IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eecrev/v166y2024ics0014292124000771.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Motivated Beliefs, Independence and Cooperation

Author

Listed:
  • Huang, Wei
  • Wang, Yu
  • Zhao, Xiaojian

Abstract

Humans are social beings but sometimes stay alone. This paper theoretically investigates the connection between an intraperson game and an interperson interaction. Motivated beliefs supplied from memory management due to present bias in the individual investment problem yields positive spillovers on others through social interactions. This suggests that frequent social interactions may reduce an individual’s inclination to cooperate, exacerbating the free-riding problem. Additionally, the paper establishes a positive correlation between overconfidence and prosocial attitudes, both of which may emerge and persist through life experiences. Evidence from cross-country psychological surveys at the country level and an online experiment at the individual level largely aligns with our theoretical implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Huang, Wei & Wang, Yu & Zhao, Xiaojian, 2024. "Motivated Beliefs, Independence and Cooperation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:166:y:2024:i:c:s0014292124000771
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2024.104748
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292124000771
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2024.104748?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oded Galor & Ömer Özak, 2016. "The Agricultural Origins of Time Preference," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(10), pages 3064-3103, October.
    2. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano & Nathan Nunn, 2013. "On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 469-530.
    3. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2002. "Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(4), pages 1231-1294.
    4. Paola Giuliano & Nathan Nunn, 2018. "Ancestral Characteristics of Modern Populations," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 1-17, January.
    5. Louis Putterman & David N. Weil, 2010. "Post-1500 Population Flows and The Long-Run Determinants of Economic Growth and Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(4), pages 1627-1682.
    6. Benjamin Enke, 2019. "Kinship, Cooperation, and the Evolution of Moral Systems," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(2), pages 953-1019.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kammas, Pantelis & Sarantides, Vassilis, 2024. "Historical pathogen prevalence and the radius of trust," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Ang, James B. & Madsen, Jakob B. & Wang, Wen, 2021. "Rice farming, culture and democracy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    3. Ying Bai & James Kai-sing Kung, 2022. "Surname distance and technology diffusion: the case of the adoption of maize in late imperial China," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 569-607, December.
    4. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Anne Sofie B. Knudsen & Pablo Selaya, 2020. "The bounty of the sea and long-run development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 259-295, September.
    5. Johannes C. Buggle, 2020. "Growing collectivism: irrigation, group conformity and technological divergence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 147-193, June.
    6. Ang, James B. & Fredriksson, Per G., 2017. "Wheat agriculture and family ties," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 236-256.
    7. Anastasia Litina, 2016. "Natural land productivity, cooperation and comparative development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 351-408, December.
    8. Voigt, Stefan, 2022. "Determinant of Social Norms," ILE Working Paper Series 58, University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics.
    9. Ertan, Arhan & Fiszbein, Martin & Putterman, Louis, 2016. "Who was colonized and when? A cross-country analysis of determinants," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 165-184.
    10. Maseland, Robbert, 2021. "Contingent determinants," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    11. Justin Cook, C., 2014. "Potatoes, milk, and the Old World population boom," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 123-138.
    12. Gören, Erkan, 2017. "The persistent effects of novelty-seeking traits on comparative economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 112-126.
    13. Anke Becker, 2019. "On the Economic Origins of Restrictions on Women's Sexuality," CESifo Working Paper Series 7770, CESifo.
    14. Graziella Bertocchi & Arcangelo Dimico, 2020. "Bitter Sugar: Slavery and the Black Family," Department of Economics 0172, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    15. Andrew Dickens, 2022. "Understanding Ethnolinguistic Differences: The Roles of Geography and Trade," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(643), pages 953-980.
    16. Bouchouicha, Ranoua & L’Haridon, Olivier & Vieider, Ferdinand M., 2024. "Law and economic behaviour," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 253-270.
    17. Oded Galor & Viacheslav Savitskiy, 2018. "Climatic Roots of Loss Aversion," NBER Working Papers 25273, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Fredriksson, Per G. & Mohanty, Aatishya, 2021. "Sunlight and Culture," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 757-782.
    19. Paola Giuliano & Nathan Nunn, 2018. "Ancestral Characteristics of Modern Populations," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 1-17, January.
    20. Martina Cioni & Giovanni Federico & Michelangelo Vasta, 2022. "Persistence studies: a new kind of economic history?," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 42(3), pages 227-248, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Motivated beliefs; Self-confidence; Present bias; Cooperation; Cultural difference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:166:y:2024:i:c:s0014292124000771. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eer .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.