale or in the wild. To illustrate this, I present two case studies of recent economics research on prominent ideas in moral psychology. First is the theory that morality is ultimately functional-that it evolved as a form of "psychological and biological police" to enforce cooperation, such as in economic production and exchange. Second is that the structure of morality shapes political views and polarization, including on economic issues such as taxation and redistribution. I conclude from these case studies that economists have much to gain from integrating more ideas from moral psychology, and that moral psychologists will be able to make an even more compelling case if they engage with research in economics.

Ecolabels and the economic recession

We examine the effect of the 2008 economic recession on consumers' observed expenditures for eco-labelled grocery products. Traditional price theory predicts that consumers change their spending during an economic downturn and we would expect the sales share of eco-labelled products to fall since these are relatively more expensive than non-labelled products. We use supermarket loyalty card data from the UK and show that the recession had widely different effects on the expenditure share of different eco-labelled grocery products. We confirm, empirically, that expenditure shares on organic products declined over the time period under study but the expenditures share for fair-trade products increased over the same period. We evaluate alternative models of decision making to explain our results, viz., a salience model and a model of reputation signalling. We find that both of these models give a plausible explanation of our empirical results.

Information Avoidance and Image Concerns

A rich literature finds that individuals avoid information and suggests that avoidance is driven by image concerns. This paper provides the first direct test of whether individuals avoid information because of image concerns. We build on a classic paradigm, introducing control conditions that make minimal changes to eliminate the role of image concerns while keeping other key features of the environment unchanged. Data from 6,421 experimental subjects shows that image concerns play a role in driving information avoidance, but a role that is substantially smaller than one might have expected.

Commitment to honesty oaths decreases dishonesty, but commitment to another individual does not affect dishonesty

Social commitment influences our behavior in various ways. Recent studies suggest that social commitment to other individuals or groups can increase dishonest behavior while feeling commitment to moral norms might decrease it. Here we show in a pre-registered series of 7 studies investigating the influence of social commitment on dishonest behavior by sampling 7566 participants across three countries (the UK, the US, and Mexico) that commitment to moral norms via honesty oaths might decrease dishonesty (OR = 0.79 [0.72, 0.88]). To the contrary, we found no credible evidence that social commitment to other individuals increases dishonesty (OR = 1.08 [0.97, 1.20]). Finally, we observed that commitment to moral norms was less effective if participants were committed to another individual at the same time (OR = 0.95 [0.86, 1.06]). Our findings point at the potential effectiveness of honesty oaths, while the observed effect sizes were small compared to previous studies.

Towards machine learning for moral choice analysis in health economics: A literature review and research agenda

BACKGROUND

Discrete choice models (DCMs) for moral choice analysis will likely lead to erroneous model outcomes and misguided policy recommendations, as only some characteristics of moral decision-making are considered. Machine learning (ML) is recently gaining interest in the field of discrete choice modelling. This paper explores the potential of combining DCMs and ML to study moral decision-making more accurately and better inform policy decisions in healthcare.

METHODS

An interdisciplinary literature search across four databases - PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Arxiv - was conducted to gather papers. Based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guideline, studies were screened for eligibility on inclusion criteria and extracted attributes from eligible papers. Of the 6285 articles, we included 277 studies.

RESULTS

DCMs have shortcomings in studying moral decision-making. Whilst the DCMs' mathematical elegance and behavioural appeal hold clear interpretations, the models do not account for the 'moral' cost and benefit in an individual's utility calculation. The literature showed that ML obtains higher predictive power, model flexibility, and ability to handle large and unstructured datasets. Combining the strengths of ML methods with DCMs has the potential for studying moral decision-making.

CONCLUSIONS

By providing a research agenda, this paper highlights that ML has clear potential to i) find and deepen the utility specification of DCMs, and ii) enrich the insights extracted from DCMs by considering the intrapersonal determinants of moral decision-making.

Is employment during motherhood a 'value changing experience'?

We study whether the experience of 'employment during motherhood' (EDM) exerts an effect on attitudes towards the welfare effects of EDM, which proxy gender norms with regards to employment. We examine unique evidence from a large, representative, and longitudinal data set that collects attitudinal data over about a decade in the United Kingdom. We draw on an instrumental variable (IV) strategy that exploits variation in local labour markets using a Bartik instrument for employment to address the potential endogeneity of EDM experience in explaining attitudes. We find that both childless women who work and mothers who do not work are more likely to agree with the statement that 'pre-school children suffer if their mothers work', which we interpret as more traditional gender values. However, this is not the case for women who work and have children. These findings suggest that motherhood confirms individuals' priors, and suggest that EDM is a value preserving rather than a value changing experience. These results suggest that the so-called 'motherhood penalty' in employment trajectories cannot be fully explained by a change in attitudes after giving birth.

