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Social influences towards conformism in economic experiments

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  • Hargreaves Heap, Shaun P.
Abstract
This paper reviews some of the economic experimental evidence on conformism. There is nothing to match the early psychology experiments where subjects were often swayed by the behaviour of others to an extraordinary degree, but there is plenty of evidence of conformism. This seems built-in to our sociality either because we have preferences for conversation or status which are activated by the knowledge of what others do, or because other people face relevantly similar decisions to our own and so that their behaviour signals something useful to us about the uncertain world. These social influences can cause mischief. The more worrying cases, however, are those where individual preferences themselves change through interaction with others: the strongest experimental evidence for this is with respect to individual social preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Hargreaves Heap, Shaun P., 2014. "Social influences towards conformism in economic experiments," Economics Discussion Papers 2014-4, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:20144
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    Cited by:

    1. Nisticò, Sergio, 2015. "Enjoyment takes time: Some implications for choice theory," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-40.
    2. Fabian Bopp & Sara le Roux, 2023. "Social learning under ambiguity - an experimental study," Working Papers Dissertations 110, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    3. Schlicht, Ekkehart, 2014. "Two Additional Remarks on Conformism," Discussion Papers in Economics 18376, University of Munich, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social conformism; information cascade; preference change;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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