AEA RCT Registry

Field	Before	After
Trial Title	Group Identitiy Project	Determinants of Norm Compliance: Moral Similarity and Group Identification
Last Published	November 22, 2021 12:02 PM	November 23, 2021 04:44 AM
Study Withdrawn		No
Intervention Completion Date		November 22, 2021
Data Collection Complete		Yes
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)		Behavioral Experiment: 2 treatments with 160 participants each. Norm Elicitation Experiment: 2 treatments with 100 participants each.
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?		No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations		Behavioral Experiment: 2 treatments with 160 participants each. Norm Elicitation Experiment: 2 treatments with 100 participants each.
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms		Behavioral Experiment: 2 treatments with 160 participants each. Norm Elicitation Experiment: 2 treatments with 100 participants each.
Is there a restricted access data set available on request?		No
Program Files		No
Data Collection Completion Date		March 20, 2020
Is data available for public use?		No
Intervention End Date	September 30, 2020	March 20, 2020
Additional Keyword(s)	Moral Similarity, Group Identity, Social Norms	Moral Similarity, Moral Foundations Theory, Group Identification, Group Norm Sensitivity
Public analysis plan	No	Yes

Field	Before	After
Paper Abstract		What determines whether someone complies with a social norm? The social identity approach offers a mechanism for norm compliance: a person who feels similar to a group identifies more with that group and, in turn, complies with the group's norms. We used an economics experiment to test this mechanism. We manipulated the similarity between an individual and a social group by exogenously changing their similarity in moral values. Moral values were identified using a survey developed in conjunction with moral foundations theory. In one treatment, the subject and social group's moral values were similar, and in another, they were dissimilar. Subsequently, we measured group identification and behavior. To measure behavior, we used a modified rule-following task in which the social group expressed a normative expectation that subjects follow "the rule". We found that moral similarity increased group identification, and group identification increased rule compliance. We show that this behavior change was due to increased group norm sensitivity rather than changes in the group norms. We advance the study of social identity by establishing a causal pathway between group identification and behavior change.
Paper Citation		Schneeberger, Alexander and Krupka, Erin L., Determinants of Norm Compliance: Moral Similarity and Group Identification (November 22, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3969227
Paper URL		https://ssrn.com/abstract=3969227

Fields Changed