Altruism with Social Roots: An Emerging Literature

Altruism with Social Roots: An Emerging Literature

Pablo Branas-Garza y Maria Paz Espinosa

Second, the dominant variable for relatively isolated subjects is not
social integration but reciprocity. Consider an individual playing a
dictator game under the condition p_i( f ) = 1 and 0 < pi(j) ≤ 1. The
subjects play with friends but they do not know with whom. It is not
difficult to see that the lower the integration is the higher p_i(j) is, i.e. p_i(j)
decreases with f_i. In the extreme case, when the subject has only one
friend, f_i = 1, p_i(j) = 1, we are back to MRQ conditions. When p_i(j) = 1,
after playing the game these subjects may communicate with their part-
ners and get ex-post favors in exchange for giving. Note that the smaller
the number of links is the larger the probability of favor trading is.

This discussion provides an explanation for previous experimental
results concerning giving and social network characteristics. In fact,
the econometric analysis of the two variables using previous experi-
mental data indicates that reciprocity and social integration are posi-
tively related to giving. However, further research would be needed
to establish the direction of causality between social integration and
generosity; it could be the case that more generous individuals tended
also to be more socially integrated and our empirical analysis might
be capturing this positive association.

References

BOHNET, I. and FREY, B. S. (1999). “Social distance and other-
regarding behavior in dictator games: comment”, American
Economic Review, 89(1):335-339.

BRANAS-GARZA, P. (2006). “Poverty in dictator games: awakening
solidarity”, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization,
60(3):306-320.

BRANAS-GARZA, P.; DURÂN, M. and ESPINOSA, M. P. (2005).
Do Experimental Subjects Favor Their Friends?. ThE Papers
05/14, University of Granada.

BRANAS-GARZA, P.; COBO-REYES, R.; JIMÉNEZ, N. and PONTI,
G. (2006). Psychological Games and Social Networks: a
“Privacy—Respectful” Device Bases on Guilty Aversion, ThE
Papers 05/19, University of Granada.

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