Men. Male-biased sex ratios and masculinity norms: evidence from Australia's colonial past

We document the historical roots and contemporary consequences of masculinity norms-beliefs about the proper conduct of men. We exploit a natural experiment in which convict transportation in the 18 th and 19 th centuries created a variegated spatial pattern of sex ratios across Australia. We show that in areas with heavily male-biased convict populations, relatively more men volunteered for World War I about a century later. Even at present these areas remain characterized by more violence, higher rates of male suicide and other forms of preventable male mortality, and more male-stereotypical occupational segregation. Moreover, in these historically male-biased areas, more Australians recently voted against same-sex marriage and boys-but not girls-are more likely to be bullied in school. We interpret these results as manifestations of masculinity norms that emerged due to intense local male-male competition. Once established, masculinity norms persisted over time through family socialization as well as peer socialization in schools.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10887-023-09223-x.

Moral awareness polarizes people's fairness judgments

How does moral awareness affect people's fairness judgments? Using a simple model of identity utility, I predict that if individuals differ in their personal fairness ideals (equality versus efficiency), reflecting over what one thinks is right should not only make people's choices less selfish but also more polarized. On the other hand, people's desire for conforming with the behavior of their peers could help mitigate polarization. I test these conjectures in a laboratory experiment, in which participants can pursue different fairness ideals. I exogenously vary (i) whether participants are prompted to state their moral opinions behind the veil of ignorance, and (ii) whether they are informed about the behavior of their peers. I find that moral introspection makes choices more polarized, reflecting even more divergent moral opinions. The increase in polarization coincides largely with a widening of revealed gender differences as introspection makes men's choices more efficiency-oriented and women's more egalitarian. Disclosing the descriptive norm of the situation is not capable of mitigating the polarization.

“The Exorcist”: a grounded theory on how individuals avoid unethical requests at work

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand how individuals seek to reduce the occurrence of unethical requests at work and the effects of such strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors built a grounded theory through semi-structured interviews with 65 individuals who worked for companies involved in the Brazilian corruption scandal called Operation Car Wash.

Findings

The interviewees reported that they use two central strategies to avoid unethical requests: explicit moral communication (directly stating that they are not willing to adhere to an unethical request) and implicit communication (expressing such a refusal through moral symbols). Both strategies signal the morality of the communicator and lead the possible proponent of an unethical request to perceive a greater probability of being reported and, thus, avoid making such an unethical request. However, while explicit moral communication affects the perceived morality of the individual who would possibly make an unethical request, implicit (symbolic) moral communication does not. As a consequence, the risks of retaliation for making a moral communication are greater in the case of explicit moral communication, entailing that implicit moral communication is more effective and safer for the individual who wants to avoid unethical requests.

Originality/value

This paper broadens the literature on business ethics and moral psychology by shifting its focus from what organizations and leaders can do to prevent unethical behavior to what leaders can actively do to protect themselves from unethical requests.

The Firm as a Subsociety: Purpose, Justice, and the Theory of the Firm

Research in the “theory of the firm” tradition has often characterized firms as subeconomies, in which economic exchange is shaped by a central authority. We propose an expanded view of firms as subsocieties, in which authority is also responsible for establishing principles that shape cooperation among members. We draw on insights from political theory, sociology, and, to a lesser degree, legal theory to discuss how employees become members of subsocieties by exchanging rights, such as formal control over their work, for the benefits of membership. With this rights exchange, subsociety members develop expectations that those in positions of authority will use their control to define and sustain principles of justice and common purpose consistent with members’ moral sentiments. This view suggests expanded roles for authority and firm boundaries from what are incorporated into standard theories of the firm. These expanded roles have implications both for internal governance and for the boundary itself: When considering boundary changes, leaders must weigh both the economic and the social consequences of their decision.

Funding: C. Gartenberg recognizes financial support from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. T. Zenger recognizes the financial support of the Eccles School at the University of Utah.

Narrative Economics, Public Policy and Mental Health

General public's mental health can be affected by the public policy response to a pandemic threat. Britain, Italy and Sweden have had very distinct approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic: early lock-down, delayed lock-down and no-lock-down. We develop a novel narrative economics of language Culture-Based Development approach, and using Google trend data for seed keywords, death and suicide, we reach two main conclusions: (i) while countries had a pre-existing culturally relative disposition towards death-related anxiety, the sensitivity to the public policy towards COVID-19 was also country specific; (ii) however, significant spillovers from one specific national lockdown public policy to another country's mental health are identified.

