Experimental and Behavioural Economics
Experimental and Behavioural Economics
The Experimental and Behavioural Economics Research Group (EBERG) draws its membership from economists based at the Economics Department at Warwick who work in the fields of Experimental Economics, Behavioural Economics and/or Subjective Wellbeing (“Happiness Economics”). Experimental methods are used in many fields of economics, including behavioural economics, public economics, labour economics, political economy, game theory, and financial economics. Behavioural economics is an attempt to understand decision-making in the context of the many psychological, cognitive and emotional factors that influence behaviour. Behavioural economists typically build on traditional economic models with insights from psychology or neuroscience. Since behavioural economics concerns the underlying motivations for behaviour it can be hard (though not impossible) to find data to support or develop behavioural theories without the use of experimental methods which explains the close relationship between the two fields.
Experimental and behavioural research are fundamentally interdisciplinary and this is reflected in the fact that the group is linked to other similar groups across the University of Warwick and beyond. DR@W is the overarching interdisciplinary group of all behavioural scientists in Warwick which, together with EBERG, also takes members from the Behavioural Science Group at Warwick Business School and behavioural and experimental psychologists based in the Psychology Department, and hosts a weekly seminar, the DR@W Forum. Many members of EBERG are also affiliated with Bridges, an interdisciplinary centre that includes behavioural and experimental work in its remit that also hosts regular seminars and workshops. Behaviour, Brain and Society is one of the University of Warwick’s global research priorities (GRPs) and the co-ordinator of EBERG sits on the board of the GRP. Several group members are actively involved in the ESRC CAGE centre. Theme 3 of CAGE is led by the co-ordinator of EBERG and has a special focus on subjective wellbeing.
People
Academics
Academics associated with the Reseach Group Name research group are:
Events
EBER (DR@W) Seminar - Bruno Ferman
Title: Rooting for the same team: Shared social identities in a polarized context
Abstract: Does sharing affective identities build social cohesion in a politically polarized setting? We experimentally answer this during the Brazilian presidential elections of 2022. We use Twitter follow-backs and blocks as measures of social ties among congruent or incongruent individuals along political (supporting the same candidate) and affective (rooting for the same football team) dimensions of identity. Congruence in either dimension fosters tie formation, but the positive effect of sharing an affective identity becomes substantially less relevant when information about political identity is available. This suggests that, although affective congruence fosters ties among politically opposite individuals, political polarization limits such effect. Consistent with these results, we also show that a shared national identity might not help build cohesion in a polarized setting. Through text analysis of live-streamed tweets of Brazilian soccer fans during the 2022 World Cup, we document significant differences in the fans' reactions to positive (e.g., goals) and negative (elimination) events depending on their political alignment with the specific players that triggered the events. Taken together, our results indicate that, in a polarized setting, political identities can hinder the potential of other shared identities to increase social cohesion.