Andreas Pondorfer

This study investigates the origins of gender differences in honesty. Using global experimental and survey data, we provide evidence that socialization is a key factor underpinning these differences. First, we find cultural malleability; while women are more honest than men in Western societies, this is not the case in non-Western ones. Second, women in Western societies hold stronger norms of honesty than men and these differences in norms predict honesty. Through a second-generation immigrant analysis, we provide evidence of intergenerational transmission of these norms. Lastly, gender differences in honesty norms tend to narrow as countries become richer.

This study investigates the effect of the Russian full-scale invasion on social capital in the Ukraine. Using a large-online survey of the Ukrainian population, we apply two measures of conflict exposure: i) geocoded and real-time conflict data, and ii) self-reported war experience. First, we find a negative effect of war on prosocial behaviour (i.e., altruism, positive reciprocity, and trust) and institutional trust. Second, a positive interaction of objective conflict data and self-reported war experience points towards heterogeneous effects of war events. Third, we identify the causal effect of conflict by exploiting the regional variation in historical ethnical composition and Soviet repression policies. These findings suggest that Ukraine’s legacies of violence have persistent effects on the current invasion and its consequences for social capital.

To reach the goals of the Paris agreement more ambitious climate policies will need to be implemented. In an experimental survey that is representative for the population at the sub-national level in Germany (N=15,000), we investigate how a change from existing climate policies to more ambitious policies drives public support. Using different descriptions of policies, we demonstrate that in general, more ambitious policies reduce public support. This effect is stronger if the focus is on an increase of carbon prices compared to a focus on a policy mix to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Economic preferences (i.e., reciprocity, trust, risk and patience) and other individual characteristics (e.g., experience of recent hazards, belief in climate change) as well as regional characteristics (i.e., Eastern Germany, macro-economic indicators, cohesion policies, and climate change) are substantially correlated with public support. This demonstrates challenges for the communication of tighter climate policies and underlines the need to address an audience with heterogeneous preferences and diverse regional backgrounds.

Social image effects are a common phenomenon, yet strongly heterogeneous across situations and people. This paper proposes two drivers for these variations: variations in social norms and interpersonal relationships. Comparing behaviour in a dictator game played in private and in front of an observer in small-scale communities in Papua New Guinea, we find that social norms qualify as reference points for the direction of social image effects. That is, people's behaviour moves in the direction of the incentive compatibly measured social norm under observation. At the same time, we find that the degree to which observation leads to social norm convergence is strongly heterogeneous with regard to the degree of norm internalization and the relation between subject and observer. The larger the perceived social distance to the observer, the stronger is the norm enforcing effect of observation on the subject. In line with this, norm enforcement is lower if subject and observer share a link in cooperation networks. As social norms are not necessarily universal but may differ between social groups, and observers vary between different real-life situations, this paper provides a structural foundation for the heterogeneity of social image effects.

Which role does geography play in explaining the large variation in human behavior and preferences across the globe? To identify the direct effect of geography, we use insights from behavioral ecology and propose the behavior of wild animals as an exogenous measure of behavioral constraints of geography. We construct a global grid-cell database of average animal behavior and analyze the spatial correlation between animal and human behavior in three important economic domains: future orientation, migration, and gender roles. Animal behavior significantly predicts human behavior in all three domains. The spatial correlation holds for hunter-gatherer societies, modern societies (across and within countries), and also extends to second-generation immigrants. Our results suggest that geography has had a direct and persistent effect on human preferences.

A growing body of research in the behavioral and social sciences highlight the potentially productive role of social norms in changing behavior towards more climate change action. To date, we have been neglected significant aspects: the large regional variation in behavior and beliefs, creating a gap in our understanding of i) how people perceive others’ behavior and attitudes in their region, ii) what kind of individual and regional factors explain the variation in social norms, and iii) how regional social norms causally effect climate-friendly behavior across economically, socially, and culturally diverse regions.

To comprehensive study theses aspects represents the major thrust of ClimaSoNo beyond the current state-of-the art, providing new insights about the extent and nature of the regional heterogeneity in social norms. ClimaSoNo promises to collect and analyze a rich set of new scientific data from a comparative survey across European regions. The cross-regional survey includes a novel technique to accurately measure perceived social norms at the regional level (Task 1). The empirical analysis of ClimaSoNowill systematically explore the potential determinants of regional variation in social norms related to support for climate policies and climate-friendly behavior (Task 2). Cross-regional experiments will be carried out to test whether this novel technique of measuring social norms can predict climate change action across regions. In this way, ClimaSoNo will produce an experimentally validated ‘survey module’, measuring support for policies, climate-friendly behavior and perceived social norms (Task 3). Finally, ClimaSoNocapitalizes on cross-regional experiments to estimate the causal effect of different types of regional social norms on climate-friendly behavior (Task 4).

(with Sebastian J. Goerg and Valentina Stöhr

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(with Sebastian J. Goerg and Corinna Hempel)

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(with Felipe Valencia Caicedo and Thomas Dohmen)

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(with Toman Barsbai and Dieter Lukas)

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Preprint

Data and replication files

(with Andreas Friedl and Ulrich Schmidt)

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(with Paul Lohmann and Katrin Rehdanz)

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(with Toman Barsbai and Ulrich Schmidt)

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(with Katrin Rehdanz)

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(with Andreas Exenberger)

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