Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Conzo, Pierluigi
Author-Email: Pierluigi.conzo@unito.it
Author-Homepage: www.unito.it/persone/pierluigi.conzo  
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Turin
Author-Workplace-Homepage: http://www.est.unito.it/
Title: Trust and Cheating in Sri Lanka: The Role of Experimentally-Induced Emotions about Tsunami.
Abstract: Through a field experiment in Sri Lanka I analyze the role of experimentally-induced memories of 2004 
tsunami on behavior in a trust game in which personal notions of cheating are elicited. Micro-finance borrowers 
were randomly assigned to a treatment (control) group consisting in watching a video about the calamity before 
feel cheated; in a survey they selected whether the video mostly reminded about solidarity, looting or the calamity 
experience. Results suggest a differential impact of emotional stimuli induced by the video-treatment on trustors’ 
definition of cheating and trustees’ intentional cheating. Among the treated, the probability trustors define 
cheating as a non-negative return on investment (i.e. receive no more than what invested) and trustees satisfy 
trustor’s cheating notion (i.e. return at least what makes him/her not feel cheated) is higher when recalling 
solidarity than when looting and/or the calamity. As expected, there are no significant emotional effects of the 
video on control group’s behavior. If the trust game replicates real investment decisions, identifying the channels 
through which emotional memories of a past shock affect behavior offer important insights on what hinders socio-economic 
transactions within post-disaster areas.
Length: 48 pages
Creation-Date: 2014-03
File-URL: http://www.est.unito.it/do/home.pl/Download?doc=/allegati/wp2014dip/wp_3_2014.pdf
File-Format: Application/PDF
Handle: RePEc:uto:dipeco:201403