Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-dlb68 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-15T15:57:41.513Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ingroup bias in a social learning experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Wenbo Zou  and
Xue Xu Open the ORCID record for Xue Xu [Opens in a new window]
Wenbo Zou*
Affiliation:
Institute of State Economy, Nankai University, Weijin Road 94, 300071 Tianjin, China The Laboratory for Economic Behavior and Policy Simulation, Nankai University, Weijin Road 94, 300071 Tianjin, China
Xue Xu*
Affiliation:
School of Economics, Nankai University, Weijin Road 94, 300071 Tianjin, China The Laboratory for Economic Behavior and Policy Simulation, Nankai University, Weijin Road 94, 300071 Tianjin, China
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Does social learning and subsequent private information processing differ depending on whether the observer shares the same group identity as the predecessor whose action is observed? In this paper, we conduct a lab experiment to answer this question, in which subjects first observe a social signal and then receive a private signal. We find that subjects put greater weights on the social signal if they share with the predecessor the same group identity that is induced in the experimental environment. We also provide suggestive evidence that such an ingroup-outgroup difference cannot be explained by individuals’ beliefs of the predecessor’s rationality. Moreover, heterogeneous effects of group identity exist in weights given to the subsequent private signal: Compared to when the predecessor is an outgroup, those who have learned from an ingroup predecessor put a greater (smaller) weight on the private signal if it contradicts (confirms) the social signal. We conjecture that such group effects are consistent with the perspective that group identity works as a framing device and brings about certain decision heuristics in the social signal phase, which no longer exist in the private signal phase.

