{"title":"Violence, class, and entrepreneurship","authors":"Zhiming Cheng, Le Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102529","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102529","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>What are the long-term causal effects of childhood exposure to political violence during China’s Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) on entrepreneurship in adulthood? Using a difference-in-differences framework, we exploit variations in exposure to mass killings across regions, cohorts, and socialist social classes. The results show that exposure to more intense violence during middle childhood and adolescence reduces the likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur later in life. This adverse effect is heterogeneous by class background. Individuals from advantaged socialist classes experience a weaker decline in entrepreneurial propensity compared with those from disadvantaged classes, suggesting that favourable political status in the pre-reform era partly mitigates the enduring consequences of childhood violence exposure. We further find that males primarily drive the negative effect on entrepreneurship.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102529"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Price trends in sequential auctions: The case of collectible cars","authors":"Olga Shanks","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102518","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102518","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Select theories of price behavior in sequential auctions allow for stochastically arriving and departing bidders. However, empirical evidence of the effect of the number of bidders on price in sequential auctions remains scarce. I use data from Mecum auctions for collectible cars, which I supplement with records of the number of bidders present at each auction round, to test the hypothesis that in sequential auctions the price rises with the number of bidders. The empirical test shows support for the hypothesis and provides a missing explanation for the declining price anomaly prevalent in sequential auctions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102518"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145980181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chatbot or humanaut? How the source of advice impacts prosocial behavior","authors":"J. Jobu Babin , Haritima S. Chauhan","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102509","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102509","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores how the source of advice – human or generative AI (genAI) – relates to behavior in three classic bargaining games commonly used to assess prosociality and cooperative welfare gains. Utilizing a novel experiment, we show that the source of advice matters. While both sources of advice increased prosociality, players preferred human advice over that from genAI and were more willing to pay for it. Prosocial behavior was more prevalent when players received human advice — advice increased the probability of adopting the Pareto-optimal strategy by 14% in the stag hunt and boosted contributions of 19% to the public goods game and 8% in dictator. Leveraging language AI advances, we demonstrate that the advice corpora differ significantly. Humans were more objective, specific, intuitive, and norm-oriented; genAI offered guided reasoning and targeted concepts of risk and strategy. Entities adopting genAI technologies should balance AI agency with human oversight and judgment, mindful of behavioral salience and moral credibility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102509"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145928769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From entry to persistence: Socio-emotional skills and entrepreneurial profiles","authors":"Kompal Sinha , Elisabetta Magnani , Rong Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102519","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102519","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates how a comprehensive set of socio-emotional skills (the Big Five personality traits, locus of control, risk preference, time preference, and trust) shapes not only the decision to enter entrepreneurship, as measured by self-employment and incorporated self-employment, but also informs individuals’ ability to sustain the entrepreneurial state over time. Drawing on longitudinal data from the Australian HILDA Survey, we introduce two time-sensitive indices to measure entrepreneurship, chronicity and persistence, alongside conventional static measures of self-employment and incorporated self-employment. Results show that risk preference consistently emerges as the strongest predictor of entrepreneurial entry and persistence, while the roles of other socio-emotional traits are smaller and less consistent. Heterogeneity analyses suggest these results offer important caveats on the gender dimension of entrepreneurship. These findings remain robust under extensive sensitivity and bounds tests, underscoring the central role of risk preference in sustaining entrepreneurial activity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102519"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147397533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The effects of favorable review solicitations on repurchase decisions: A field experiment on an e-commerce platform","authors":"Geran Tian","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102532","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102532","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although offering cash-back for favorable reviews is a common marketing tactic on e-commerce platforms, its effects on the buyers who receive these incentives are poorly understood. We conducted a field experiment to examine how varying cash-back levels influence customer engagement with review solicitations and their subsequent repurchase decisions. The results show that larger cash-back amounts lead to significantly increased buyer participation in providing reviews. However, despite this elevated short-term engagement, the repurchase rates among these buyers decline substantially compared to a control group, regardless of the incentive size. This suggests that soliciting paid reviews may undermine long-term customer loyalty. This study thus provides novel empirical evidence on the unintended, negative long-term repercussions of paid review strategies, contributing to the literature on electronic commerce and consumer relationship management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102532"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147397534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Benjamin Prissé , Ruotong Deng , Jun Quan Ho , Dinithi Jayasekara , Chris Ouangraoua
