Experimental Design Details
The norms measurement strategy follows Krupka and Weber (2013). Individuals will be given information on how three experimental tasks are played. These tasks are a dictator game (DG), a choose your dictator game (CYD), and a joy of destruction game (JOD). The details of these experiments will be discussed shortly. These are the same experiments that participants completed in 2018.
After reviewing each experimental task, the participant will be asked to imagine that there is a hypothetical decision maker who is completing the experimental task. They participant will be given information on the identity of the person that the decision maker in the task has been paired with. For each possible choice that the decision maker in the task could make, the participant will be asked: “Is this choice very socially inappropriate, somewhat socially inappropriate, somewhat socially appropriate, very socially appropriate?.” Earlier in the survey the following definition is given of socially appropriate:
“After I describe the situation and decision made by the person, I would like you to evaluate the decision and decide whether the action is ‘socially appropriate’ and ‘consistent with moral or proper social behavior’ or ‘socially inappropriate’ and ‘in- consistent with moral or proper social behavior’. By socially appropriate, I mean behavior that most people in Gemena agree is the ‘correct’ or ‘ethical’ thing to do.”
Individuals are not given the exact identity of the player that the decision maker is paired with in the experimental tasks. However, they are given the following information about the other player: age group, sex, education level, ethnicity, strength of belief in the Christian God, strength of belief in witchcraft, and whether they grew up in Gemena. The various characteristics take the following values:
1. Age group: (a) young; (b) old.
2. Sex: (a) male; (b) female.
3. Education level: (a) has not completed primary school; (b) has completed primary school; (c) has completed secondary school or higher.
4. Ethnicity: (a) same ethnic group; (b) a different ethnic group.
5. Strength of belief in Christian God: (a) strong belief in the Christian God (b) very strong
belief in the Christian God.
6. Strength of belief in witchcraft: (a) weak or very weak, (b) neither strong nor weak, (c) strong, or (d) very strong.
7. Grew up in Gemena: (a) grew up in Gemena (b) did not grow up in Gemena.
The primary experimental manipulation is the reported belief in witchcraft of the other player. Participants complete two iterations of the set of questions about each experimental activity. The assignment of player characteristics is stratified so that in one of the two iterations (randomly chosen), the participant answers questions about a decision maker who is paired with someone with either a ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’ belief in witchcraft and in the other, the participant answers questions about a decision maker who is paired with someone with a ‘weak or very weak’ or ‘neither believe or disbelieve’ belief in witchcraft.
For the other reported characteristics of the other player, they are randomly assigned with equal probability (e.g. half the time the other player is old, half the time the other player is young; a third of the time the other player had not completed primary etc.).
Each participant will respond to questions regarding the socially appropriate thing to do in three different experimental games: the Dictator Game (DG), Choose Your Dictator Game (CYD), and Joy of Destruction Game (JOD). The respondent will answer questions about socially appropriate behavior for each game two times; each time, the identity of the other player that the hypothetical decision maker has been paired with will vary. To encourage individuals to consider their answers carefully, the responses are incentivized. If all of the responses about the appropriateness of each choice are the same as the most common response in all of Gemena for the situation, then the respondent receives an extra CF 5,000.