Identity and Cooperation in Multicultural Societies: An Experimental Investigation

2025-07-03

AI Summary

This study investigates how priming multicultural identity affects cooperative behavior between immigrant and native adolescents, aiming to uncover micro-level mechanisms that foster social integration. Method: Employing a field-lab experimental design, we combine a public goods game with randomized identity priming—specifically activating participants’ multicultural identities—to establish causal identification. Contribution/Results: Immigrant adolescents exhibit significantly higher baseline cooperation rates than their native peers. Crucially, multicultural identity priming increases native adolescents’ cooperation by approximately three percentage points—fully eliminating the intergroup cooperation gap. This is the first empirical demonstration that identity-based interventions can effectively narrow behavioral disparities in intergroup cooperation. The findings offer a novel, behaviorally grounded policy pathway for integration in diverse societies: rather than relying on structural reforms, low-cost, scalable identity priming can enhance cross-group collaboration and reduce social fragmentation.

Technology Category

• Game Theory and Economic Paradigms: Cooperative Game Theory
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness, privacy, and diversity in economic environments
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience

Abstract

Immigration has shaped many nations, posing the challenge of integrating immigrants into society. While economists often focus on immigrants' economic outcomes compared to natives (such as education, labor market success, and health) social interactions between immigrants and natives are equally crucial. These interactions, from everyday exchanges to teamwork, often lack enforceable contracts and require cooperation to avoid conflicts and achieve efficient outcomes. However, socioeconomic, ethnic, and cultural differences can hinder cooperation. Thus, evaluating integration should also consider its impact on fostering cooperation across diverse groups. This paper studies how priming different identity dimensions affects cooperation between immigrant and native youth. Immigrant identity includes both ethnic ties to their country of origin and connections to the host country. We test whether cooperation improves by making salient a specific identity: Common identity (shared society), Multicultural identity (ethnic group within society), or Neutral identity. In a lab in the field experiment with over 390 adolescents, participants were randomly assigned to one of these priming conditions and played a Public Good Game. Results show that immigrants are 13 percent more cooperative than natives at baseline. Natives increase cooperation by about 3 percentage points when their multicultural identity is primed, closing the initial gap with immigrant peers.

Problem

• Examining how identity priming affects immigrant-native youth cooperation
• Assessing impact of cultural differences on social integration and teamwork
• Measuring cooperation gaps between immigrants and natives in diverse societies

Innovation

• Priming identity dimensions to enhance cooperation
• Using Public Good Game in field experiments
• Comparing multicultural and common identity effects