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Lost Letter Measure of Variation in Altruistic Behaviour in 20 Neighbourhoods

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  • Jo Holland
  • Antonio S Silva
  • Ruth Mace

Abstract

Altruistic behaviour varies across human populations and this variation is likely to be partly explained by variation in the ecological context of the populations. We hypothesise that area level socio-economic characteristics will determine the levels of altruism found in individuals living in an area and we use a lost letter experiment to measure altruism across 20 neighbourhoods with a wide range of income deprivation scores in London, UK. The results show a strong negative effect of neighbourhood income deprivation on altruistic behaviour, with letters dropped in the poorest neighbourhoods having 91% lower odds of being returned than letters dropped in the wealthiest neighbourhoods. We suggest that measures of altruism are strongly context dependant.

Suggested Citation

  • Jo Holland & Antonio S Silva & Ruth Mace, 2012. "Lost Letter Measure of Variation in Altruistic Behaviour in 20 Neighbourhoods," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(8), pages 1-4, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0043294
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043294
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Daniel Nettle & Agathe Colléony & Maria Cockerill, 2011. "Variation in Cooperative Behaviour within a Single City," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(10), pages 1-8, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Voraprapa Nakavachara, 2017. "The Economics of Altruism – The Old, the Rich, the Female," PIER Discussion Papers 62, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Stefan C. Schmukle & Martin Korndörfer & Boris Egloff, 2019. "No Evidence that Economic Inequality Moderates the Effect of Income on Generosity," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1034, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Chowdhury, Subhasish M. & Jeon, Joo Young, 2014. "Impure altruism or inequality aversion?: An experimental investigation based on income effects," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 143-150.
    4. Lorna Zischka & Mark Casson & Marina Della Giusta, 2016. "'Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.' A BHPS study of the interaction between giving and welfare," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2016-10, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    5. Yanli Wang & Chao Yang & Yanchi Zhang & Xiaoyong Hu, 2021. "Socioeconomic Status and Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Roles of Community Identity and Perceived Control," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-11, September.
    6. Gweneth Leigh & Andrew Leigh, 2018. "The Misaddressed Letter Experiment," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(21), pages 1527-1530, December.
    7. Riccardo Pansini & Marco Campennì & Lei Shi, 2020. "Segregating socioeconomic classes leads to an unequal redistribution of wealth," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Lorna Zischka, 2016. "The Interaction between Prosocial (Giving) Behaviours and Social Cohesion," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2016-07, Department of Economics, University of Reading.

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