Article
American Economic Review

Conveniently Upset: Avoiding Altruism by Distorting Beliefs About Others' Altruism

By: Rafael Di Tella, Ricardo Perez-Truglia, Andres Babino and Mariano Sigman

Format:Print

Abstract

We present results from a “corruption game” (a dictator game modified so that recipients can take a side payment in exchange for accepting a reduction in the overall size of the pie). Dictators (silently) treated to be able to take more of the recipient’s tokens, took more of them. They were also more likely to believe that recipients had accepted side payments, even if there was a prize for accuracy. The results favor the hypothesis that people avoid altruistic actions by distorting beliefs about others’ altruism.

Keywords

Convenient Beliefs; Cognitive Dissonance; Values and Beliefs; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking

Citation

Di Tella, Rafael, Ricardo Perez-Truglia, Andres Babino, and Mariano Sigman. "Conveniently Upset: Avoiding Altruism by Distorting Beliefs About Others' Altruism." American Economic Review 105, no. 11 (November 2015): 3416–3442.