Opportunistic conformism

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Charness, Gary; Naef, Michael; Sontuoso, Alessandro
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Santa Barbara; University of London; Royal Holloway University London; University of Pennsylvania
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2018.12.003
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 100-134
• 关键词: Conformist preferences; Psychological games; peers; trust

摘要

We study strategic interactions that may be affected by belief-dependent, conformist preferences. Specifically, we propose that beliefs about the behavior of individuals in the same role (i.e., beliefs about peer behavior) directly affect a player's utility. In examining conformism we propose an experimental design that verifies the presence of the relevant causality direction. Our data reveal opportunistically conformist behavior, as subjects are more likely to follow the purported majority if doing so implies an increase in expected material payoff. We provide a general framework that accounts for such a pattern. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.