|
on Social Norms and Social Capital |
| By: | Francesca Gino (Harvard Business School, Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit); Dan Ariely (Fuqua School of Business, Duke University) |
| Abstract: | Creativity is a common aspiration for individuals, organizations, and societies. Here, however, we test whether creativity increases dishonesty. We propose that a creative personality and creativity primes promote individuals' motivation to think outside the box and that this increased motivation leads to unethical behavior. In four studies, we show that participants with creative personalities who scored high on a test measuring divergent thinking tended to cheat more (Study 1); that dispositional creativity is a better predictor of unethical behavior than intelligence (Study 2); and that participants who were primed to think creatively were more likely to behave dishonestly because of their creativity motivation (Study 3) and greater ability to justify their dishonest behavior (Study 4). Finally, a field study constructively replicates these effects and demonstrates that individuals who work in more creative positions are also more morally flexible (Study 5). The results provide evidence for an association between creativity and dishonesty, thus highlighting a dark side of creativity. |
| Keywords: | creativity, creative thinking, dishonesty, intelligence, unethical behavior |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbs:wpaper:11-064&r=soc |
| By: | Joan Esteban; Laura Mayoral |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine the link between ethnic and religious polariza- tion and conflict using interpersonal distances for ethnic and religious attitudes obtained from the World Values Survey. We use the Duclos et al (2004) polar- ization index. We measure conflict by means on an index of social unrest, as well as by the standard conflict onset or incidence based on a threshold number of deaths. Our results show that taking distances into account significantly improves the quality of the fit. Our measure of polarization outperforms the measure used by Montalvo and Reynal-Querol (2005) and the fractionalization index. We also obtain that both ethnic and religious polarization are significant in explaining conflict. The results improve when we use an indicator of social unrest as the dependent variable. |
| Keywords: | conflict, polarization, fractionalization, ethnicity, religion. |
| Date: | 2011–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:autbar:857.11&r=soc |
| By: | Ramón Jesús Flores Díaz; Maurice Koster; Ines Lindner; Elisenda Molina |
| Abstract: | Given a social network, we are interested in the problem of measuring the influence of a group of agents to lead the society to adopt their behavior. Motivated by the description of terrorist movements, we provide a markovian dynamical model for non-symmetric societies, which takes into account two special features: the hard core terrorist group cannot be influenced, and the remaining agents may change from active to non-active and vice versa during the process. In this setting, we interpret the absorption time of the model, which measures how quickly the terrorist movement achieve the support of all society, as a group measure of power. In some sense, our model generalizes the classical approach of DeGroot to consensus formation |
| Keywords: | Collective action, Social networks, Influence and Diffusion models |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:wsrepe:ws104830&r=soc |
| By: | Berliant, Marcus; Fujita, Masahisa |
| Abstract: | Is the paradise of effortless communication the ideal environment for knowledge creation? Or, can the development of local culture in regions raise knowledge productivity compared to a single region with a unitary culture? In other words, can a real technological increase in the cost of collaboration and the cost of public knowledge flow between regions, resulting in cultural differentiation between regions, increase welfare? In our framework, a culture is a set of ideas held exclusively by residents of a location. In general in our model, the equilibrium path generates separate cultures in different regions. When we compare this to the situation where all workers are resident in one region, R & D workers become too homogeneous and there is only one culture. As a result, equilibrium productivity in the creation of new knowledge is lower relative to the situation when there are multiple cultures and workers are more diverse. |
| Keywords: | knowledge creation; knowledge diversity; ideas and culture |
| JEL: | Z1 D83 O31 |
| Date: | 2011–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:27997&r=soc |
| By: | Johansson-Stenman, Olof (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Svedsäter, Henrik (Organisational Behaviour, London Business School, United Kingdom) |
| Abstract: | Hypothetical bias in stated-preference methods appears sometimes to be very large, and other times non-existent. This is here largely explained by a model where people derive utility from a positive self-image associated with morally commendable behavior. The results of a choice experiment are consistent with the predictions of this model; the hypothetical marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for a moral good (contributions to a WWF project) is significantly higher than the corresponding real MWTP, whereas no hypothetical bias is present for an amoral good (a restaurant voucher). Moreover, both the theoretical model and the experimental evidence suggest that also the real MWTP for the moral good is biased upwards by being higher within than outside the experimental context.<p> |
| Keywords: | Stated-preference methods; choice experiment; hypothetical bias; self-image; non-market valuation; warm glow |
| JEL: | C91 D63 Q50 |
| Date: | 2011–01–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0484&r=soc |
| By: | SARRACINO Francesco |
| Keywords: | subjective well-being; social capital; relational goods; Easterlin paradox; time-series; economic development; EVS; WVS |
| JEL: | D60 I31 O10 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2011-02&r=soc |
| By: | SARRACINO Francesco |
