Spillover Effects of Sensitive Information on Trust and Cooperation

The way people make decisions is one of the essential topics in economic studies. This paper analyzes such phenomena as how people’s choices are affected by their opinions. Notably, the research provides answers to such questions as to whether opposing views of people on the same subject can lead to a more selfish decision, whether agents intentionally demonstrate social conformity to achieve better individual payoff. It also inspects how sensitive information can change the typical outcome. The experiment was conducted where people with different views on popular, controversial topics are matched and demanded to play the dictator game. Results of the research show that people demonstrate conformity by averaging their answers, expect less knowing that their responses are shown, and also, players punish nonconformity.