Chapter 55 Testing Theories of Other-regarding Behavior: A Sequence of Four Laboratory Studies

This chapter describes a sequence of four experiments. The hypotheses tested are all informed by one or more of the aforementioned types of models. Each experiment builds on the findings of the previous experiment in the sequence. At the same time, each experiment involves a different game, thereby allowing us to study the phenomenon from a variety of perspectives. While some of the models that this chapter examines get important features of the data correct, none is completely satisfactory. What emerges from this sequence of experiments is a set of empirical regularities that should provide some useful guidance to the construction of more accurate models. This chapter found that preferences for distribution, independent of considerations of intentions, are sufficient to explain contributions in a simple dilemma game. The solidarity game and a linear public goods game proved sensitive to East German/West German cultural differences, but not so much so that it changes the qualitative features of giving.