Toward an Understanding of Persistence of Kinship Norms with Deep Historical Origins: Evidence using Multiple Revealed Preference Experiments

Abstract:

We empirically test the role of older, own-age, and younger peers in generating social pressure in historically high-intensity kin-based communities whose social traits have persisted.  Using multiple revealed preference experiments involving over 12,000 US-based participants, we find that own-age locals are the relevant social group generating social pressure for participants with high-intensity kin-based ancestry. Participants of historically high-intensity kinship ancestry are more likely to keep information on their social preferences hidden from their own-age peers in their locality. Revenge-taking punishment, communal values, and public shame likely underlie the social pressure emerging from own-age locals in high-intensity kin-based ancestry groups.