The experimental research on leaders and cooperative behavior

Leaders are critical to a team or organization, their behavior affects employees' psychology and their work effort, and then affects the efficiency and innovation of the team or organization. Previous studies have focused on the role model of leaders, ignoring the guiding role of leaders with different efforts. This paper introduces leader decision-making into the game of public goods to investigate the exemplary role of leaders in behavior decision-making. It divides them into three types by setting the investment amount of leaders to explore the mechanism of leaders' influence in behavior decision-making and behavior change of team members when facing the transformation of leaders with different investment types. This research can provide a significant reference value for enterprises and social organizations on how to play the role of leaders.

Loss aversion, the endowment effect, and gain-loss framing shape preferences for noninstrumental information

We often talk about interacting with information as we would with a physical good (e.g., "consuming content") and describe our attachment to personal beliefs in the same way as our attachment to personal belongings (e.g., "holding on to" or "letting go of" our beliefs). But do we in fact value information the way we do objects? The valuation of money and material goods has been extensively researched, but surprisingly few insights from this literature have been applied to the study of information valuation. This paper demonstrates that two fundamental features of how we value money and material goods embodied in Prospect Theory-loss aversion and different risk preferences for gains versus losses-also hold true for information, even when it has no material value. Study 1 establishes loss aversion for noninstrumental information by showing that people are less likely to choose a gamble when the same outcome is framed as a loss (rather than gain) of information. Study 2 shows that people exhibit the endowment effect for noninstrumental information, and so value information more, simply by virtue of "owning" it. Study 3 provides a conceptual replication of the classic "Asian Disease" gain-loss pattern of risk preferences, but with facts instead of human lives, thereby also documenting a gain-loss framing effect for noninstrumental information. These findings represent a critical step in building a theoretical analogy between information and objects, and provide a useful perspective on why we often resist changing (or losing) our beliefs.

Social preferences or sacred values? Theory and evidence of deontological motivations

Recent advances in economic theory, largely motivated by experimental findings, have led to the adoption of models of human behavior where decision-makers take into consideration not only their own payoff but also others' payoffs and any potential consequences of these payoffs. Investigations of deontological motivations, where decision-makers make their choice based on not only the consequences of a decision but also the decision per se, have been rare. We provide a formal interpretation of major moral philosophies and a revealed preference method to distinguish the presence of deontological motivations from a purely consequentialist decision-maker whose preferences satisfy first-order stochastic dominance.

Increasing Youth Political Engagement with Efficacy Not Obligation: Evidence from a Workshop-Based Experiment in Zambia

In many places around the world, young voters participate in politics at low rates. What factors might increase youth political participation? We investigate one possibility: exposure to a religious message that emphasizes the possibility of change through faithful action. We argue that this message, which is common in religious groups that attract large numbers of youth around the world, addresses several barriers to political participation by young voting-age adults. Working in collaboration with the major religious coalitions in Zambia, we randomly assigned young adults (18-35 years old) into civic engagement workshops. Identical informational material, based on pre-existing, non-partisan curricula, was presented in each workshop. Workshops then concluded with one of two randomly assigned, pre-recorded Christian motivational messages based on existing religious programming in Zambia. In some workshops, the concluding message emphasized a Christian obligation to work towards the greater good. In other workshops, the message emphasized the power of faith to make change in the world. We found that the power of faith message moved workshop participants to be more willing to participate in protest, to disavow political violence, and to criticize other people who choose not to participate, relative to pre-workshop measures and to an information-only condition. By contrast, the message focused on an obligation to the greater good did not change political participation, resulting in lower willingness to participate in politics than the power of faith message. We discuss implications for youth political participation and the study of religion and politics.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11109-022-09794-2.

Material Benefits Crowd Out Moralistic Punishment

Across four experiments with U.S.-based online participants (N = 1,495 adults), I found that paying people to engage in moralistic punishment reduces their willingness to do so. In an economic game with real stakes, providing a monetary bonus for engaging in third-party punishment of unfair offers nearly cut participants' willingness to do so in half. In judgments of hypothetical transgressions, participants viewed punishers who accepted payment as having worse character and rated the punishers' punitive actions as less morally acceptable. Willingness to engage in punishment was restored if participants were offered large enough payments or were told that punishment accompanied by payment still signals moral virtue. Data were consistent with a signal-corruption mechanism whereby payment interferes with the prosocial signal that moralistic punishment provides about a punisher's motives. These findings have implications for the cultural evolution of punishment and suggest that understanding perpetrators' sociomoral incentives is essential to implementing conflict-reduction policies.

