Can religious priming induce truthful preference revelation?

Stachtiaris, Spiros and Drichoutis, Andreas and Nayga, Rodolfo and Klonaris, Stathis (2011): Can religious priming induce truthful preference revelation?

Abstract

We examine whether religious priming can induce more truthful preference revelation in valuation research. Using induced value second price Vickrey auctions in both hypothetical and non-hypothetical contexts, our results suggest that religious priming can indeed induce more truthful bidding and eliminate hypothetical bias in hypothetical contexts. In non-hypothetical contexts where there are real economic incentives, religious priming induces similar truthful bidding as the absence of religious priming, implying that the use of real economic incentives is sufficient in producing truthful valuations. Our findings have significant implications for the use of religious priming in stated preference or contingent valuation studies.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: willingness-to-pay (WTP), Vickrey auction, hypothetical bias, religious priming
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics > D12 - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C90 - General; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C91 - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

References

Ahmed, A.M. 2009. Are Religious People More Prosocial? A Quasi-Experimental Study with Madrasah Pupils in a Rural Community in India Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 48(2):368-374(367).

Ahmed, A.M., & O. Salas. 2008. In the Back of Your Mind: Subliminal Influences of Religious Concepts on Prosocial Behavior. Working Papers in Economics No 331, ISSN 1403-2465 (online).

Argyle, M. 2000. Psychology and Religion. Oxford,UK:Routledge.

Ariely, D. 2009. Predictably irrational. Harper Collins publishers: London.

Balwin, M.W. 1990. Priming Relationship Schemas: My Advisor and the Pope Are Watching Me from the Back of My Mind. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 26:435-454.

Bargh, J.A., M. Chen, & L. Burrows. 1996. Automaticity of Social Behavior: Direct Effects of Trait Construct and Stereotype Activation on Action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71 (2):230-244.

Bargh, J.A., P.M. Gollwitzer, A. Lee-Chai, K. Barndollar, & R. Trotschel. 2001. The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 81(6):1014-1027.

Benjamin, D.J., J.J. Choi, & G.W. Fisher. 2010. Religious Identity and Economic Behavior. . NBER Working Paper No. 15925.

Bernardin, A. 2006. Religion and Behavior. Skeptic 12(3):22-25.

Burton, A.C., K.S. Carson, S.M. Chilton, & W.G. Hutchinson. 2007. Resolving Questions About Bias In Real And Hypothetical Referenda. Environ Resource Econ 38:523-525.

Cummings, R.G., S. Elliott, G.W. Harrison, & J. Murphy. 1997. Are hypothetical referenda incentive compatible? Journal of Political Economy 105:609-621.

Deconchy, J.-P. 1980. Othodoxie religieuse et sciences humanies. Religious orthodoxy and human sciences.The Hague, the Netherlands:Mouton.

Dijksterhuis, A., & A. van Knippenberg. 1998. The Relation Between Perception and Behavior, or How to Win a Game of Trivial Pursuit. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74(4):865-877.

Epley, N., & T. Gilovich. 1999. Just Going Along: Nonconscious Priming and Conformity to Social Pressure. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 35(6):578-589.

Fischbacher, U. 2007. z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments. Experimental Economics 10:171-178.

Gneezy, U., & A. Rustichini. 2000. A fine is a Price. The Journal of Legal Studies 29(1):1-17.

Grasmick, H.G., R.J. Bursik, & J.K. Cochran. 1991. "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's": Religiosity and taxpayers' inclinations to cheat. Sociological Quarterly 32(2):251-266.

Greiner, B. 2004. An Online Recruitment System for Economic Experiments. In: Kurt Kremer, Volker Macho (Hrsg.): Forschung und wissenschaftliches Rechnen. GWDG Bericht 63. Ges. für Wiss. Datenverarbeitung, Göttingen, 79-93.

Inzlicht, M., & A.M. Tullett. 2010. Reflecting on God: Religious Primes Can Reduce Neurophysiological Response to Errors. Psychological Science 21(8):1184- 1190.

Jacquemet, N., R.-V. Joule, S. Luchini, & J.F. Shogren 2010. Preference Elicitation under Oath.

