Religious fragmentation, social identity and cooperation: Evidence from an artefactual field experiment in India

B-Tier
Journal: European Economic Review
Year: 2016
Volume: 90
Issue: C
Pages: 265-279

Authors (4)

Chakravarty, Surajeet (not in RePEc) Fonseca, Miguel A. (University of Exeter) Ghosh, Sudeep (not in RePEc) Marjit, Sugata (Indian Institute of Foreign Tr...)

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

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

Abstract

We study the role of village-level religious fragmentation on intra- and inter-group cooperation in India. We report on data on two-player prisoners׳ dilemma and stag hunt experiments played by 516 Hindu and Muslim participants in rural India. Our treatments are the identity of the two players and the degree of village-level religious heterogeneity. In religiously heterogeneous villages, cooperation rates in the prisoners׳ dilemma, and to a lesser extent the stag hunt game, are higher when subjects of either religion play with a fellow in-group member than when they play with an out-group member or with someone whose identity is unknown. Interestingly, cooperation rates among people of the same religion are significantly lower in homogeneous villages than in fragmented villages in both games.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:eecrev:v:90:y:2016:i:c:p:265-279
Journal Field
General
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-01-25