| Abstract: | The worrying decline of social capital (Putnam, 2000) and the disappointing trends of subjective well-being (Easterlin, 1974) raise urgent questions for modern societies: is the erosion of social capital a general feature of western societies or is it rather a characteristic aspect of the American one? Is there a relationship between the trends of social capital and subjective well-being? The available evidence suggests that two of the richest countries in the world, US and Great Britain, are following negative and considerably different trends of social capital and subjective well-being than other western societies. Present work provides further evidence focusing on Luxembourg. This country is characterized by peculiar economic and social conditions: it is the country with the highest GDP per capita in the world, more than 40% of its population is composed by immigrants and about 50% of its labor force is composed by cross-borders. All these elements raise strives and tensions which are common to many European countries making Luxembourg an interesting case of study. Main results of the present research are the following: 1. the erosion of social capital is not a legacy of the richest countries in the world; 2. between 1999 and 2008, people in Luxembourg experienced a substantial increase in almost every proxy of social capital; 3. both endowments and trends of social capital and subjective well-being differ significantly within the population. Migrants participate less in social relationships and report lower levels of well-being; 4. the positive relationship between trends of subjective well-being and social capital found in previous literature is confirmed. |
| Keywords: | subjective well-being; social capital; relational goods; Easterlin paradox; time-series; economic development; EVS; WVS |
| JEL: | D60 I31 O10 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2011-01&r=soc |
| By: | Aloysius Gunadi, Brata |
| Abstract: | This research found most of the handicraft producers have conducted various innovations during last five years. The newest innovations are managerial innovation, marketing innovation and product innovation. Meanwhile, product innovation and managerial innovation are the most important innovations in enhancing the business performance. Based on the actors, innovation in this case could be classified as producer driven innovation. The main information source of product innovation, process innovation, and service innovation is the producer’s experiences itself. The study found that the role of social networks in the process of innovation activities is rather limited. This finding is also supported by a fact that the strongest social network of the producers is only the relation with family and close friend in term of their closeness, trust, and willingness to share information. Regression analysis also indicates the aggregate of social network elements does not influence the number of innovations. Components of social network that still show positive impact on the innovation are only the closeness with business partners and with members of other association. The study also suggest that research on the role of social network or social capital on innovations is need to consider more appropriate indicators of social networks. At the empirical level, differences in location or industry may require different indicators of social networks. |
| Keywords: | social network; innovation; handicraft industry |
| JEL: | O17 Z13 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28032&r=soc |
| By: | Alessandro Innocenti; Chiara Rapallini |
| Abstract: | This paper provides laboratory evidence on the efficiency-enhancing properties of the Tiebout model as a decentralized system of public goods provision. Tiebout (1956) shows that if a sufficient number of local communities exist to accommodate different types of preferences, individuals sort themselves in a way that provides an efficient allocation of public goods and taxes. Our experiment aims to disentangle the effect of voting participation and is composed of two treatments. In the non-participation treatment, local public good provision is chosen by only one subject, while the other members of the community can only stay in or move to another community. In the participation treatment, all the community members have the right to vote as well as to move to another community and collective decisions are taken by majority rule. Our findings show that social welfare is greater in the participation than in the non-participation treatment. We conclude that voting with one’s feet increases efficiency if all the community members vote and that the influence of voting participation on the allocation of local public goods should be taken into account to assess the viability of the Tiebout model. |
| Keywords: | Tiebout model, local public goods, voting participation, federalism, experiment. |
| JEL: | C91 H41 C92 D23 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:labsit:036&r=soc |
| By: | Paolo Verme (University of Torine) |
| Abstract: | Do people care about income inequality and does income inequality affect subjective wellbeing? Welfare theories can predict either a positive or a negative impact of income inequality on subjective well-being and empirical research has found evidence on a positive, negative or non significant relation. This paper attempts to determine some of the possible causes of such empirical heterogeneity. Using a very large sample of world citizens we test the consistency of income inequality in predicting life satisfaction. We find that income inequality has a negative and significant effect on life satisfaction. This result is robust to changes of regressors and estimation choices and also persists across different income groups and across different types of countries. However, this relation is easily obscured or reversed by multicollinearity generated by the use of country and year fixed effects. This is particularly true if the number of data points for inequality is small, which is a common feature of cross-country or longitudinal studies. |
| Keywords: | Happiness, Inequality. |
| JEL: | D63 I31 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2010-178&r=soc |