Karen Evelyn Hauge

ESA Rome June 2007

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Public good situations: My choice effects your possibilities

“How should I behave?”-> Moral motivationNorms guide behaviorNorm salience (ex: Cialdini, 1990)Public good experiment where subjects are

induced to reflect on normative aspect of situation

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Public good game experiment3 treatments

Control: standard (16 subjects) Recursive: 10 repetitions, groups of 4 Between subject design

T1: Unconditional moral question (20 subjects) “In your personal opinion, what is the ethically

right thing to do? How many units should you contribute to the group project?”

T2: Conditional moral question (20 subjects) “...If other group members on average contribute

the following rounded amounts, how many units should you contribute?”

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Unconditional moral question15/20 subjects state ideal is 105/20 subjects state ideal is between 3 and 8

Conditional moral question4/20 unconditional ideals 9/20 exactly the average of others5/20 ideals depends positively on average of

others2/20 random

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Individual average contributions, comparingControl are T1: significant difference

(p=0.0446),Control and T2: not significant difference

(p=0.1147)T1 and T2: not significant difference

(p=0.5880)Regression results

Sign coeff: ideal, dummy for T1 and T2, dummy for period 9 and 10, age.

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1. Normative reflection has a positive and significant impact on contribution

behavior in a public goods experiment, when unconditional moral question

Positive but not significant impact when conditiotional moral question

Norm salience as a policy instrument Few observationsFuture research should look into anchoring

effect and effect on expectations

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