Discussion paper

DP13315 Anti-social Behavior in Groups

This paper provides strong evidence supporting the long-standing speculation that decision-making in groups has a dark side, by magnifying the prevalence of anti-social behavior towards outsiders. A large-scale experiment implemented in Slovakia and Uganda (N=2,309) reveals that deciding in a group with randomly assigned peers increases the prevalence of anti-social behavior that reduces everyone’s but which improves the relative position of own group. The effects are driven by the influence of a group context on individual behavior, rather than by group deliberation. The observed patterns are strikingly similar on both continents.

£6.00
Citation

Bauer, M, J Cahlíková, J Chytilová, L Cingl and T Želinský (2018), ‘DP13315 Anti-social Behavior in Groups‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 13315. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp13315