Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/215224 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12828
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Do people only reject interference and keep control in order to affect the outcome? We find that 20% of subjects reject unrequired help and insist on their solution to a problem – although doing so is costly and does not change the result. We tease out the motives by varying the information available to the interfering party (paternalist). Subjects do not resist to show to the paternalist that they were able to find the correct solution. Instead, two motives seem to play a role. First, subjects prefer to have produced or 'authored' the solution themselves. Second, subjects desire to signal their authorship and hence their independence to the paternalist.
Subjects: 
self-esteem
image concerns
autonomy
competence
paternalism
selfdetermination
preference for authorship
JEL: 
C91
D82
D91
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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