Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267469 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15732
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Psychologists claim that being treated kindly puts individuals in a positive emotional state: they then treat an unrelated third party more kindly. Numerous experiments document that subjects indeed 'pay forward' specific behavior. For example, they are less generous after having experienced stinginess. This, however, is not necessarily driven by emotions. Subjects may also imitate what they regard as socially adequate behavior. Here, I present an experiment in which imitation is not possible at the next opportunity to act with a stranger: after being given either a fun or an annoying job, subjects have to decide whether to be generous or not. I find that although subjects who are given the annoying job report more negative emotions than those with the fun job, they do not treat an unrelated third person more unkindly in terms of passing on less money.
Subjects: 
indirect upstream reciprocity
paying-it-forward
chain of unkindness
simple anger
emotional regulation
imitation
JEL: 
D91
C91
D03
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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