Jacquemet, N., R.-V. Joule, S. Luchini, & J.F. Shogren 2011. Do people always pay less than they say? Testbed laboratory experiments with IV and HG values. Journal of Public Economic Theory 13(5): 857-882.

Johnson, M.K., W.C. Rowatt, & J. LaBouff. 2010. Priming Christian Religious Concepts Increases Racial Prejudice. Social Psychological and Personality Science 1(2):119-126.

List, J.A., & C.A. Gallet. 2001. What Experimental Protocol Influence Disparities Between Actual and Hypothetical Stated Values? Environmental and Resource Economics 20:241-254.

Little, J., & R. Berrens. 2004. Explaining Disparities between Actual and Hypothetical Stated Values: Further Investigation Using Meta−Analysis. Economics Bulletin 3(6):1-13.

Loomis, J., T. Brown, B. Lucero, & G. Peterson. 1996. Improving validity experiments of contingent valuation methods: results of efforts to reduce the disparity of hypothetical and actual willingness to pay Land Economics 72:450-461.

Malhotra, D. 2010. (When) are religious people nicer? Religious salience and the “Sunday Effect” on pro-social behavior. Judgment and Decision Making 5(2):138-143.

Mazar, N., O. Amir, & D. Ariely. 2008. The dishonesty of honest people: A theory of self-concept maintenance. . Journal of Marketing Research 45:633-644.

McDaniel, S.W., & J.J. Burnett. 1990. Consumer Religiosity and Retail Store Evaluative Criteria. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 18:101-112.

McKay, R., C. Efferson, H. Whitehouse, & E. Fehr. 2010. Wrath of God: religious primes and punishment. Proc. R. Soc. B published online before print November 24, 2010, doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.2125.

Mozumder, P., & R. Berrens. 2007. Investigating hypothetical bias: induced-value tests of the referendum voting mechanism with uncertainty. Applied Economics Letters 14 705-709.

Neill, H.R., R.G. Cummings, P.T. Ganderton, G.W. Harrison, & T. McGuckin. 1994. Hypothetical surveys and real economic commitments. Land Economics, 70:145-154.

Over, H., & M. Carpenter. 2009. Eighteen-Month-Old Infants Show IncreasedHelping Following Priming With Affiliation. Psychological Science 20(10):1189-1193.

Perrin, R.D. 2000. Religiosity and honesty: Continuing the search for the consequential dimension. Review of Religious Research 41 (4):534-544.

Pichon, I., G. Boccato, & V. Saroglou. 2007. Nonconscious influences of religion on prosociality: a priming study. European Journal of Social Psychology 37(5):1032-1045.

Randolf-Seng, & M.E. Nielsen. 2007. Honesty: One effect of primed religious representations. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 17 303-315.

Rasinski, K.A., P.S. Visser, M. Zagatsky, & E.M. Rickett. 2005. Using implicit goal priming to improve the quality of self-report data. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 41:321-327.

Saroglou, V., O. Corneille, & P. Van Cappellen. 2009. “Speak, Lord, Your Servant Is Listening”: Religious Priming Activatesn Submissive Thoughts and Behaviors. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 19:143-154.

Schoenfed, E. 1978. Image of man:The effect of religion on trust. Review of Religious Research 20(1):61-67.

Shariff, A.F., & A. Norenzayan. 2007. God is watching you: priming God concepts increases prosocial behavior in an anonymous economic game Psychological science, 18(9):803-809.

Shariff, A.F., & A. Norenzayan. 2011. Mean Gods Make Good People: Different Views of God Predict Cheating Behavior. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 21:85-96.

Shogren , J.F., M. Margolis, C. Koo, & J. List. 2001. A random nth-price auction. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 46 409-421.

Silberman, I. 2005. Religion as a meaning system: Implications for the new millennium. Journal of Social Issues 61:641-663.

Srull, T.K., & R.S. Wyer. 1979. The role of category accessibility in the interpretation of information about persons: Some determinants and implications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37:1660-1672.

Vossler, C.A., & M. McKee. 2006. Induced-Value Tests of Contingent Valuation Elicitation Mechanisms. Environmental & Resource Economics 35:137-168.