eprintid: 25669
rev_number: 23
eprint_status: archive
userid: 3114
dir: disk0/00/02/56/69
datestamp: 2018-11-28 15:55:08
lastmod: 2019-04-25 11:30:58
status_changed: 2018-11-28 15:55:08
type: workingPaper
metadata_visibility: no_search
creators_name: Schmidt, Robert J.
creators_name: Schwieren, Christiane
creators_name: Sproten, Alec N.
title: Social Norm Perception in Economic Laboratory Experiments: Inexperienced versus Experienced Participants
subjects: 330
divisions: 181000
cterms_swd: laboratory experiments
cterms_swd: selection effects
cterms_swd: learning
cterms_swd: generalizability
cterms_swd: methodology
abstract: We study whether social norm perception in economic laboratory experiments differs between subjects that participate for the first time and subjects that already participated many times. Consistent with previous studies, inexperienced subjects pronounce egalitarianism, while experienced subjects pronounce efficiency and the maximization of their own earnings. Moreover, experienced subjects evaluate exploitation and deception of other individuals in the lab as more appropriate than inexperienced subjects. Field norms also slightly differ between the two groups, but to a lower extent than lab norms. We therefore conclude that learning effects are more important than selection effects for explaining differences between inexperienced and experienced participants. We also conduct exploratory analyses on the relation between lab and field norms and find that behaving unsocial in the lab is considered substantially more appropriate than in the field. This appears inconsistent with the hypothesis that social preferences measured in economic experiments are inflated and indicates a distinction between revealed social preferences and the elicitation of normatively appropriate behavior.
date: 2018-11
id_scheme: DOI
id_number: 10.11588/heidok.00025669
schriftenreihe_cluster_id: sr-3
schriftenreihe_order: 0656
ppn_swb: 1043349847
own_urn: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-256691
language: eng
bibsort: SCHMIDTROBSOCIALNORM201811
full_text_status: public
series: Discussion Paper Series / University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics
volume: 0656
place_of_pub: Heidelberg
citation:   Schmidt, Robert J. ; Schwieren, Christiane ; Sproten, Alec N.  (2018) Social Norm Perception in Economic Laboratory Experiments: Inexperienced versus Experienced Participants.  [Working paper]     
document_url: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/25669/3/Schmidt_Schwieren_Sproten_2018_dp656.pdf