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Favor transmission and social image concern: An experimental study

Author

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  • Liang, Pinghan
  • Meng, Juanjuan
Abstract
This paper investigates how social image concern affects favor transmission in one-shot interactions. We conduct a laboratory experiment in which a provider gives a favor to a recipient, who can then only return the favor to an anonymous third party beneficiary. We find that when the recipient's behavior is observable by the provider – e.g., there exists social image concern – the recipient's repayment increases by 25%. To investigate the possible channels of the effect, in our design the provider has the option to send a costly request to the recipient, asking for a favorable treatment of the beneficiary, in addition to varying degrees of social connection between the provider and the beneficiary. We show that the increase in repayment under social image concern is largely attributable to the recipient's increasing desire to meet the provider's request. On the other hand, the providers are more likely to send the request when they can observe the repayment. These results suggest that the concern for social image not only affects the amount of favor transmitted, but also has interesting and important interactions with other underlying motives.

Suggested Citation

  • Liang, Pinghan & Meng, Juanjuan, 2016. "Favor transmission and social image concern: An experimental study," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 14-21.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:63:y:2016:i:c:p:14-21
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2016.04.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Pinghan Liang & Juanjuan Meng, 2023. "Paying it forward: an experimental study on social connections and indirect reciprocity," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 27(2), pages 387-417, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Favor transmission; Indirect reciprocity; Social image; Social connection; Request;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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