ICES Experimental Economics Brown Bag Lecture
Who am I if we are not us? An experimental study on identity dissipation
Thursday, March 30, 2023 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EDT
Vernon Smith Hall (formerly Metropolitan Building), Room 5075
The Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES) presents an ICES Brown Bag Lecture featuring:
George Mason University
Who am I if we are not us? An experimental study on identity dissipation
Abstract
From time to time, people experience a loss of identity, either as a result of a breakup of a relationship or a move that physically separates them from their old friends. While most sociological and psychological studies try to approach this question by focusing on how a person feels after losing certain relationships, there is currently no economic research that aims to understand what happens to people's social preferences after they are no longer members of a certain group. Do they still view their former group as an in-group and have in-group preferences toward their former group members? This brownbag talk will present an experimental design that attempts to fill this gap. Specifically, experimenters will create a group identity in the lab and then measure participants' preferences for their ingroup members and for outgroup members. The experimenters then disrupt the initial identity and test whether people still have a similar preference for the ingroup or outgroup member. If an initial identity is not disrupted and participants remain in the original group, the experimenters will test whether there is continued preference for the ingroup and discrimination against the outgroup. The outcome of this experiment will shed light on how to help an individual manage intergroup relations in the case of identity loss.
For more information about the Brown Bag Lectures, please visit the Brown Bag Schedule homepage.
