UC Davis

We investigate different forms of non-selfish behavior in a laboratory setting, in particular when individual decision making is motivated by moral concerns. Firstly we study the effect of second order beliefs in a donation environment, an effect commonly known as guilt aversion. Results show strong evidence in favor of guilt aversion and some puzzling observations around the preference for revealing expectations. Secondly, we study the effect of previous actions on individual behavior, in the phenomenon called upstream reciprocity. We are able to show that upstream reciprocity supplements trust: a previous positive social interaction makes a subject as prosocial as if they exhibit trust in strangers. Results also exhibit negative upstream reciprocity: reciprocating and unkind act to an unsuspecting third party. Lastly, we propose an experimental intervention to study the effects of morality in the determination of social structure. The experimental design focuses on a modified surplus division game which includes a steward figure who must perform the distribution of the surplus. The goal is to explore the differentiated social arrangements emerging from the pre-existing moral variability in a sample of college students in the United States.