An experimental study of prosocial motivation among criminals |
| |
Authors: | Sigbjørn Birkeland Alexander W. Cappelen Erik Ø. Sørensen Bertil Tungodden |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Department of Economics, NHH Norwegian School of Economics, 5045, Bergen, Norway
|
| |
Abstract: | The fact that criminal behavior typically has negative consequences for others provides a compelling reason to think that criminals lack prosocial motivation. This paper reports the results from two dictator game experiments designed to study the prosocial motivation of criminals. In a lab experiment involving prisoners, we find a striking similarity in the prosocial behavior of criminals and non-criminals, both when they interact with criminals and when they interact with non-criminals. Similarly, in an Internet experiment on a large sample from the general population, we find no difference in the prosocial behavior of individuals with and without a criminal record. We argue that our findings provide evidence of criminals being as prosocially motivated as non-criminals in an important type of distributive situations. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|