The role of social information, market framing, and diffusion of responsibility as determinants of socially responsible behavior

an article by Bernd Irlenbusch and David J.Saxler (University of Cologne, Germany) publsihed in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics Volume 80 (June 2019)

Highlights

• Buyer/seller framing tends to encourage subjects to make purely self-interested decisions.
• Social information about others who behaved socially responsible increases social responsibility.
• When comparing individual decisions with joint decisions, like the ones in buyer/seller interactions, we observe no effect of diffusion of responsibility on social responsibility.

Abstract

A recent debate raises questions on what shapes socially responsible behavior.

In an experiment, we disentangle major determinants, social information, buyer/seller framing and diffusion of responsibility, and provide evidence on how they influence decisions when decision-makers can gain money by harming uninvolved parties.

Our results show that buyer/seller framing tends to encourage subjects to make purely self-interested decisions. In contrast, social information about others who behaved socially responsible increases social responsibility.

When comparing individual decisions with joint decisions, we observe no effect of diffusion of responsibility on socially responsible behavior.

JEL classification: C92, D47

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Sharing responsibility with a machine

an article by Oliver Kirchkamp and Christina Strobel (FSU Jena, School of Economics, Germany) published in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics Volume 80 (June 2019)

Highlights

• More and more often the partner in a decision is not another human but a machine.
• We find sharing a decision with a computer has an influence on human decisions.
• When decision makers decide on their own, the number of selfish choices is rather small.
• When the decision is shared with a computer the number of selfish choices increases.
• Humans behave quite similar when deciding with a computer than when deciding together with another human.

Abstract

Humans make decisions jointly with others. They share responsibility for the outcome with their interaction partners.

Today, more and more often the partner in a decision is not another human but, instead, a machine.

Here we ask whether the type of the partner, machine or human, affects our responsibility, our perception of the choice and the choice itself. As a workhorse we use a modified dictator game with two joint decision makers: either two humans or one human and one machine.

We find no treatment effect on perceived responsibility or guilt. We also find only a small and insignificant effect on actual choices.

JEL classification: C91, D63, D80

Hazel’s comment
No difference between human interaction and machine? I find that a little surprising but I wasn’t the person running the trial.

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