Large Effects of Small Cues: Priming Selfish Economic Decisions

Snir, Avichai and Levy, Dudi and Wang, Dian and Chen, Haipeng (Allan) and Levy, Daniel (2026): Large Effects of Small Cues: Priming Selfish Economic Decisions. Forthcoming in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization No. Forthcoming

Abstract

We use survey experiments to demonstrate that manipulating participants’ perceptions of the context can affect their decisions. We ran three survey experiments in the U.S. and Israel with participants from both economics and non-economics majors. In the experiments, participants face a tradeoff between profit maximization (market norm) and workers’ welfare (social norm). Our experimental setup enables us to discriminate between the self-selection and indoctrination effects. Existing studies find that economics and non-economics students make different choices in such situations, which the studies argue is because of differences in personality traits between economics students and others. While such differences might exist, we argue that context also plays an important role. Using priming to manipulate the context, we demonstrate that when participants receive cues signaling that their decision has an economic context, both economics and non-economics students tend to maximize profits. When participants receive cues emphasizing social norms, on the other hand, both economics and non-economics students are less likely to maximize profits. We find that the role of context in determining behavior is at least as large as the baseline differences between economics and non-economics students.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Market Norms; Social Norms; Self-Selection; Indoctrination; Self-Interest; Economic Man; Rational Choice; Fairness; Experimental Economics; Laboratory Experiments; Priming; Economists vs. Non-Economists
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A11 - Role of Economics ; Role of Economists ; Market for Economists; A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A12 - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines; A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A13 - Relation of Economics to Social Values; A - General Economics and Teaching > A2 - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics > A20 - General; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B4 - Economic Methodology > B40 - General; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C90 - General; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C91 - Laboratory, Individual Behavior; D - Microeconomics > D0 - General > D01 - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles; D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics > D63 - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement; D - Microeconomics > D9 - Intertemporal Choice > D91 - Intertemporal Household Choice ; Life Cycle Models and Saving; P - Economic Systems > P1 - Capitalist Systems > P10 - General

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