Types and patterns: An experimental East-West-German comparison of cooperation and solidarity

Abstract

In a study of public good and solidarity experiments conducted in eastern and western Germany, we found in both games that eastern subjects behave in a significantly more selfish manner than do western subjects. Besides that we found that many qualitative results of both data sets are similar. Since our experiments were conducted in two parts of one nation, we present an unusually well controlled cross-cultural study by avoiding difficulties that usually arise in multinational settings. We conclude that cooperation and solidarity behavior seem to depend strongly on different culture-specific norms resulting from opposing economic and social histories in the two parts of Germany.