Costly Solidarity Behavior and the Identity of Others: The Novel Identity-Solidarity Game in a Large Panel Survey of the German Resident population

34 Pages Posted: 8 Mar 2024

See all articles by Achim Goerres

Achim Goerres

University of Duisburg-Essen - Institute of Political Science

Markus S. Tepe

University of Bremen - Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy (SOCIUM)

Jakob Eicheler

University of Duisburg-Essen - Institute of Political Science

Date Written: June 18, 2024

Abstract

What impact does the identity of others have on solidarity behavior? The current knowledge base relating to willingness to give to others in the welfare state is almost entirely restricted to standardized survey research and lacks behavioral measures. We use the new Identity-Solidarity Game in the second wave of a broad and representative online survey of German residents to test pre-registered hypotheses. The Solidarity Game is a miniature model of the welfare system in which individuals can divide funds with two other participants in groups of three, all of whom can turn out to be lucky or unlucky. Participants are presented with true participant information from wave 1, including age, income, descent, and party preference, and asked to make decisions in four separate scenarios. Each scenario involves receiving truthful information from other group members, anonymously, pertaining to one of the variables before deciding how the individual should split the sum available. One scenario was randomly picked for payout after the field had been closed. Our analysis yields: (1) solidarity behavior is different in the solidarity game with identity information compared to a purely anonymous game. (2) People show higher levels of solidarity when they are in a homogeneous group, with the strongest homogeneity effects in groups defined by party preference and descent. (3) In tendency but ambiguously, people give more to social groups with members that are constructed to be deserving (poorer people, but not older people) and less to the undeserving (those born abroad). (4) People react most negatively to the presence of members of socially disliked groups (AfD voters). The paper discusses the implications of the findings in terms of methods, empirical patterns and theory.

Keywords: Solidarity Behavior, Solidarity Game, Welfare State, Identity, Behavioral Measures

JEL Classification: C92

Suggested Citation

Goerres, Achim and Tepe, Markus S. and Eicheler, Jakob, Costly Solidarity Behavior and the Identity of Others: The Novel Identity-Solidarity Game in a Large Panel Survey of the German Resident population (June 18, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4721698 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4721698

Achim Goerres

University of Duisburg-Essen - Institute of Political Science ( email )

Lotharstrasse 65
Duisburg, D-47057
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.achimgoerres.de

Markus S. Tepe

University of Bremen - Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy (SOCIUM) ( email )

Mary-Somerville-Str. 5
Bremen, 28359
Germany

Jakob Eicheler (Contact Author)

University of Duisburg-Essen - Institute of Political Science ( email )

Lotharstrasse 65
Duisburg, D-47057
Germany

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