Protecting Public Goods or Helping Free Riders? A Real-Life Moral Dilemma in Interethnic and Intraethnic Encounters.
Publisher DOI
PubMed ID
40577264
Abstract
People often protect public goods by sanctioning free riders. This occurs in simple situations in which protecting the public good does not conflict with other moral considerations. How do people navigate situations in which protecting the public good comes at the expense of helping someone? We theorized that people would prioritize the needs of the public or another individual on the basis of the individual's group membership. To test this theory, we conducted a field experiment with male confederates approaching adult male travelers passing through check-in gates at Dutch train stations. The confederates requested to follow the travelers without checking in themselves. We observed whether travelers sanctioned the free rider by rejecting and disapproving of this request or helped by opening the gates. At three train stations, 801 travelers were approached by 10 different confederates. Group membership was varied by having five native-majority and five ethnic-minority confederates. Robust evidence was found for travelers being more likely to help native-majority free riders and to sanction ethnic-minority free riders.
Date Issued
2025-07
Publication Type
Article
Subjects
discrimination
•
ethnic groups
•
field experiment
•
free riders
•
helping
•
informal sanctions
•
moral dilemma
•
norm enforcement
•
norms
•
public goods
Language(s)
en
Author(s)
Otten, Kasper | |
Buskens, Vincent | |
Ellemers, Naomi |
Additional Credits
Journal
Psychological Science
Publisher
SAGE Publications
ISSN
1467-9280
0956-7976
Access(Rights)
open.access