Beliefs About Giving Across Contexts

By: Christine L. Exley, John-Henry Pezzuto and Marta Serra-Garcia

Format:Print
| Language:English
| Pages:96

Abstract

A rich literature investigates prosocial behavior by exploiting a variety of methods, the validity of which has been debated. While this literature has compared behavior inside and outside of the laboratory, an open question is how participants view prosocial behavior across different contexts. This paper shows that donation decisions are consistently believed to be indicative of individuals’ prosociality—regardless of whether they are measured in a laboratory setting, field setting, or via surveys, and regardless of whether they involve hypothetical, small or large stakes. Our results lend credence to research across these different types of contexts.