Deontological and Utilitarian Responses to Sacrificial Dilemmas Predict Disapproval of Sin Stocks

Abstract. Investors sometimes invest in the so-called “sin” stocks that cause social harm as a by-product of doing business (e.g., tobacco companies). Three studies examined whether people who reject harm and maximize outcomes in sacrificial dilemmas approve less of investing in sin (but not conventional) stocks. We employed process dissociation to assess harm-rejection (deontological) and outcome-maximization (utilitarian) response tendencies independently. Study 1 ( N = 337) assessed moral approval of stocks: People scoring higher on either deontological or utilitarian response tendencies disapproved of investing in sin, but not conventional, stocks. Study 2 ( N = 402) replicated this effect for willingness to invest in companies abandoning (vs. retaining) socially responsible policies. Study 3 ( N = 558) confirmed earlier findings using more conservative measures. These findings clarify the psychology of morally questionable investment decisions.

Fostering participation in digital contact tracing

Digital contact tracing is a promising digital public health intervention to manage epidemics. However, in order to reach its full potential, the technology has to be widely adopted and used. During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, this has not necessarily been the case. We review the literature with a focus on how participation in digital contact tracing could be fostered and provide policy recommendations on how to increase its adoption and usage as well as recommendations for further research.

Still want to be a doctor? Medical student dropout in the era of COVID-19

This research examines the intention of undergraduate medical students to withdraw from the medical profession and pursue a career in a different field upon graduation during COVID-19. We leverage the first and most comprehensive nationwide survey for medical education in China, which covered 98,668 enrolled undergraduate students from 90 out of 181 Chinese medical schools in 2020. We focus on these students' self-reported intention to leave the healthcare industry (the "dropout intention") before and after the outbreak of the epidemic. We also designed a randomized experiment to test whether and to what extent medical students dropout intention responded to an information nudge that highlighted the prosociality of health professionals in the fight against the virus. Results from a difference-in-differences model and a student fixed effect model suggest that after the onset of COVID-19, the proportion of Chinese undergraduate medical students with a dropout intention declined from 13.7% to 6.8%. Furthermore, the nudge information reduced the intent-to-drop-out probability by 0.8 additional percentage points for students in their early college years. There was large heterogeneity underneath the treatment effect. Specifically, we find that prior dropout intention and exposures to COVID-19-related information tended to mitigate the nudge effects. Data on students' actual dropout outcomes support our findings.

Incentivizing household recycling crowds out public support for other waste management policies: A long-term quasi-experimental study

Waste management is a prototypical issue that requires multiple policy measures to function together. Yet, the compatibility between waste management policies is vastly understudied. In this paper, we used a longitudinal quasi-experimental methodology to identify the effect of an incentivized household recycling program in Anji, China on public support for other waste management policies. The program was evaluated six and fifteen months after it was implemented, respectively. We found that, despite its positive influence on residents' self-reported recycling behavior, the program reduced support for policy measures concerning waste prevention and harmless disposal. Consistent with the theoretical propositions, such crowding-out was driven by the decrease in personal commitment to pro-environmental goals, perceived issue importance of environmental sustainability, and perceived importance of individual contribution to environmental goods. Further evidence suggests that the crowding-out effect attenuated but did not disappear in the long run. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the holistic relationships between waste management policies, indicating that incentive-based recycling policies can interact negatively with other waste policies by reducing public support for them.

The Effects of Nudges: One-Shot Only? Exploring the Temporal Spillover Effects of a Default Nudge

Nudges, such as defaults, are generally found to be effective in guiding immediate behavioural decisions. However, little is known about whether the effect of a nudge can be lasting, meaning that it spills over to subsequent similar choices without the presence of a nudge. In three experiments, we explored the temporal spillover effects of a default nudge. The results of Experiments 1 (N = 1,077) and 2 (N = 1,036) suggest that nudging participants into completing a longer questionnaire affected their decision for the same behaviour a day later without the presence of a nudge. However, nudging participants into a healthier food choice in Experiment 3 (N = 969) did not result in such a temporal spillover effect. The results indicated that participants' change in attitude towards the nudged behaviour may partly explain the temporal spillover effects. These findings suggest that for some, but not all behaviours, default nudges may have the potential to yield temporal spillover effects and warrant a further investigation of boundary conditions and facilitators of the spillover effects of nudges.

