Inertia in Partnerships

Abstract

We design a novel experiment to examine the role of inertia in choosing partners, that is, a preference for staying with one’s original partner when offered an opportunity to switch. Our data show that the majority of participants who are offered the choice to play a new game with their original partner or a new partner will choose the original partner, even when they deceived their original partner in order to gain selfish profits. The results may suggest the importance of considering inertia in partner selections, in addition to economic incentives.