Abstract
Laboratory experiments offer an opportunity to isolate human behaviors with a level of precision that is often difficult to obtain using other (survey-based) methods. Yet, experimental tasks are often stripped of any social context, implying that inferences may not directly map to real world contexts. We randomly allocate 632 individuals (grouped randomly into 316 dyads) from small villages in Sierra Leone to four versions of the ultimatum game. In addition to the classic ultimatum game, where both the sender and receiver are anonymous, we reveal the identity of the sender, the receiver or both. This design allows us to explore how fairness behavior is affected by social context in a natural setting where players are drawn from populations that are well-acquainted. We find that average offers increase when the receiver’s identity is revealed, suggesting that anonymous ultimatum games underestimate expected fair offers. This study suggest that researchers wishing to relate laboratory behavior to contexts in which the participants are well-acquainted should consider revealing the identities of the players during game play.
Highlights
Behavioral games have become popular tools to make inferences about hard-to-measure preferences
We investigate the role of social context in the ultimatum game
We introduce our sample of participants in Sierra Leone, the experimental game variations and empirical strategy
Summary
Behavioral games have become popular tools to make inferences about hard-to-measure preferences. Workhorse games include dictator games to understand altruistic preferences, ultimatum games to measure preferences for fairness, and public goods games to learn about cooperative behavior. These sorts of inferences cannot be discerned from standard survey or secondary data sources. The use of experiments remains controversial because participants are typically studied in isolation of their social context. Critics argue that behavioral games are artificial and the resulting inferences necessarily flawed. We explore how laboratory behavior may be impacted by incorporating contextual information among populations where individuals are well-acquainted with each other
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