Will Costliness Amplify the Signalling Strength of Past Pro-Environmental Behaviour? Exploratory Study on Autonomy

Research has shown that the extent to which previous environmental actions are linked to people's environmental self-identity influences subsequent environmentally-friendly behaviour. The study empirically examined the influences of recycling efforts on subsequent pro-environmental behaviour by PLS (partial least squares) structural equation modelling based on the survey data of 426 respondents in China. The results indicate that recycling efforts have a positive effect on pro-environmental behaviour through the mechanism of feelings of pride and environmental self-identity. We hypothesise that past pro-environmental behaviour is more likely to promote an individual's environmental self-identity when the behaviour is incurred with a higher costliness. However, the results show that only when individuals autonomously perform costly recycling behaviour, the signalling strength of previous recycling efforts is higher to promote environmental self-identity. On the contrary, the high costliness weakens the signalling strength of previous recycling efforts through producing negative emotions. Our results show that when reminding people of their past pro-environmental behaviour in order to promote future pro-environmental behaviour, it is useful to emphasize the autonomously taken costliness of behaviour as it can strongly signal that one is a pro-environmental person, thus as to strengthen environmental self-identity.

Actions and the Self: I Give, Therefore I am?

Self-signaling models predict less selfish behavior in a probabilistic giving setting as individuals are expected to invest in a pro-social identity. However, there is also substantial evidence that people tend to exploit situational excuses for selfish choices (for instance, uncertainty) and behave more selfishly. We contrast these two motivations (identity management and self-deception) experimentally in order to test which one is more prevalent in a reciprocal giving setting. Trustees' back transfer choices are elicited for five different transfer levels of the trustor. Moreover, we ask trustees to provide their back transfer schedule for different scenarios that vary the implementation probability of the back transfer. This design allows us to identify subjects who reciprocate and analyze how these reciprocators respond when self-image relevant factors are varied. Our results indicate that self-deception is prevalent when subjects make the back transfer choice. Twice as many subjects seem to exploit situational excuses than subjects who appear to invest in a pro-social identity.

JEL classifications: C72, C91, D80, D91

Neurocomputational models of altruistic decision-making and social motives: Advances, pitfalls, and future directions

This article discusses insights from computational models and social neuroscience into motivations, precursors, and mechanisms of altruistic decision-making and other-regard. We introduce theoretical and methodological tools for researchers who wish to adopt a multilevel, computational approach to study behaviors that promote others' welfare. Using examples from recent studies, we outline multiple mental and neural processes relevant to altruism. To this end, we integrate evidence from neuroimaging, psychology, economics, and formalized mathematical models. We introduce basic mechanisms-pertinent to a broad range of value-based decisions-and social emotions and cognitions commonly recruited when our decisions involve other people. Regarding the latter, we discuss how decomposing distinct facets of social processes can advance altruistic models and the development of novel, targeted interventions. We propose that an accelerated synthesis of computational approaches and social neuroscience represents a critical step towards a more comprehensive understanding of altruistic decision-making. We discuss the utility of this approach to study lifespan differences in social preference in late adulthood, a crucial future direction in aging global populations. Finally, we review potential pitfalls and recommendations for researchers interested in applying a computational approach to their research. This article is categorized under: Economics > Interactive Decision-Making Psychology > Emotion and Motivation Neuroscience > Cognition Economics > Individual Decision-Making.

What's Behind Image? Toward a Better Understanding of Image-Driven Behavior

Our experimental design systematically varies image concerns in a dictator/trust game. In comparison to the baseline, we either decrease the role of self-image concerns (by providing an excuse for selfish behavior) or increase the role of social-image concerns (by conveying the transfer choice to a third person). In this set up, we analyze the underlying processes that motivate subjects to give less/more. Controlling for distributional preferences and expectations, our results indicate that moral emotions (guilt and shame) are a significant determinant of pro-social behavior. The disposition to guilt explains giving in the baseline, while it does not when an excuse for selfish behavior exists. Subjects' disposition to shame is correlated to giving when their choice is public and they can be identified. JEL Classifications: C72, C91, D03, D80.

