Differences in Social Preferences Towards Friends and Strangers

The aim of this study is to investigate how social preferences towards friends differ from social preferences towards strangers. It does so by using quantitative data obtained by means of questionnaires conducted at a secondary school. The questionnaires consist of modified dictator games with varying relative prices and modified dictator games in which the subjects implicitly give money a certain valuation by choosing a certain allocation. The results indicate that when charitableness is cheap, people seem to be kinder, and when it is expensive, they seem to be unkinder. Furthermore, charitableness towards friends does not differ from charitableness towards strangers. This holds for all relative prices. Concerning enviousness, people seem to display envy towards both friends and strangers. Moreover, envy towards friends does not differ from envy towards strangers.