Reciprocal beliefs and out-group cooperation: evidence from a public good game

Brañas-Garza, Pablo and Kernohan, David and Oyediran, Olusegun and Rivas, M. Fernanda (2014): Reciprocal beliefs and out-group cooperation: evidence from a public good game.

Abstract

This experimental study examines latent racial prejudice toward out-groups among 152 Spanish college students when they make guesses about the contributions of others in a public good game. Prejudice is examined firstly from the perspective of a two-sided, implicitly-held belief toward any of the specified out-groups: Africans, Asians, Latin Americans and Western. Secondly, from an ordinal perspective of highest negative (positive) prejudice. Lastly models of racial beliefs are fitted for the four out-groups. Results suggest subjects expect Africans and Latin Americans to be less cooperative, but Asians and Western to be more cooperative, than they actually are. We also find that racial prejudices do not have unique determinants across the out-groups under study, nor do the determining factors work in similar directions.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Beliefs, Implicit Cognition, Multiculturalism, Prejudice, Public Good Game, Stereotypes
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C91 - Laboratory, Individual Behavior; H - Public Economics > H4 - Publicly Provided Goods > H41 - Public Goods; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J15 - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants ; Non-labor Discrimination

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