Testing Theories of Reciprocity Does Motivation Matter互惠的测试理论是否有动机.pdfVIP

Testing Theories of Reciprocity: Does Motivation Matter?∗ † ‡ § Luca Stanca, Luigino Bruni, Luca Corazzini March 2007 Abstract One of the key issues for understanding reciprocity is how people eval- uate the kindness of an action. In this paper we argue that the moti- vation driving an action plays an important role for the reciprocating response to that action. We test experimentally the hypothesis that reciprocal behavior is stronger in response to actions driven by in- trinsic motivation, as opposed to extrinsic motivation. Our results indicate that reciprocity is significantly stronger when extrinsic moti- vation can be ruled out, both at the aggregate and the individual level. These findings suggest that models of reciprocal behavior should take into account not only outcomes but also intentions and, in particu- lar, motivations: the type of motivation of an action matters for its perceived kindness and, as a consequence, for reciprocity. Keywords: Reciprocity, Intrinsic Motivation, Laboratory Experi- ments. JEL codes: D63, C78, C91. ∗We thank Tommaso Reggiani for excellent research assistance. We acknowledge finan- cial support from Econometica. †Corresponding author. Economics Department, University of Milan Bicocca. Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milan, Italy. E-mail: luca.stanca@unimib.it ‡Economics Department, University of Milan Bicocca. Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milan, Italy. E-mail: luigino.bruni@unimib.it §School of Economics and Social Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom. I