What Do Laboratory Experiments Measuring Social Preferences Reveal About the Real World?

Abstract

conomists have increasingly turned to the experimental model of the physical sciences as a method to understand human behavior. Peerreviewed articles using the methodology of experimental economics were almost nonexistent until the mid-1960s and surpassed 50 annually for the first time in 1982; and by 1998, the number of experimental papers published per year exceeded 200 (Holt, 2006). Lab experiments allow the investigator to influence the set of prices, budget sets, information sets, and actions available to actors, and thus measure the impact of these factors on behavior within the context of the laboratory. The allure of the laboratory experimental method in economics is that, in principle, it provides ceteris paribus observations of individual economic agents, which are otherwise difficult to obtain. A critical assumption underlying the interpretation of data from many laboratory experiments is that the insights gained in the lab can be extrapolated to the world beyond, a principle we denote as generalizability. For physical laws and processes like gravity, photosynthesis, and mitosis, the evidence supports the idea that what happens in the lab is equally valid in the broader world. The American astronomer Harlow Shapley (1964, p. 43), for instance, noted that "as far as we can tell, the same physical laws prevail everywhere." In this manner, astronomers are able to infer the quantity of certain gases in the Sunflower galaxy, for example, from observations of signature wavelengths of light emitted from that galaxy.

Expanding the role for psychology in addressing environmental challenges.

“…For example, a central goal is to understand human behavior, considering the individual, social, physical, and cultural factors that influence it. However, the significance of contextual factors has often been overlooked by psychologists who have relied on homogenous research environments, particularly lab-based research, and as a result, psychological research has been criticized for a lack of ecological validity (Levitt & List, 2007;Sears, 1986). Attending to the effects of specific socio-physical contextual factors and human responses to contextual changes, as suggested in the previous section, will improve the ability of psychologists to understand behavior within more naturalistic settings, and to understand how psychological and contextual factors interact in influencing perceptions and behavior.…”

Using crowdsourced online experiments to study context-dependency of behavior

“…Henrich et al, 2010;Levitt and List, 2007;Roth et al, 1991). Crowdsourced online experiments provide a valuable complement allowing flexible grouping of participants along contextual data.…”

“…More specifically, estimation of context effects relies on participants' resorting to regionally imprinted rules of behavior in "weak" experimental situations. In this connection, Rand and colleagues (2014) proposed what they call the "social heuristics hypothesis:" One can expect inexperienced participants to rely on successful strategies learned in daily interaction; frequent participation in social experiments, however, provides the opportunity to calibrate one's impulsive responses and to arrive at behavior more consistent with the standard theory (see also Levitt and List, 2007). 7 If experience alters elicited behavior local context no longer defines the socially acceptable, cognitively familiar, and habitual scope of action for nonnaïve subjects.…”

Punishment, reward, and cooperation in a framed field experiment

“…Usually, the differences between laboratory and field experiments lie in the context in which subjects make decisions, the stakes at play, or the characteristics of participants (see Harrison and List (2004) for a detailed discussion). The extent to which laboratory results concerning pro-social behavior carry over to nonlaboratory settings has been the subject of recent debate (see Levitt and List (2007), Levitt and List (2008), and Falk and Heckman (2009)). …”