Promoting cooperation between different groups remains one of society’s biggest challenges. We examine whether such intergroup cooperation can be fostered through observation by in-group leaders, using a lab-in-the-field experiment in Papua New Guinea. The effect of in-group observation is not clear ex ante, as individuals may both want to show themselves as cooperative (‘cooperation motivation’) and show that they prioritize their own group, for example, by only cooperating with members of their own group and not with others (‘favoritism motivation’). We find that the cooperation motivation is stronger: Observation by the in-group leader increases the share of people who cooperate with members of other communities from 17 percent to 70 percent, thereby eliminating the in-group bias in cooperation. We relate this to a shared understanding among participants that intergroup cooperation is socially desirable. Our findings suggest that policymakers, communities, and organizations may leverage in-group observation to improve intergroup cooperation.
Status: submitted
Making and Breaking Promises: On the Voluntary Public Goods Provision under Cost Uncertainty (Draft available upon request) (with Andreas Lange)
Breaking promises might be easier if one faces unexpectedly high costs for keeping them. Inspired by the pledge and review mechanisms of the Paris Agreement, we investigate the role of cost uncertainty for both initial pledges and the subsequent voluntary provision of public goods. Without a pledge review process, we find that cost uncertainty not only leads to rather conservative pledges, but can also affect the later contribution decisions. A review process increases the pledges, but not necessarily improves later cooperation levels. When cost are initially uncertain, benefits only accrue in homogeneous groups, but not when high and low cost players interact.
Status: R&R at JEBO
People are often motivated to act in a way that sends a favourable signal about their character. This paper proposes a separation of signalling into its direct and indirect components: an observed behaviour can influence a person's image directly when the behaviour itself is image-relevant, and it can influence a person's image indirectly by changing people's beliefs about an unobserved, image-relevant behaviour. In an experiment on charitable giving, we show that individuals engage in indirect signalling to make an ``altruistic bluff'': donors engage in an image-irrelevant behaviour (donating to many charities) to change observers' beliefs about an unobserved, image-relevant behaviour (donating large amounts). This bluff works, as it leads observers to form beliefs that are positively biased.
Status: submitted
A good neighbor - a found treasure: On the voluntary public good provision in overlapping neighborhoods (Draft available upon request) (with Andreas Lange and Lorenzo Romero)
This paper investigates cooperation in a spatial public goods game with overlapping neighborhoods. Inspired by the public discourse on mixed vs. segregated neighborhoods, we investigate the role of varying spatial allocations of rich and poor for the voluntary provision of public goods. The spatial network structure of public goods investments allows for more nuanced investigations of behavioral motives. We find that participants mainly invest in their own neighborhood, yet that investment patterns respond to concerns of inequality and reciprocity. The spatial clustering of endowments is found to affect inequality. In networks where rich and poor are clustered, we observe that it is the rich located at the border who trigger the redistribution to the poor cluster, thereby reducing inequality between, but also generating inequality within the cluster.
Status: submitted
When a community faces a collective risk, some individuals may seek to first protect themselves before contributing to efforts to protect the wider community. In the context of global warming, for example, governments may prioritise local climate change adaptation over global mitigation. One problem with this private approach is that in the long run it tends to be less economically efficient than solving shared problems collectively. With experimental evidence from 30 countries, we explore the factors that influence individuals’ choice between private and collective solutions through a threshold public good game (the collective risk social dilemma) that can be solved either privately or collectively. Groups are made up of individuals whose wealth is determined either by merit or luck, depending on the treatment. Our preliminary findings show that different causes of wealth inequalities result in different beliefs about what are perceived to be fair contributions to the group account across countries. We also report differences in individual contribution behaviour and group outcomes between countries.
Status: R&R at PNAS
Demand for Digital Public Transport Information in the Global South: A Case Study of Cochabamba (Draft available upon request (with Aljoscha Minnich and Marc Hasselwander)
This study provides an in-depth analysis of the impact of a multimodal journey planning app for informal public transport systems on users in Cochabamba, Bolivia. We analyze survey data N=648 collected through the Trufi Association NGO's digital travel app on changes in mobility behavior, satisfaction, and everyday life improvements. Participants report a more frequent use of informal transport 49.7% and an improvement in their everyday lives 75.9% since using the digital travel information app. A high level of satisfaction with the Trufi Association app is found in the entire sample 85.5%. Using ordinal logistic regressions and non-parametric mean tests, it is especially young people and women who benefit most from the availability of digital information. We observe that the main motivation for using informal transport in Cochabamba is its low cost, access to locations and the lack of alternatives. Overall, this study demonstrates the importance of providing journey planning apps for informal transport systems in the Global South, and provides insights into subsequent satisfaction and improvements in daily life.
Status: submitted