Individual Behavior and Group Membership

People who are members of a group and identify with it behave differently from people who perceive themselves as isolated individuals. This paper shows that group membership affects preferences over outcomes, and saliency of the group affects the perception of the environment. We manipulate the sali...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American economic review Vol. 97; no. 4; pp. 1340 - 1352
Main Authors: Charness, Gary, Rigotti, Luca, Rustichini, Aldo
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Nashville American Economic Association 01.09.2007
Subjects:
Audiences
Battle of the sexes
Behavioural economics
Cooperation
Decision making
Economic analysis
Economic psychology
Economic theory
Experiments
Feedback
Games
Group dynamics
Group identity
Group membership
Groups
Human aggression
Individual behaviour
Membership
Memberships
Perceptions
Preferences
Prisoners dilemma
Saliency
Social discrimination
Social identity
Social psychology
Society
Studies
ISSN:0002-8282, 1944-7981
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:People who are members of a group and identify with it behave differently from people who perceive themselves as isolated individuals. This paper shows that group membership affects preferences over outcomes, and saliency of the group affects the perception of the environment. We manipulate the saliency of group membership by letting a player's own group watch as a passive audience as decisions are made, and/or by making part of the payoff common for members of the group. In contrast to the minimal-group paradigm, minimal groups alone do not affect behavior in our strategic environments. However, salient group membership significantly increases the aggressive stance of the hosts (people who have their group members in the audience), and tends to reduce that of the guests.
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ISSN:0002-8282
1944-7981
DOI:10.1257/aer.97.4.1340