Old age and prosocial behavior: Social preferences or experimental confounds? |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Economics, University of Heidelberg, Bergheimer Str. 58, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany;2. Department of Economics, University of Heidelberg, Bergheimer Str. 20, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany;1. National School of Development, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, China;2. Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg, Box 640, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden;1. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel;2. Université Paris 2 – Lemma, France;1. School of Economics and Finance (Albany), Massey University, PB 102 904, NSMC, 0745 Auckland, New Zealand;2. ATE Research Network, New Zealand;3. Centre for Mathematical Social Science (CMSS), New Zealand;4. Department of Economics, University of Auckland, Owen G Glenn Building, 12 Grafton Road, Auckland 1142, New Zealand;5. Institute of Economics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany;6. Utrecht School of Economics, Utrecht University, Kriekenpitplein 21-22, 3584 EC Utrecht, The Netherlands;1. Leibniz University Hannover, Königsworther Platz 1, 30167 Hannover, Germany;2. DIW Berlin, Mohrenstrasse 58, 10117 Berlin, Germany;3. IAB Nuremberg, Regensburger Straße 104, 90478 Nuremberg, Germany;1. Ariel University, Ariel, Israel;2. COMAS, Rishon LeZion, Israel;1. Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Chair in Empirical Economics, Postbox 4120, D-39016 Magdeburg, Germany;2. Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Chair in Empirical Economics and Health Economics, Postbox 4120, D-39016 Magdeburg, Germany |
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| Abstract: | Experimental and field evidence indicate a positive link between social preferences and age, most strikingly between the elderly and young adults. However, it is possible that the seemingly positive link between age and preferences stems from confounds in experimental procedure. In a dictator game study we find that elderly participants do indeed transfer higher shares of their endowments to their peers than a standard sample of student participants. This result holds good even in treatments accounting for wealth differences and experimenter demand effects. However, we observe no difference in behavior when we compare elderly participants and students who have not previously participated in economic experiments. Accordingly, it is possible that the seemingly stronger social preferences of the elderly are due to confounds associated with lack of experience with economic experiments. In addition, when comparing incentivized and hypothetical transfer decisions, we observe a hypothetical bias in treatments with a “take” framing, but not in treatments with the standard “give” framing. |
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| Keywords: | Social preferences Participant pool Dictator game Age Experimenter demand effect Hypothetical bias |
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