Social norms and identity dependent preferences

The introduction of social identity into an economic framework provides a new way in which norms can affect preferences. We present experimental results that test the impact of norms on social identity dependent choice. We use a 2 (identity prime) × 2 (choice or norms) experimental design to separately and directly elicit empirical measures of identity dependent norms for eleven different redistribution situations. We combine identity dependent norms with separately elicited choice data to predict changes in behavior across situations. We demonstrate that including identity dependent norms as a utility component improves our ability to predict behavior. We also estimate a key structural parameter of the social identity model—identity dependent norm sensitivity. Our findings provide direct evidence of the identity dependent norms mechanism in social identity motivated choice.