Testing guilt aversion

Other-regarding behaviour: Testing guilt- and reciprocity-based models

We analyse two types of belief-dependant models of social preferences: guilt aversion and reciprocity. In particular, we test the relevance of their input variables (second-order beliefs and general dispositions for guilt/reciprocity). The data confirm the predictions of belief-dependant models. Both secondorder beliefs and a participant’s sensitivity to guilt/reciprocity are relevant for the d...

A note on testing guilt aversion

Measuring nonlinear and heterogeneous guilt aversion ”

Recent experiments suggest that people’s preferences not only depend on their choices but also on their beliefs of other people’s choices and on their beliefs of other people’s beliefs. Guilt aversion is such belief-dependent preference that has received a lot of attention recently. An individual is considered to be guilt averse if he gets a negative utility from failing to live up to the belie...

Incomplete-Information Models of Guilt Aversion in the Trust Game

In the theory of psychological games it is assumed that players’preferences on material consequences depend on endogenous beliefs. Most of the applications of this theoretical framework assume that the psychological utility functions representing such preferences are common knowledge. But this is often unrealistic. In particular, it cannot be true in experimental games where players are subject...

Measuring the Willingness to Pay to Avoid Guilt: Estimation Using Equilibrium and Stated Belief Models

Measuring the Willingness to Pay to Avoid Guilt: Estimation Using Equilibrium and Stated Belief Models We estimate structural models of guilt aversion to measure the population level of willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid feeling guilt by letting down another player. We compare estimates of WTP under the assumption that higher-order beliefs are in equilibrium (i.e. consistent with the choice dist...