Competition and the role of group identity

• Published in: Journal of economic behavior & organization Vol. 162; pp. 136 - 145
• Main Authors: Cornaglia, Francesca, Drouvelis, Michalis, Masella, Paolo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.06.2019
• Subjects: Competition; Group identity; Laboratory experiment; Social distance; Competition; Social distance; Laboratory experiment; C92; D03; Group identity
• ISSN: 0167-2681; 1879-1751
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2019.04.022

•We design an experiment to analyse how individuals’ willingness to compete is affected by group identity.•We find that individuals display substantially stronger competitiveness in within group (ingroup) matchings than in between group (outgroup) matchings or when no group identity is induced.•The effect of group identity is also stronger for subjects who participated more actively in the team-building task. The emergence of competition is a defining aspect of human nature and characterizes many important social environments. However, its relationship with how social groups are formed has received little attention. We design an experiment to analyze how individuals’ willingness to compete is affected by group identity. We find that individuals display substantially stronger competitiveness in within group (ingroup) matchings than in between group (outgroup) matchings or in a control setting where no group identity is induced. We also find that the effect of group identity is stronger for subjects who participated more actively in the team-building task.