Keywords

Ingroup biasSocial learningBelief updatingLaboratory experimentC91D83D91
Type
Original Paper
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , March 2023 , pp. 27 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Economic Science Association 2022.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, L. R., & Holt, C. A. (1997). Information cascades in the laboratory. American Economic Review, 87(5), 847–862.Google Scholar
Ash, E., & Van Parys, J. (2015). Group identity bias and information cascades.Google Scholar
Bacharach, M. (2006). Beyond Individual Choice: Teams and Frames in Game Theory. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banerjee, A. V. (1992). A simple model of herd behavior. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107(3), 797–817. 10.2307/2118364CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, S., Feldhaus, C., & Ockenfels, A. (2018). A shared identity promotes herding in an information cascade game. Journal of the Economic Science Association, 4, 63–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernhard, H., Fehr, E., & Fischbacher, U. (2006). Group affiliation and altruistic norm enforcement. American Economic Review, 96(2), 217–221. 10.1257/000282806777212594CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bettencourt, A., Brewer, M., Croak, M., & Miller, N. (1992). Cooperation and the reduction of intergroup bias: the role of reward structure and social orientation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 28(4), 301–319. 10.1016/0022-1031(92)90048-OCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bikhchandani, S., Hirshleifer, D., & Welch, I. (1992). A theory of fads, fashion, custom, and cultural change as informational cascades. Journal of Political Economy, 100(5), 992–1026. 10.1086/261849CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, G. E., Feldhaus, C., & Ockenfels, A. (2016). Social interaction promotes risk taking in a stag hunt game. German Economic Review, 17(3), 409–423. 10.1111/geer.12095CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, M. (1979). In-group bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cognitive-motivational analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 86(2), 307 10.1037/0033-2909.86.2.307CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R., Vivian, J., & Hewstone, M. (1999). Changing attitudes through intergroup contact: The effects of group membership salience. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29(5–6), 741–764. 10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199908/09)29:5/6<741::AID-EJSP972>3.0.CO;2-83.0.CO;2-8>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cacault, M. P., & Grieder, M. (2019). How group identification distorts beliefs. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 164, 63–76. 10.1016/j.jebo.2019.05.027CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Çelen, B., & Kariv, S. (2004). Distinguishing informational cascades from herd behavior in the laboratory. American Economic Review, 94(3), 484–498. 10.1257/0002828041464461CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charness, G., Rigotti, L., & Rustichini, A. (2007). Individual behavior and group membership. American Economic Review, 97(4), 1340–1352. 10.1257/aer.97.4.1340CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, D. L., Schonger, M., & Wickens, C. (2016). otree–an open-source platform for laboratory, online, and field experiments. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 9, 88–97. 10.1016/j.jbef.2015.12.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Y., & Li, S. (2009). Group identity and social preferences. American Economic Review, 99(1), 431–57 10.1257/aer.99.1.431CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currarini, S., & Mengel, F. (2016). Identity, homophily and in-group bias. European Economic Review, 90, 40–55. 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2016.02.015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danz, D., Vesterlund, L., & Wilson, A. J. (2022). Belief elicitation and behavioral incentive compatibility. American Economic Review, 112(9), 2851–2883.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Filippis, R., Guarino, A., Jehiel, P., & Kitagawa, T. (2022). Non-Bayesian updating in a social learning experiment. Journal of Economic Theory, 199. 10.1016/j.jet.2021.105188CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffy, J., Hopkins, E., Kornienko, T., & Ma, M. (2019). Information choice in a social learning experiment. Games and Economic Behavior, 118, 295–315. 10.1016/j.geb.2019.06.008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Filippin, A., & Guala, F. (2017). Group identity as a social heuristic: An experiment with reaction times. Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 10(4), 153 10.1037/npe0000078CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gino, F., Norton, M. I., & Weber, R. A. (2016). Motivated bayesians: Feeling moral while acting egoistically. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(3), 189–212. 10.1257/jep.30.3.189CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gino, F., Shang, J., & Croson, R. (2009). The impact of information from similar or different advisors on judgment. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 108(2), 287–302. 10.1016/j.obhdp.2008.08.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goeree, J. K., Palfrey, T. R., Rogers, B. W., & McKelvey, R. D. (2007). Self-correcting information cascades. The Review of Economic Studies, 74(3), 733–762. 10.1111/j.1467-937X.2007.00438.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goette, L., Huffman, D., & Meier, S. (2006). The impact of group membership on cooperation and norm enforcement: Evidence using random assignment to real social groups. American Economic Review (Papers & Proceedings), 96(2), 212–216. 10.1257/000282806777211658CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimm, V., Utikal, V., & Valmasoni, L. (2017). In-group favoritism and discrimination among multiple out-groups. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 143, 254–271. 10.1016/j.jebo.2017.08.015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guala, F., & Filippin, A. (2017). The effect of group identity on distributive choice: Social preference or heuristic?. The Economic Journal, 127(602), 1047–1068. 10.1111/ecoj.12311CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hett, F., Mechtel, M., & Kröll, M. (2020). The structure and behavioral effects of revealed social identity preferences. The Economic Journal, 130(632), 2569–2595. 10.1093/ej/ueaa055CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hossain, T., & Okui, R. (2013). The binarized scoring rule. Review of Economic Studies, 80(3), 984–1001. 10.1093/restud/rdt006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, S. S., Apfelbaum, E. P., Bernard, M., Bartelt, V. L., Zajac, E. J., & Stark, D. (2014). Ethnic diversity deflates price bubbles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(52), 18524–18529. 10.1073/pnas.1407301111CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levy, G., & Razin, R. (2019). Echo chambers and their effects on economic and political outcomes. Annual Review of Economics, 11, 303–328. 10.1146/annurev-economics-080218-030343CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, S. (2020). Group identity, ingroup favoritism, and discrimination. In Zimmermann, K. (Ed.), Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Cham, Switz.: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_123-1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller, D. (2019). The anatomy of distributional preferences with group identity. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 166, 785–807. 10.1016/j.jebo.2019.09.009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nöth, M., & Weber, M. (2003). Information aggregation with random ordering: Cascades and overconfidence. The Economic Journal, 113(484), 166–189. 10.1111/1468-0297.00091CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ockenfels, A., & Werner, P. (2014). Beliefs and ingroup favoritism. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 108, 453–462. 10.1016/j.jebo.2013.12.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortoleva, P. (2012). Modeling the change of paradigm: Non-Bayesian reactions to unexpected news. American Economic Review, 102(6), 2410–36 10.1257/aer.102.6.2410CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robson, M. (2021). Inequality aversion, self-interest and social connectedness. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 183, 744–772. 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.12.029CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryen, A. H., & Kahn, A. (1975). Effects of intergroup orientation on group attitudes and proxemic behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31(2), 302 10.1037/h0076283CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shearer, E., & Gottfried, J. (2017). News use across social media platforms 2017, Journalism and Media: Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H., Billig, M., Bundy, R., & Flament, C. (1971). Social categorization and intergroup behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1(2), 149–178. 10.1002/ejsp.2420010202CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanaka, T., & Camerer, C. F. (2016). Trait perceptions influence economic out-group bias: lab and field evidence from Vietnam. Experimental Economics, 19(3), 513–534. 10.1007/s10683-015-9452-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weizsäcker, G. (2010). Do we follow others when we should? a simple test of rational expectations. American Economic Review, 100(5), 2340–60 10.1257/aer.100.5.2340CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, X., Potters, J., & Suetens, S. (2020). Cooperative versus competitive interactions and in-group bias. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 179, 69–79. 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.08.041CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ziegelmeyer, A., March, C., & Krügel, S. (2013). Do we follow others when we should? a simple test of rational expectations: Comment. American Economic Review, 103(6), 2633–42 10.1257/aer.103.6.2633CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Zou and Xu supplementary material

Zou and Xu supplementary material
Download Zou and Xu supplementary material(File)
File 303.4 KB