Identifying Ideology: Experimental Evidence on Anti-Americanism in Pakistan

NBER Working Paper No. 20153

Issued in May 2014, Revised in February 2016

NBER Program(s):Development Economics, Political Economy



Identifying the role of intrinsic, ideological motivation in political behavior is confounded by agents' consequential aims and social concerns. We present results from two experiments that implement a methodology isolating Pakistani men's intrinsic motives for expressing anti-American ideology, in a context with clearly-specified financial costs, but minimal consequential or social considerations. Over one-quarter of subjects forgo around one-fifth of a day's wage to avoid anonymously checking a box indicating gratitude toward the U.S. government, thus revealing anti-Americanism. We find that ideological expression responds to financial and social incentives, and that measured ideology predicts membership in a major anti-American political party.

Acknowledgments

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w20153

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