Spite in the lab

Humans are willing to lose income in order to reduce income of others. This spiteful side of human behavior is less researched than the prosocial side of humans. This paper first discusses the many contextual facets of spite in economic experiments. In the context of public good games, spite-driven, but punitive decisions that reduce income of non-cooperators are instrumental in safeguarding cooperation. By contrast, in experimental environments of fierce competition for rents and resources, spite-driven punitive decisions causes devastating destruction. Notwithstanding the importance of understanding the nature of spite and its contextual drivers, only a very limited number of experimental tool are available so far, to study spite in its unambiguous form. However, such tools are required if economics wants to achieve a better understanding of the nature of social preferences.

HERRMANN Benedikt; 

2025-03-05

Edward Elgar Publishing

JRC135092

978-1-80-2207736 (online),    9781802207729,   

https://www.elgaronline.com/display/book/9781802207736/chapter107.xml?rskey=iEPEHd&result=1,    https://www.elgaronline.com/display/book/9781802207736/9781802207736.xml,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC135092,   

10.4337/9781802207736.000113 (online),    10.4337/9781802207736,