published in: Schmollers Jahrbuch: Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften / Journal of Applied Social Science Studies, 2002, 122 (4), 519-542
Typically, laboratory experiments suffer from homogeneous subject pools and self-selection
biases. The usefulness of survey data is limited by measurement error and by the
questionability of their behavioral relevance. Here we present a method integrating interactive
experiments and representative surveys thereby overcoming crucial weaknesses of both
approaches. One of the major advantages of our approach is that it allows for the integration
of experiments, which require interaction among the participants, with a survey of noninteracting
respondents in a smooth and inexpensive way. We illustrate the power of our
approach with the analysis of trust and trustworthiness in Germany by combining
representative survey data with representative behavioral data from a social dilemma
experiment. We identify which survey questions intended to elicit people's trust correlate well
with behaviorally exhibited trust in the experiment. People above the age of 65, highly skilled
workers and people living in bigger households exhibit less trusting behavior. Foreign
citizens, Catholics and people favoring the Social Democratic Party or the Christian
Democratic Party exhibit more trust. People above the age of 65 and those in good health
behave more trustworthy or more altruistically, respectively. People below the age of 35, the
unemployed and people who say they are in favor of none of the political parties behave less
trustworthy or less altruistically, respectively.
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