We study experimentally the effect on individual behavior of comparative, but payoff-irrelevant, information in a near-minimal group setting. Specifically, in each round, group members see the groups' cumulative payoffs, which consist of an aggregation of the earnings of each member of the group...

Linear altruism is a functional form used extensively in outcome-based models of social preferences: the underlying assumption is that individuals have a utility over monetary outcome profiles that depends on their and other players' payments. Behavior in strategic interactions is explained as a...

Linear altruism predicts the estimated preferences to be independent of the subject’s position in the game, if the role allocation is randomly determined, because subjects, in each role, have the same preferences ex ante. We test and reject this hypothesis.