04 - Di Tella 2015

Question 1

Motivation

Answer 1

sometimes the actions we enjoy taking have a negative effect on other people. Because holding these people in high opinion reduces the pleasure derived from such actions, it is useful to change these opinions.

Question 2

Hypothesis 1

Answer 2

Beliefs about others are affected by people’s own desire to be selfish

Question 3

Hypothesis 2

Answer 3

Selfish actions depend on people’s ability to manipulate their beliefs about others

Question 4

Experimental Design

Answer 4

Stage 0: First- and second-mover both have to complete a mechanical and boring real-effort task that earns each 10 tokens
Stage 1: Elicit first-movers’ beliefs about second-movers likely action
Stage 2: First-mover decides about allocation of all 20 tokens; on decision screen, there are two boxes, filled with 10 tokens each; first-mover can move tokens from one box into another
Stage 3: Second-mover decides about the exchange rate at which tokens get exchanged into dollars. $2 Dollars per Token or $1 Dollar per token (non corrupt) , and second-mover gets additional $10 (corrupt)

Question 5

Treatments:

Answer 5

Able = 8: the allocator is able to take up to 8 of the sellers’ tokens to himself
Able=2: the allocator can transfer at most 2 tokens to or from the seller
If self-deception were possible, allocators who can take more tokens from the seller habe more incentives to convince themselves that the seller is unkind