The Impact of Social Ties on Group Interactions: Evidence from Minimal Groups and Randomly Assigned Real Groups

Economists are increasingly interested in how group membership affects individual behavior. The standard method assigns individuals to "minimal" groups, i.e. arbitrary labels, in a lab. But real group often involve social interactions leading to social ties between group members. Our experiments compare randomly assigned minimal groups to randomly assigned groups involving real social interactions. While adding social ties leads to qualitatively similar, although stronger, in-group favoritism in cooperation, altruistic norm enforcement patterns are qualitatively different between treatments. Our findings contribute to the micro-foundation of theories of group preferences, and caution against generalizations from "minimal" groups to groups with social context. (JEL C92, D64, D71, Z13)

[1]  J. O'Doherty,et al.  Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others , 2006, Nature.

[2]  Muzafer Sherif,et al.  The Robbers Cave experiment : intergroup conflict and cooperation , 1988 .

[3]  O. J. Harvey,et al.  Intergroup Conflict And Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment , 2013 .

[4]  H. Tajfel,et al.  An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. , 1979 .

[5]  Ernst Fehr,et al.  Third Party Punishment and Social Norms , 2004 .

[6]  Daniel Houser,et al.  Emotion expression in human punishment behavior. , 2005, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[7]  J. Brandts,et al.  Hot vs. Cold: Sequential Responses and Preference Stability in Experimental Games , 1998 .

[8]  E. Fehr,et al.  Cooperation and Punishment in Public Goods Experiments , 1999, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[9]  Yan Chen,et al.  Group Identity and Social Preferences , 2009 .

[10]  C. Daniel Batson,et al.  Is Empathic Emotion a Source of Altruistic Motivation , 1981 .

[11]  Ernst Fehr,et al.  The Neuroeconomics of Mind Reading and Empathy , 2005, The American economic review.

[12]  Matthias Sutter,et al.  Individual Behavior and Group Membership: Comment , 2008 .

[13]  M. Brewer.  The Psychology of Prejudice: Ingroup Love and Outgroup Hate? , 1999 .

[14]  B. Frey,et al.  Social Distance and Other-Regarding Behavior in Dictator Games: Comment , 1999 .

[15]  M. Mobius,et al.  Directed Altruism and Enforced Reciprocity in Social Networks , 2009 .

[16]  Arjaan Wit,et al.  The effect of social categorization on cooperation in three types of social dilemmas. , 1992 .

[17]  M. Stallen,et al.  On the Nature, Modeling, and Neural Bases of Social Ties , 2008, Advances in health economics and health services research.

[18]  Richard L. Miller,et al.  Brewer, Marilynn B , 2013 .

[19]  Stephen Leider,et al.  What Do We Expect From Our Friends , 2009 .

[20]  Martin Dufwenberg,et al.  Generosity, anonymity, gender , 2006 .

[21]  Steven L. Neuberg,et al.  Reinterpreting the empathy-altruism relationship: when one into one equals oneness. , 1997, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  George A. Akerlof,et al.  Economics and Identity , 2000 .

[23]  W. Ickes,et al.  Empathic accuracy in the interactions of male friends versus male strangers. , 1992, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[24]  H. Tajfel,et al.  Social categorization and intergroup behaviour , 1971 .

[25]  Iris Bohnet,et al.  The sound of silence in prisoner's dilemma and dictator games , 1999 .

[26]  A. Rustichini,et al.  Individual Behavior and Group Membership , 2006 .

[27]  Leeat Yariv,et al.  The 1/d Law of Giving , 2010 .

[28]  S. Worchel,et al.  The Social psychology of intergroup relations , 1979 .

[29]  George A. Akerlof,et al.  Identity and the Economics of Organizations , 2005 .

[30]  S. Meier,et al.  The Impact of Group Membership on Cooperation and Norm Enforcement: Evidence Using Random Assignment to Real Social Groups , 2006, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[31]  S. Heap,et al.  The Value of Groups , 2006 .

[32]  V. Smith,et al.  Social Distance and Other-Regarding Behavior in Dictator Games: Reply , 1999 .

[33]  Ernst Fehr,et al.  Group Affiliation and Altruistic Norm Enforcement , 2006 .

[34]  C. Fershtman,et al.  Trust and discrimination in a segmented society: An experimental approach , 2001 .

[35]  Ernst Fehr,et al.  Driving Forces Behind Informal Sanctions , 2005, SSRN Electronic Journal.