Designing Promotional Incentives to Embrace Social Sharing: Evidence from Field and Online Experiments

Despite the increasing connectivity between consumers and the large volume of social shares supported by digital technologies, there is an absence of research systematically investigating how firms can design promotional incentives that jointly consider their consumers as both purchasers and sharers. In this study, we examine whether and how firms can leverage consumers’ social connections and engage consumers to share promotional incentives. In collaboration with a leading online deal platform, we report a large-scale randomized field experiment to test the effectiveness of different incentive designs (varying in the shareability and scarcity of promotion codes) in driving social sharing senders’ purchases and successful referrals. We find that the different incentive designs have distinct impacts on the purchase and referral outcomes. Specifically, providing senders with one non-shareable promo code significantly increases their own purchase likelihood, compared to the other experimental groups. In contrast, senders who receive one shareable promo code are less likely to purchase themselves yet are more likely to make successful referrals. Surprisingly, the incentive design with two promo codes containing one non-shareable code and one shareable code increases neither the senders’ purchases nor their successful referrals. Managerially, we estimate that although the one non-shareable promo code group derives the highest net revenue for the experimental period, the one shareable promo code group derives the highest customer lifetime value for the firm from the new customers acquired through the successful referrals. We further conducted two online experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk that replicate the field experiment’s findings and explore the underlying mechanisms of the observed relationships. We find that exclusivity perception and social motives triggered by the incentive designs with one promo code mediate their effects on senders’ self-purchases and successful referrals, respectively, and explain the ineffectiveness of two promo codes. Our study contributes to the bodies of literature on IT-enabled social sharing and social promotions, providing implications for firms on how to design promotional incentives that accommodate the dual role of consumers as purchasers and sharers.

Culture and mental health resilience in times of COVID-19

This paper aims to clarify the role of culture as a public good that serves to preserve mental health. It tests the evolutionary hypothesis that cultural consumption triggers a microeconomic mechanism for the self-defense of mental health from uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic offers a natural experiment of cultural consumption under increased uncertainty. Using primary data from a pilot survey conducted online during the pandemic and applying Probit and Heckman selection models, the study analyzes levels of happiness and propensity to help others. The results suggest that past consumption of culture is associated with higher happiness levels during crises. Moreover, spontaneous cultural practices (such as group singing) during times of uncertainty are associated with an increase in the pro-social propensity to help others. These findings highlight culture as a tool for promoting mental health at the micro level and social capital resilience at the aggregate level.

Social mindfulness is normative when costs are low, but rapidly declines with increases in costs

As a complement to high-cost cooperation as assessed in economic games, the concept of social mindfulness focuses on low-cost acts of kindness. While social mindfulness seems quite natural, performed by many most of the time (reaching a level of 60–70 percent), what happens if such acts become more costly, and if costs become more salient? The present research replicates the prevalence of social mindfulness when costs are salient, but low. Yet we show that, with small increments in costs, the vast majority no longer exhibits social mindfulness. This holds even if we keep the outcomes for self high in comparison with the beneficiary. We conclude that the literature on social mindfulness should pay attention to cost. Clearly, if being socially mindful comes with high costs, this is not what most people are prepared to do. In contrast as long as costs are low and not salient, social mindfulness seems natural and normative.

Are Recycling People Also Saving? Costliness Matters

In view of the fact that vigorously promoting recycling has become a viable means to promote sustainable development, it is important to better understand the impact of recycling efforts on subsequent resource saving behavior. This research empirically examines the effects of recycling efforts on subsequent resource saving by analyzing the survey data of 356 college students in China. The recycling efforts, environmental self-identity and feeling of pride were measured using existing scales while saving behaviors and recycling cost were measured by developing new scales. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed to test the structural relationships among recycling efforts, environmental self-identity, feeling of pride, and saving behaviors. Further, the moderation role of recycling cost was tested. The results showed that (1) saving behaviors could be classified into two types based on their costliness; (2) recycling efforts have a positive effect on costless saving behaviors, while having a negative effect on costly saving behaviors; (3) both the positive and negative effect of recycling efforts on resource saving is mediated by pride feeling and environmental self-identity; and (4) recycling cost negatively moderates the effects of recycling efforts on pride feeling. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.

Understanding the excess psychosis risk in ethnic minorities: the impact of structure and identity

PURPOSE

Psychotic disorders, which are associated with substantially increased morbidity and mortality, are up to five times more common in some ethnic minority groups compared with the white majority in Western countries. This long-standing and well-replicated public mental health disparity has hitherto largely eluded adequate explanation. We argue that this might have arisen in part due to the lack of attention given to theoretical work characterising the complex and multidimensional social nature of ethnicity by those epidemiological investigations that have dominated the literature.

METHODS

To bridge this gap, we draw on theoretical and empirical literature from across the social sciences considering the ontological significance of ethnicity (as biology, migration, racialised structures and identity) and its relationships with psychotic disorders to illuminate probable drivers of excess psychosis risk.

