Social interactions and the influence of “extremists”. Crawford Donna Harris. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 153, September 2018, Pages 238-266.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2018.07.007
Highlights
• We study whether face-to-face group deliberation changes other-regarding preferences, particularly when individuals have to make their decisions alone afterwards.
• We use a structural choice-revealed preference approach to measure each individual’s other-regarding preferences in a modified dictator game.
• We examine heterogeneity in preferences and changes in these preferences before and after group deliberation.
• We find that social interactions do indeed change individual preferences, even after they have left the group. In particularly, preferences of individuals in the same group become more homogenous after interactions.
• We also find that students are more susceptible to social influence of individuals with extremely selfish preference (the “extremists” in our title) compared to non-students.
Abstract: A large literature has shown evidence that people are influenced by others, especially in group interactions. However, little is known about whether such influence remains after they have left the group. Using a modified dictator game and a structural choice-revealed preference approach, we measure an individual’s preferences before and after face-to-face interactions in a small group and then examine whether a change in preferences is observed after subjects have left the group and have to make their decisions alone. We find that social interactions do indeed change individuals’ preferences. Specifically, individuals whose preferences are extremely egoistic and also unchanging tend to influence others the most. These “left extremists” are more likely to be male and these effects are more prevalent amongst student subjects than non-student.
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