Natural Disasters and Social Preferences: The Effect of Tsunami-Memories on Cheating in Sri Lanka

This study analyses how past tsunami-memories affect cheating in Sri Lanka. Subjects are assigned to a treatment (control) group in which they watch a video about the calamity before (after) participating in a trust game. Cheating is elicited by asking trustors how much they need to receive not to feel cheated and trustees how much they need to return not to make the trustor feel cheated. Finally, participants report whether the video mostly reminded them about solidarity, looting or the calamity. Trustors show lower cheating standards and trustees more often satisfy the trustors’ cheating notion if they mostly recall solidarity.