eprintid: 22253
rev_number: 23
eprint_status: archive
userid: 1482
importid: 105
dir: disk0/00/02/22/53
datestamp: 2016-08-25 09:17:29
lastmod: 2021-10-27 13:36:53
status_changed: 2018-03-21 14:05:42
type: monograph
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Chen, Daniel L.
creators_idrefppn: 241586631
creators_affiliation: Toulouse Institute for Advanced Study
title: Does Empathy Beget Guile? Experimental Evidence
ispublished: pub
subjects: subjects_ECO
abstract: Some theories about the positive impact of markets on morality suggest that competition increases empathy, not between competitors, but between them and third parties. However, empathy may be a necessary evolutionary antecedent to guile, which is when someone knows what the other person wants and intentionally deceives him or her, and deception may have evolved as a means of exploiting empathy. This paper examines how individuals primed for empathy behave towards third parties in a simple economic game of deception. It reports the results of a data entry experiment in an online labor market. Individuals enter data randomized to be a prime for empathy, for guile, or a control. Empathy is then measured using a Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test and guile is measured using a simple economic game. Individuals primed for empathy become less deceptive towards third parties. Individuals primed for guile become less likely to perceive that deceiving an individual is unfair in a vignette. These results are robust to a variety of controls and to restricting to workers who entered the prime accurately. These findings are inconsistent with the hypothesis that empathy causes guile and suggests that empathy may cause those who are making judgements to become less deceptive.
date: 2016-07
date_type: published
publisher: TSE Working Paper
official_url: http://tse-fr.eu/pub/30579
faculty: tse
divisions: tse
keywords: Normative Commitments
keywords: Other-Regarding Preferences
keywords: Empathy
keywords: Deception
keywords: Guile
language: en
has_fulltext: TRUE
subjectsJEL: JEL_D03
subjectsJEL: JEL_D64
subjectsJEL: JEL_K00
view_date_year: 2016
full_text_status: public
monograph_type: working_paper
series: TSE Working Paper
volume: 16-684
pages: 16
institution: Université Toulouse Capitole
department: Toulouse School of Economics
book_title: TSE Working Paper
oai_identifier: oai:tse-fr.eu:30579
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oai_lastmod: 2019-10-08T07:49:01Z
oai_set: tse
oai_set: ut1c
site: ut1
citation:   Chen, Daniel L. <https://www.idref.fr/241586631>  (2016) Does Empathy Beget Guile? Experimental Evidence.  TSE Working Paper, n. 16-684     
document_url: https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/22253/1/wp_tse_684.pdf