{"title":"The creativity of artificial intelligence","authors":"Benjamin Prissé , Ruotong Deng , Jun Quan Ho , Dinithi Jayasekara , Chris Ouangraoua","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102528","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102528","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates how humans evaluate the creativity of AI-generated artworks in comparison to the human artworks from which they were derived. Using a novel experimental framework, we commissioned original artworks across three distinct art styles: animal charcoal drawings, minimalist commercial logos, and watercolor landscapes. We then prompted Stable Diffusion to produce artworks based on the commissioned pieces. Participants evaluated the creativity of both human- and AI-generated artworks by assigning a grade between 0 and 10, and then bid for these drawings in an auction to examine how monetary costs influenced their choices. Participants then evaluated the creativity of a sample of selected AI-generated artworks to investigate the factors that drive perceptions of creativity. Results show that AI-generated drawings are consistently rated as more creative and elicit higher bids in the landscape treatment. The perceived creativity of AI-generated drawings is driven by detailed features, scene construction, and color use, while errors do not diminish perceived creativity and may even enhance it. These findings suggest that AI-generated artwork is preferred by participants due to its higher aesthetic appeal.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102528"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147397577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Penélope Hernández , Antonio J. Morales , Zvika Neeman , Jose M. Pavía
{"title":"Exploring the privacy paradox: An experimental investigation of privacy-preserving behavioral responses in online shopping","authors":"Penélope Hernández , Antonio J. Morales , Zvika Neeman , Jose M. Pavía","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102504","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102504","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper utilizes (an observational approach within) a controlled laboratory experiment to investigate the nature of the privacy paradox. Participants are assigned a type exogenously and engage in online shopping to earn monetary rewards, while their shopping behavior is observed by an AI that aims to learn their type. Our findings indicate that participants willingly disclose significant amounts of private information, and persist in doing so even after receiving explicit information regarding the AI’s ability to learn about their type. However, we observe that the adoption of two mechanisms, namely “explainable AI” and a “privacy APP”, leads participants to adopt privacy-preserving shopping habits. Notably, this change in behavior occurs even in scenarios where the disclosure of private information has no impact on the monetary rewards. Our findings suggest that a plausible reason individuals share extensive personal information online stems from their lack of access to technologies enabling them to engage online while safeguarding their privacy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102504"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145903910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A taxonomy of AI experiments","authors":"Aleksandr Alekseev , Christina Strobel","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102525","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102525","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We introduce a taxonomy of artificial intelligence (AI) experiments. Our taxonomy produces four types of AI experiments: conceptual AI experiments, stylized AI experiments, quasi-natural AI experiments, and natural AI experiments. At the core of our taxonomy is the sophistication of AI used, which we evaluate using a simple and robust proxy test of whether AI is developed exclusively for a research study. We discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and best use cases for each type and illustrate the use of each type in various examples. We provide a guide on how to choose the type of AI experiment that best fits a given research question.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102525"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rachel Cassidy , Smita Das , Clara Delavallade , Elijah Kipchumba , Julietha Komba
{"title":"Do men really have greater socio-emotional skills than women? Evidence from Tanzanian youth","authors":"Rachel Cassidy , Smita Das , Clara Delavallade , Elijah Kipchumba , Julietha Komba","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102530","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102530","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Policymakers recognize the importance of socio-emotional skills (SES) for workforce development. However, it is unclear if SES programming could be used to improve gender gaps in the labor force, and whether gender differences exist in these skills or returns to these skills. The answer may depend on how SES are measured. Few studies use measures beyond self-reports — or seek to measure SES granularly and rigorously in large samples, especially in low- and middle-income countries. This paper deploys novel sets of self-reported and behavioral measures of 14 SES in a sample of more than 4000 male and female youth not in full-time education, employment or training, in urban and peri-urban Tanzania. The findings show that the two measures are not highly correlated. Moreover, men score higher than women on all 12 positively-worded self-reported measures. In contrast, gender gaps in behavioral measures are only observed for a few skills, and are far smaller in magnitude. The paper provides suggestive correlational evidence that this pattern reflects men’s overestimation of their own skills, rather than women’s underestimation. In particular, there is a larger gap between self-reported and behavioral measures among men. Men’s self-reports, and the gap between their self-reported and behavioral measures, are strongly correlated with measures of social desirability and gendered beliefs about abilities — patterns not observed among women.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102530"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147397573","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reputation systems in the absence of clear responsibility: An experimental study","authors":"Ninghua Du , Lanxin Meng","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102537","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2026.102537","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Reputation systems may fail to foster buyers’ trust and providers’ trustworthiness when product defects cannot be clearly attributed to specific parties in the supply chain. This study uses experimental methods to investigate reputation systems in a context where product quality is jointly yet asymmetrically determined by upstream and downstream providers. In our laboratory setting, buyers receive collective performance records indicating whether previously delivered products were defective. The results reveal that while access to the upstream (pivotal) provider’s collective records alone improves trust, access to both upstream and downstream providers’ records yields significantly higher trust rates. Notably, disclosing individual responsibility for defects provides no additional increase in either trust or trustworthiness beyond the effect of complete collective records.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"121 ","pages":"Article 102537"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147397575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}