TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Chakraborty, Anujit
AU  - Henkel, Luca
        TI  - The Role of Interpersonal Uncertainty in Prosocial Behavior
        PY  - 2025/Feb/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17708
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp17708
        AB  - In prosocial decisions, decision-makers face interpersonal uncertainty–uncertainty about how their choices impact others' utility. We use three approaches to show how it shapes classic patterns of prosocial behavior like ingroup favoritism, merit-based fairness, and self-favoring behavior. First, we compare standard allocation decisions with decisions where we remove social consequences but retain uncertainty, revealing strikingly similar patterns across both. Second, we exogenously vary interpersonal uncertainty to estimate the aversion to interpersonal uncertainty and quantify how it combines with preferences to determine prosocial decisions. Finally, we show that self-reported interpersonal uncertainty systematic ally predicts behavior across individuals, choice patterns, and behavioral interventions.
        KW  - prosocial behavior
KW  - decision-making under uncertainty
KW  - interpersonal uncertainty
KW  - ingroup favoritism
KW  - merit-based fairness
KW  - self-favoring behavior
        ER  -