Norms in the lab: Inexperienced versus experienced participants

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Year: 2020
Volume: 173
Issue: C
Pages: 239-255

Authors (3)

Schmidt, Robert (not in RePEc) Schwieren, Christiane (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Hei...) Sproten, Alec N. (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

0.670 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Using coordination games, we study whether social norm perception differs between inexperienced and experienced participants in economic laboratory experiments. We find substantial differences between the two groups, both regarding injunctive and descriptive social norms in the context of participation in lab experiments. By contrast, social norm perception for the context of daily life does not differ between the two groups. We therefore conclude that learning through experience is more important than selection effects for understanding differences between the two groups. We also conduct exploratory analyses on the relation between lab and field norms and find that behaving unsocial in an experiment is considered substantially more appropriate than in daily life. This appears inconsistent with the hypothesis that social preferences measured in lab experiments are inflated and indicates a distinction between revealed social preferences as measured commonly and the elicitation of normatively appropriate behavior.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jeborg:v:173:y:2020:i:c:p:239-255
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-29