Oct 24th, 2019

University of Cologne

Gönül Dogan

Abstract: Humans often favor members of their own group over others, a preference that drives prejudices, discrimination and intergroup conflicts. However, whether such ingroup bias is a result of elevated concerns for one’s group members or diminished concerns for outgroup members remains an open question. We test this in an economic experiment using three natural groups in Ethiopia with varying intergroup relations (neutral vs. enmity) and strengths of group identity (weak vs. strong). For a large proportion of our participants, ingroup bias manifested as concern toward ingroup but not outgroup members. This effect was amplified by a strong group identity, but not by enmity. Our results indicate shared group identity as a primary driver of concerns for others’ welfare.

building 20.30/

room 0.016