Social ties and coordination on negative reciprocity: The role of affect

Abstract

This is an experimental study of a three-player power-to-take game where a proposer is matched with two responders. We compare a treatment in which subjects are anonymous to each other (strangers) with one in which responders know each other from outside the lab (friends). We focus on the responders' decisions, beliefs, and emotions. We find that friends punish the proposer more than strangers, and that they are more likely to coordinate their punishment (without communication). Both punishment and coordination are explained by the responders' emotional reactions. Furthermore, the responders' expectations are better predictors of emotions and destruction than their fairness perceptions.

Different effects of social capital on health status among residents: Evidence from modern Japan

“…Japan is characterized by racial homogeneity, thus the informal norm that is formed through personal interactions remains effective to a certain extent, (Yamamura 2008). The community mechanism is characterized not only by reciprocity, enjoyed by members when they follow norms, but also by punishment (Reuben and van Winden 2008) or ostracism from which members suffer when they are act against norms (Hayami 2001). One of reasons for the different effects of socio-economic factors on health status might be related to community mechanisms.…”

Negative Reciprocity and its Relation to Anger-Like Emotions in Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Groups

“…As a next step, each responder had a possibility to destroy any part of his own resources, thus reducing the income of the proposer as well. They found that friends with real social ties destroy more and they do it more frequently than strangers, signaling that group identity impacts on how strongly they are affected by others´ behavior and well-being (Reuben and van Winden, 2008). Unfortunately, the authors do not make a comparison to identity heterogeneous groups.…”

“…Outside the public good context research by Reuben and van Winden (2008) provides some evidence on how social identity affects punishment. However, they only make comparisons to stranger groups.…”

“…By now, a few studies (cf. Reuben and van Winden, 2008, Bosman and van Winden, 2002, Bosman et al, 2005 address emotions to determine negative reciprocity. However, these did not focus on the social environment in which decisions were made, namely, whether individuals are interacting within identity homogeneous or heterogeneous groups.…”

Do spouses cooperate? An experimental investigation

“…Some experiments further allowed face-to-face contact and communication before the experiment (Bochet et al, 2006;Bohnet and Frey, 1999), and these studies show that identifiability of the partner increases cooperation. Only a few studies explicitly investigate the social ties that participants had formed outside the laboratory (Reuben and van Winden, 2008). We will go even one step further.…”