RESULTS

The largest gains in our theoretical understanding of excess psychosis risk among ethnic minority groups are to be made by considering ethnicity in relation to disempowerment resulting from structural and identity-based exclusion. The former is readily studied through the social gradient in health: socioeconomic disadvantage clusters in some ethnic minorities and increases the risk of poor health outcomes, including psychosis. Furthermore, limitations on identity acquisition and expression imposed by the ethnic majority can further contribute to alienate ethnic minorities and increase psychosocial disempowerment (a lack of control over one's life).

CONCLUSION

We theorise that structural and identity-based exclusion act as the primary drivers shaping variation in rates of psychotic disorder by ethnic minority status.

Value-Free Analysis of Values: A Culture-Based Development Approach

Recent literature in the fields of Political Economy, New Institutional Economics and New Cultural Economics has converged in the use of empirical methods, offering a series of consistent quantitative analysis of values. However, an overarching positive methodology for the value-free study of values has not yet precipitated. Building on a mixed systematic-integrative literature review of a pluralistic variety of perspectives from Adam Smith’s ‘Impartial’ Spectator to modern moral philosophy, the current study suggests the Culture-Based Development (CBD) approach for analyzing the economic impact of values on socio-economic development. The CBD approach suggests that the value-free analysis needs: (i) to use positive methods to classify a value as local or universal; (ii) to examine the existence of what is termed the Aristotelian Kuznets curve of values (i.e., to test for the presence of an inflection point in the economic impact from the particular value) and (iii) to account for Platonian cultural relativity (i.e., the cultural embeddedness expressed in the geographic nestedness of the empirical data about values). The paper details the theoretical and methodological cornerstones underpinning the proposed CBD approach for value-free analysis of values.

Does Partisanship Shape Investor Beliefs? Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

We use party-identifying language—like “liberal media” and “MAGA”—to identify Republican users on the investor social platform StockTwits. Using a difference-in-difference design, we find that partisan Republicans remain relatively unfazed in their beliefs about equities during the COVID-19 pandemic, while other users become considerably more pessimistic. In cross-sectional tests, we find Republicans become relatively more optimistic about stocks that suffered the most during the COVID-19 crisis, but more pessimistic about Chinese stocks. Finally, stocks with the greatest partisan disagreement on StockTwits have significantly more trading in the broader market, explaining 28% of the increase in stock turnover during the pandemic.

Losing Prosociality in the Quest for Talent? Sorting, Selection, and Productivity in the Delivery of Public Services

We embed a field experiment in a nationwide recruitment drive for a new health care position in Zambia to test whether career benefits attract talent at the expense of prosocial motivation. In line with common wisdom, offering career opportunities attracts less prosocial applicants. However, the trade-off exists only at low levels of talent; the marginal applicants in treatment are more talented and equally prosocial. These are hired, and perform better at every step of the causal chain: they provide more inputs, increase facility utilization, and improve health outcomes including a 25 percent decrease in child malnutrition.

Delayed negative effects of prosocial spending on happiness

Does prosocial behavior promote happiness? We test this longstanding hypothesis in a behavioral experiment that extends the scope of previous research. In our Saving a Life paradigm, every participant either saved one human life in expectation by triggering a targeted donation of 350 euros or received an amount of 100 euros. Using a choice paradigm between two binary lotteries with different chances of saving a life, we observed subjects' intentions at the same time as creating random variation in prosocial outcomes. We repeatedly measured happiness at various delays. Our data weakly replicate the positive effect identified in previous research but only for the very short run. One month later, the sign of the effect reversed, and prosocial behavior led to significantly lower happiness than obtaining the money. Notably, even those subjects who chose prosocially were ultimately happier if they ended up getting the money for themselves. Our findings revealed a more nuanced causal relationship than previously suggested, providing an explanation for the apparent absence of universal prosocial behavior.

Do Immigrants Assimilate More Slowly Today than in the Past?

Using millions of historical census records and modern birth certificates, we document that immigrants assimilated into US society at similar rates in the past and present. We measure cultural assimilation as immigrants giving their children less foreign names after spending more time in the United States, and show that immigrants erase about one-half of the naming gap with natives after 20 years both historically and today. Immigrants from poorer countries choose more foreign names upon first arrival in both periods but are among the fastest to shift toward native-sounding names. We find substantial cultural assimilation for immigrants of all education levels.

