Moving up? The effect of economic mobility on giving behavior
Leticia Micheli, Leiden University
Perceptions of economic mobility have been shown to influence a range of individual attitudes and behaviors, such as support for redistribution, gambling, status-seeking and materialism. However, it is less clear how perceptions of economic mobility may influence interpersonal behavior.
This study investigates whether economic mobility influences giving behavior when the recipient is someone in ranks below or above one’s own. Importantly, giving behavior is incentivized. The sample included 460 participants, predominantly from Global South countries (recruited via Besample). Participants were randomly assigned to either a low or high rank on a 5-rank ladder resembling income quintiles. To manipulate economic mobility, participants played a game in which they estimated the number of dots in a picture and received either low or high points for each correct estimation, making it considerably harder for some participants to accumulate points and move up the ranks. Participants then played 5 one-shot decisions of the dictator game, each paired with individuals in one of the different ranks of the ladder.
Although both the manipulations of rank and economic mobility were successful, we found no effects of manipulated economic mobility or ranks on overall giving behavior. Importantly, individual heterogeneity in perceptions of economic mobility influenced giving behavior, such that higher perceptions of upward mobility led to higher generosity (regardless of the target of the generous behavior).
Zoom link to join Online : https://unu-merit-eu.zoom.us/j/84417247414?pwd=bVFvQWdLR0ZoNGd1RlFuWkg2UGFUdz09
About the speaker
Leticia Rettore Micheli is an Assistant Professor at the unit of Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology. In her research she investigates how situations of inequality, unfairness and scarcity influence our psychology as well as our behavior when interacting with others.
Leticia Rettore Micheli obtained her master degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from Radboud University Nijmegen and her PhD in Neuroeconomics from Maastricht University. During her PhD she investigated the effects of inequality on social and consumer decision-making. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Leibniz University Hannover and Würzburg University, investigating the role of social cognition in social decision-making. Since 2022, Leticia works at Leiden University as Assistant Professor of Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology.
In her research, Leticia investigates how situations of inequality, unfairness and scarcity influence social and consumer decision-making and what the neural mechanisms underlying such decisions are. Specifically, she investigates how different types of inequality (e.g., inequality in outcomes or inequality in opportunities) affect our decisions, and how people think situations of inequality should be addressed.
Leticia is interested in exploring people’s perceptions of inequality, unfairness and economic mobility and how such perceptions influence behavior. In her work, Leticia adopts an interdisciplinary approach, using insights and methods from Psychology, Economics and Neuroscience.
Venue: Room 0.18, Boschstraat 24, Maastricht (UNU-MERIT) and Online
Date: 29 February 2024
Time: 12:00 - 13:00 CEST