Partisan Bias, Altruism, and Universalism: Evidence From a Controlled Experiment

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: The effect of partisan bias is not confined to the political arena but extends to consumer markets and labor markets. In order to better understand the relationship between affective polarization and economic behavior, I conduct a controlled experiment using a series of dictator games to measure partisan bias in altruism. I find that participants behave more altruistically toward members of their own party and that participants who report higher levels of partisanship display more partisan bias in altruistic behavior. This implies that self-reporting can be a useful tool for gauging differences in partisan bias. However, even participants who report low levels of partisanship display a significant level of partisan bias in altruistic behavior, perhaps because they are unaware of their partisanship or are unwilling to admit it. Therefore, screening for partisan behavior may be a more accurate gauge of partisanship than self-reporting. Additionally, I find that partisan bias in altruism is distinct from and stronger than bias based on shared home state. Finally, in testing a recently-developed questionnaire designed to measure universalism in altruism, I find discrepancies between the results of the universalism questionnaire and the results of the dictator games, raising questions about the validity of the questionnaire.

Author	Gilmartin, Raymond	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1184-4420 (unverified)
Thesis advisor	Niederle, Muriel	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4955-2186 (unverified)

Subject	Partisanship
Subject	intergroup bias
Subject	Altruism
Subject	Universalism
Subject	affective polarization
Subject	American politics
Subject	Experimental economics
Subject	behavioral economics
Subject	Stanford University
Subject	Mathematical and Computational Science
Genre	Text
Genre	Thesis

DOI	https://doi.org/10.25740/jr540cb6284
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/jr540cb6284

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY).

Preferred citation: Gilmartin, Raymond. (2020). Partisan Bias, Altruism, and Universalism: Evidence From a Controlled Experiment. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/jr540cb6284. https://doi.org/10.25740/jr540cb6284

Undergraduate theses, Mathematical and Computational Science

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