Journal
EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS
Volume 16, Issue 2, Pages 170-189Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10683-012-9327-7
Keywords
Methodology; Selection bias; Laboratory experiment; Field experiment; Other-regarding behavior; Social preferences; Prisoner's dilemma; Truckload; Trucker
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We measure the other-regarding behavior in samples from three related populations in the upper Midwest of the United States: college students, non-student adults from the community surrounding the college, and adult trainee truckers in a residential training program. The use of typical experimental economics recruitment procedures made the first two groups substantially self-selected. Because the context reduced the opportunity cost of participating dramatically, 91 % of the adult trainees solicited participated, leaving little scope for self-selection in this sample. We find no differences in the elicited other-regarding preferences between the self-selected adults and the adult trainees, suggesting that selection is unlikely to bias inferences about the prevalence of other-regarding preferences among non-student adult subjects. Our data also reject the more specific hypothesis that approval-seeking subjects are the ones most likely to select into experiments. Finally, we observe a large difference between self-selected college students and self-selected adults: the students appear considerably less pro-social.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available