Deconstructing Bias in Social Preferences Reveals Groupy and Not Groupy Behavior

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Rachel Kranton, Duke University; Matthew Pease, UPMC; Seth Sanders, Cornell University; Scott Heutell, Duke University

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
Data and Explanation of Replication Process of the paper.docx application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document 14.5 KB 08/05/2020 04:11:PM
Deconstructing Bias Data and Replication Code.zip application/zip 1.7 MB 08/05/2020 04:12:PM
Duke_Data.dta application/x-stata 4.3 MB 08/05/2020 04:11:PM
MTurks_Data.dta application/x-stata 5.6 MB 08/05/2020 04:11:PM
Output From Replication.zip application/zip 776 KB 08/05/2020 04:11:PM
Replicate Material in Paper.do text/x-stata-syntax 39.4 KB 08/05/2020 04:11:PM
Replicate Supplemental Material.do text/x-stata-syntax 365.7 KB 08/05/2020 04:11:PM

Project Citation: 

Kranton, Rachel, Pease, Matthew, Sanders, Seth, and Heutell, Scott. Deconstructing Bias in Social Preferences Reveals Groupy and Not Groupy Behavior. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-08-06. https://doi.org/10.3886/E120555V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary Group divisions are a continual feature of human history, with biases toward people’s own groups shown in both experimental and natural settings. Using a novel within-subject design, this work deconstructs group biases to find significant and robust individual differences; some individuals consistently respond to group divisions, while others do not. We examined individual behavior in two treatments in which subjects make pairwise decisions that determine own and others’ income. In a political treatment, which divided subjects into groups based on their political leanings, political party members showed more ingroup bias than Independents who professed the same political opinions. But this greater bias was also present in a minimal group treatment, showing that stronger group identification was not the driver of higher favoritism in the political setting. Analyzing individual choices across the experiment, we categorize participants as “groupy” or “not groupy,” such that groupy participants have social preferences that change for ingroup and outgroup recipients, while not-groupy participants’ preferences do not change across group context. Demonstrating further that the group identity of the recipient mattered less to their choices, strongly not-groupy subjects made allocation decisions faster. We conclude that observed ingroup biases build on a foundation of heterogeneity in individual groupiness.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms identity
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage Durham, NC
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2010 – 2020
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 1/22/2011 – 3/4/2011
Universe:  View help for Universe Students and Community Members at Duke University for Duke Sample
National MTurks Sample
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) experimental data; survey data

Methodology

Collection Mode(s):  View help for Collection Mode(s) computer-assisted self interview (CASI); self-enumerated questionnaire; web-based survey

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Published Versions

V1 [2020-08-06]

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