Citation:
Di Tella, Rafael, Alberto Cavallo, and Aldo Sesia. "Hank and Nancy: The Subprime Crisis, the Run on Lehman and the Shadow Banks, and the Decision to Bailout Wall Street." Harvard Business School Case 718-022, October 2017. (Revised April 2019.) View Details|
Article American Economic Review Conveniently Upset: Avoiding Altruism by Distorting Beliefs About Others' Altruism |
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).
