Premium
Social Information “Nudges”: An Experiment with Multiple Group References
Author(s) -
Hargreaves Heap Shaun,
Ramalingam Abhijit,
Rojo Arjona David
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/soej.12210
Subject(s) - nudge theory , group (periodic table) , inequality , point (geometry) , social group , social comparison theory , computer science , social psychology , psychology , mathematics , mathematical analysis , chemistry , geometry , organic chemistry
Social information “nudges” concerning how others perform typically boost individual performances in experiments with one group reference point. However, in many natural settings, sometimes due to policy, there are several such group reference points. We address the complications that such multiple group social information might introduce through an experiment. The boost to average performance is significant and comparable to the one group case. Between‐group inequality does not change. Individual inequality falls, however, because the boost is largest among the pre‐“nudge” very poor performers. Finally, the boost to average performance is highest when individuals freely choose their group affiliations.