When Two Become One: How Group Mergers Affect Solidarity

Abstract

Solidarity in teamwork situations is important for the success and longevity of teams. This paper studies how helping group members is affected when groups are randomly merged and increase in size. Group mergers put social norms that are prevailing in previously small groups to the test as new team members may not share the same norms and values. I present results from an experiment in which subjects interact in groups and face the decision to help a group member who is in need of help due to an exogenous shock. Subjects interact in small groups in the first part of the experiment and groups are randomly merged to form big groups in the second part of the experiment. Helping rates are higher in merged groups compared with big groups that stay in the same constellation throughout the experiment. Moreover, in merged groups, high helping norms are more influential compared with low helping norms.

Social Norm and Risk Attitudes: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…In this Special Issue, Schmitz [1] experimentally investigates how helping norms are affected by changes in the underlying group constitution, in particular when larger groups form through mergers of groups. Helping norms in smaller groups may differ from one another and there is heterogeneity in helping attitudes, but results indicate that helping increases through mergers compared with groups of the same size that remain in the same constellation throughout the interaction.…”