In this new paper social-category-salience is manipulated through priming in order to evaluate the effect of having a certain social identity on economic preferences. What is found is that social identity is of great importance to the choices people make. Typically, Asian people would be thought of as having a cultural history of traits such as patience. In this study it was found that making the Asian aspect of Asian-Americans' identity more salient resulted in less steep discounting. There are several other results of a similar nature in the article below.
This paradigm offers an interesting way in which to study the effects of, for instance, social class on time and risk preferences as it would typically be thought that being of a lower social class is associated with steeper discounting. It has previously been found that class distinctions in conformism go in the direction of more liberal attitudes through the higher social classes and greater conformism in regard to views relating to sexual infidelity and homosexuality in lower classes. In one sense this seems counter intuitive. Theorising around Bourdieu's habitus would suggest a diffusion of social etiquette from the upper classes downwards. However, perhaps this is a combination of the narrowing of the gap between classes in the last two hundred years and also a result of upper class hypocrisy using methods such as manners as a form of class distinction and then engaging in more liberal behaviour in a "do as I say not as I do mentality". Either way, it would be interesting to see the direction in which priming social class would have on aspects of self-control and time and risk preferences.
Social Identity and Preferences
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