Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/146244 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2016/53
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
Implicit associations and biases are carried without awareness of conscious direction. In this paper, I develop a model to study giving behaviours under conditions of implicit bias. I test this model by implementing a novel laboratory experiment - a Dictator Game with sorting to study both these giving behaviours, as well as a subject's willingness to be exposed to a giving environment. In doing so, I adapt the Implicit Association Test (IAT), commonplace in other social sciences, for use in economics experiments. I then compare IAT score to dictator giving and sorting as a necessary test of its validity. I find that the presence of sorting environments identify a reluctance to share and negatively predict giving. However, despite the IAT's evergrowing popularity, it fails to predict even simple economic behaviours such as dictator giving. These results are indicative that implicit bias fails to overcome selfish interests and thus the IAT lacks external validity.
Subjects: 
implicit association test
implicit bias
race
prosocial behaviour
JEL: 
C91
D64
J15
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9256-096-6
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
762.44 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.