Dietary Knowledge and Myths Vary by Age and Years of Schooling in Pregnant Mexico City Residents

Pregnancy is a stage in a woman’s life when she is more open to receiving health advice, especially related to diet. However, women are often caught between receiving scientifically unfounded myths and concrete empirical knowledge. Culturally perpetuated myths may be acted upon more than knowledge, but research on these concepts, especially in the Americas, is scarce. This cross-sectional study aimed to describe the frequency of diet and nutrition myths and knowledge and describe the associated factors in pregnant mothers receiving care in Mexico City. A total of 695 pregnant adults and 322 pregnant adolescents participated in this study, in which they responded to a questionnaire on nutrition and diet myths, knowledge, and practice during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The myths were examined individually, but for the purposes of statistical analysis, a score was obtained. We compared means of variables that could be associated to myth and knowledge scores, then calculated linear and logistical regressions. Forty-six percent of participants had below the mean myth scores. Ninety-two percent of participants had a knowledge score below the mean. Age (β = 0.025, SE 0.007, 95% CI 0.011–0.040, p = 0.001) and years of education (β = 0.166, SE 0.024, 95% CI 0.119–0.213, p = 0.001) explained the myth’s score, while age explained the knowledge score (β = 0.011, SE 0.020, 95% CI −0.032–−0.008, p = 0.002). We found that although most women reported not believing in the myths, they acted on them. The probability of practicing such myths as “You must eat for two during pregnancy” was associated with being an adolescent (OR 1.76, p = 0.001) and being married (OR 1.47, p = 0.007), “Not satisfying cravings leave a mark on the infant’s body” with being adolescent (OR 1.59, p = 0.003) and low socioeconomic level (OR 1.41, p = 0.038), “A frightened or angry mother should not nurse her baby” with being adult (OR 2.61, p = 0.004), and “Drinking atole or beer enhances breast milk production” with being single (OR 2.07, p = 0.001). The probability of not acting on some knowledge was associated with being an adolescent (p ≤ 0.003) and having a high school education or below (p ≤ 0.046). Almost all of our participants held at least one myth about nutrition and diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding; younger participants showed a higher frequency of holding myths. Years of schooling and age were associated with acting on myths and not acting on correct knowledge.

The Effect of Expert Feedback on Antibiotic Prescribing in Pediatrics: Experimental Evidence

Background. Inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics, which is common in pediatric care, is a key driver of antimicrobial resistance. To mitigate the development of resistance, antibiotic stewardship programs often suggest the inclusion of feedback targeted at individual providers. Empirically, however, it is not well understood how feedback affects individual physicians’ antibiotic prescribing decisions. Also, the question of how physicians’ characteristics, such as clinical experience, relate to antibiotic prescribing decisions and to responses to feedback is largely unexplored. Objective. To analyze the causal effect of descriptive expert feedback (and individual characteristics) on physicians’ antibiotic prescribing decisions in pediatrics. Design. We employed a randomized, controlled framed field experiment, in which German pediatricians (n=73) decided on the length of first-line antibiotic treatment for routine pediatric cases. In the intervention group (n=39), pediatricians received descriptive feedback in form of an expert benchmark, which allowed them to compare their own prescribing decisions with expert recommendations. The recommendations were elicited in a survey of pediatric department directors (n=20), who stated the length of antibiotic therapies they would choose for the routine cases. Pediatricians’ characteristics were elicited in a comprehensive questionnaire. Results. Providing pediatricians with expert feedback significantly reduced the length of antibiotic therapies by 10% on average. Also, the deviation of pediatricians’ decisions from experts’ recommendations significantly decreased. Antibiotic therapy decisions were significantly related to pediatricians’ clinical experience, risk attitudes, and personality traits. The effect of feedback was significantly associated with physicians’ experience. Conclusion. Our results indicate that descriptive expert feedback can be an effective means to guide pediatricians, especially those who are inexperienced, toward more appropriate antibiotic prescribing. Therefore, it seems to be suitable for inclusion in antibiotic stewardship programs.

Civic honesty around the globe

Civic honesty is essential to social capital and economic development but is often in conflict with material self-interest. We examine the trade-off between honesty and self-interest using field experiments in 355 cities spanning 40 countries around the globe. In these experiments, we turned in more than 17,000 lost wallets containing varying amounts of money at public and private institutions and measured whether recipients contacted the owners to return the wallets. In virtually all countries, citizens were more likely to return wallets that contained more money. Neither nonexperts nor professional economists were able to predict this result. Additional data suggest that our main findings can be explained by a combination of altruistic concerns and an aversion to viewing oneself as a thief, both of which increase with the material benefits of dishonesty.