On Measuring Compassion in Social Preferences Do Gender, Price of Giving, or Inequality Matter?

41 Pages Posted: 16 Mar 2009

See all articles by Linda Kamas

Linda Kamas

Department of Economics - Santa Clara University

Anne Preston

Haverford College - Department of Economics

Date Written: September 1, 2008

Abstract

This paper incorporates compassion into social preferences and tracks individuals' choices over ten allocation decisions, categorizing participants' behavior more precisely than previous work. We provide important evidence relevant to the on-going debate as to whether social preferences are better characterized as inequity aversion or social surplus maximization. We find social preferences to be heterogeneous: approximately two-thirds of participants exhibit consistent preferences in all ten exercises and other-regarding individuals are almost evenly split between inequity aversion and social surplus maximization. Women are significantly more likely than men to be inequity averters and less likely to be social surplus maximizers. A large majority of participants choose one or more allocations consistent with compassion but which reduce own payoff, increase inequality, or reduce social surplus. Individuals respond to lower prices of giving by being less self-interested and to larger payoff gaps by being more compassionate. Men are more responsive than women to the price of giving because they are more often social surplus maximizers who react more to costs while women are more often inequity averters who are less sensitive to the price of giving.

JEL Classification: C91, D63, D64, J16

Suggested Citation

Kamas, Linda and Preston, Anne, On Measuring Compassion in Social Preferences Do Gender, Price of Giving, or Inequality Matter? (September 1, 2008). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1357784 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1357784

Linda Kamas (Contact Author)

Department of Economics - Santa Clara University ( email )

500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
United States
408-554-6950 (Phone)
408-554-2331 (Fax)

Anne Preston

Haverford College - Department of Economics ( email )

Haverford, PA 19041
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
96
Abstract Views
1,100
Rank
492,371
PlumX Metrics