The long-term effects of climate shocks on social preferences: Evidence from rural Tanzania

Abstract

Altruistic, spiteful, and all the other non-selfish behaviors are puzzling evolutionary and economic phenomena. Recent attention has been paid to the effect of early life stress on the development of social preferences, but research is generally limited to western contexts. Climatic shocks (and the stress that follows) in small-scale societies provide a natural experiment to explore whether these shocks have an impact on social behavior later in life. Using behavioral economic games and multiple measures of early life exposure to climatic shocks, we investigate their effect on social preferences expressed in adults. Our models show little or inconsistent effects of early life stressors on all social preferences except one: spite. Shocks sustained early in life have a consistent impact on increasing the likelihood of spiteful behavior. We discuss the implications of increased climatic instability on preference structures and development in subsistence communities.