The impact of social comparisons on reciprocity

Arbeitspapier

This paper investigates how social comparison information about referent others (i.e. learning what similar others do and how they are treated) affects reciprocal relationships. Using a three-person gift-exchange game we study how employees' reciprocity towards an employer is affected by exposure to pay comparison information (what co-workers earn) and effort comparison information (how co-workers perform). We find that pay comparison information comparison information (how co-workers perform). We find that pay comparison information does not affect reciprocity. Effort comparison information, however, influences reciprocal relationships in important ways: the ability to observe reciprocal behavior on the part of others strongly affects employees' reciprocity towards the employer. While our data show that social information in principle may either erode or amplify reciprocal relationships, we find that, on average, social comparisons have a detrimental impact on reciprocity.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CeDEx Discussion Paper Series ; No. 2010-10

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Relation of Economics to Social Values ; Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Group Behavior ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
• Subject: reciprocity ; gift-exchange ; social information ; social comparisons ; pay comparisons ; Soziale Beziehungen ; Austauschtheorie (Soziologie) ; Arbeitsplatz ; Arbeitskräfte ; Lohn ; Information ; Vergleich ; Spieltheorie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gächter, Simon ; Nosenzo, Daniele ; Sefton, Martin
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The University of Nottingham, Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics (CeDEx)
• (where): Nottingham
• (when): 2010

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/49668
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET