Syrian Civil War Victims Trust Each Other, but Punish When and Whomever They Can

Arbeitspapier

The civil war in Syria has been raging since 2011. We ask whether civil war experience affects voluntary cooperation and its coordination by means of peer punishment. To answer that question, we ran experiments with Syrians and Jordanians, and use a victimization index to measure the individual war exposure among Syrians. Despite being more trusting, severely victimized Syrians tend to be less cooperative when subsequent peer punishment is possible. Severely victimized participants punish whenever possible, not distinguishing between their opponent s decisions. Our findings show that experiencing extreme violence deteriorates the adequate use of sanctioning mechanisms.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: ILE Working Paper Series ; No. 40

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Noncooperative Games ; Field Experiments ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡ ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
• Subject: Civil war ; Victimization ; Trust ; Cooperation ; Punishment

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): El-Bialy, Nora ; Fraile Aranda, Elisa ; Nicklisch, Andreas ; Saleh, Lamis ; Voigt, Stefan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics (ILE)
• (where): Hamburg
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/225067
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET