Who discriminates? Evidence from a trust game experiment across three societies

Chuah, Swee-Hoon; Gächter, Simon; Hoffmann, Robert; Tan, Jonathan H. W.

Abstract

What personal characteristics are associated with the extent to which individuals discriminate against particular groups? We use an incentive-compatible measure of an individual's tendency to discriminate on others’ different social identities that takes into account the costs of discrimination. In particular, we elicit participants’ willingness to discriminate (WTD) in their investments to make their decisions dependent on others’ social identities using a laboratory trust game experiment with 545 participants in three countries: Malaysia, China and the UK. Analysis of our WTD measure shows that discrimination differs depending on discriminators’ cultural group identity and political values. Demographic variables including age and gender are not significant. Overall our results support the psychological distinctiveness of WEIRD participants found in other studies.

Citation

Chuah, S.-H., Gächter, S., Hoffmann, R., & Tan, J. H. W. (2023). Who discriminates? Evidence from a trust game experiment across three societies. Journal of Economic Psychology, 97, Article 102630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2023.102630

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 31, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Apr 28, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-08
• Deposit Date: Apr 6, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 29, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Economic Psychology
• Print ISSN: 0167-4870
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 97
• Article Number: 102630
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2023.102630
• Keywords: Discrimination; Experiment; Willingness to discriminate; Trust; Culture
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/19292735
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167487023000314?via%3Dihub