Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36824 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4963
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Research on public goods mainly focuses its attention on the ability of incentives, beliefs and group structure to affect behaviour in social dilemma interactions. This paper investigates the pure effects of a rather subtle mechanism on social preferences in a one-shot linear public good game. Using priming techniques from social psychology, we activate the concept of cooperation and explore the extent to which this intervention brings about changes in people's voluntary contributions to the public good and self-reported emotional responses. Our findings suggest that priming cooperation increases contribution levels, controlling for subjects' gender. Our priming effect is much stronger for females than for males. This difference can be explained by a shift in subjects' beliefs about contributions. We also find a significant impact of priming on mean positive emotional responses.
Subjects: 
Priming
contributions
beliefs
emotional responses
public goods experiments
JEL: 
C92
D01
H41
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
695.89 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.