Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/271791 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 10147
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We use the trust and the dictator games to explore the effects of religious identity on trust, trustworthiness, prosociality, and conditional reciprocity within a beliefs-based model. We provide a novel and rigorous theoretical model to derive the relevant predictions, which are then tested in pre-registered lab-in-the-field experiments from villages in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. We find strong evidence of religious identity effects in the beliefs, and the chosen actions, for Hindu and Muslim subjects. Priming has little effect on Hindu subjects but it enhances religious polarization in beliefs and actions among Muslim subjects. There is taste-based discrimination but no statistical discrimination. All our underlying assumptions on beliefs, and their dependence on priming and identity are confirmed by the data, identifying a precise beliefs-based mechanism for the effects of religious identity. More religious subjects expect greater prosociality/reciprocity and often are more prosocial/reciprocal.
Subjects: 
religious identity
trust
trustworthiness
prosociality
priming
conditional reciprocity
JEL: 
C91
D01
D84
D91
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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