INDIVIDUALISM-COLLECTIVISM, PERSPECTIVE TAKING, AND REAL AND HYPOTHETICAL ENDOWMENT EFFECTS

AN ECONOMIC PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT: INDIVIDUALISM-COLLECTIVISM, PERSPECTIVE TAKING, AND REAL AND HYPOTHETICAL ENDOWMENT EFFECTS Ulas Basar Gezgin ABSTRACT An Economic Psychological Experiment: Individualism-Collectivism, Perspective Taking, and Real and Hypothetical Endowment Effects by Ulas Basar Gezgin             In this study conducted in Boğaziçi University with 121 participants, the psychological correlates of the endowment effect are probed. The endowment effect is the asymmetry between the amount that a given individual would like to pay for a certain good and the amount that this individual would like to accept to sell the same good. There are two types of endowment effect: The real endowment effect is the one observed in real or simulated economies, while the hypothetical endowment effect is the one exhibited for imaginary situations. Individualism-Collectivism and perspective taking are considered as psychological correlates of the endowment effect in this study. The study shows that there is at least some relationship between the real endowment effect and perspective taking and that individualism-collectivism is significantly correlated with perspective taking.                                                    TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………………………………... Table of Contents……………………………………………………………… List of Tables………………………………………………………………….. List of Appendices……………………………………………………………... I) INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………….             I.1)Decision-making and Rationality……………………………………             I.2) The Endowment Effect……………………………………………..             I.3) Egocentric Empathy Gaps………………………………………….             I.4) Empathy…………………………………………………………….             1.5) Perspective Taking…………………………………………………             I.6) Individualism-Collectivism…………………………………………             I.7) The Expected Relations……………………………………………..             I.8) Hypotheses………………………………………………………….. II) METHOD…………………………………………………………………….             II.1) Participants…………………………………………………………             II.2) Instruments…………………………………………………………                         II.2.1) Individualism-Collectivism………………………………                         II.2.2) Perspective Taking……………………………………….                         II.2.3) Endowment Effect………………………………………..             II.3) Procedure…………………………………………………………... III) RESULTS…………………………………………………………………             III.1) Real Endowment Effect……………………….………………...                         III.1.1) Endowment Effect…………………………………….                         III.1.2) Order Effect…………………………………………...                         III.1.3) Gender Effect…………………………………………             III.2) Hypothetical Endowment Effect………………………………..                         III.2.1) Quantitative Responses……………………………….                         III.2.2) Qualitative Responses………………………………...             III.3) Perspective Taking……………………………………………...                         III.3.1) Overall Scores and Cronbach Alpha………………….                         III.3.2) Overall Factor Analyses………………………………                         III.3.3) Subscales and Cronbach Alphas………………………             III.4) Individualism-Collectivism……………………………………..                         III.4.1) Overall Scores and Cronbach Alpha………………….             III.5) Hypotheses………………………………………………………                         III.5.1) Hypothesis 1: Collectivism and HE…………………...                         III.5.2) Hypothesis 2: Perspective Taking and HE…………….                         III.5.3) Hypothesis 3: RE, and SES and SAS………………….                         III.5.4) Hypothesis 4: Collectivism and Perspective Taking….. IV) DISCUSSION……………………………………………………………..             IV.1) Hypotheses………………………………………………………             IV.2) Contributions of the Study………………………………………             IV.3) Limitations of the Study…………………………………………             IV.4) Future Directions………………………………………………...             IV.5) Conclusion………………………………………………………. V) REFERENCES…………………………………………………………….. VI) APPENDICES…………………………………………………………….. LIST OF TABLES Table Number                                                                                                      1. Eight Types of Perspective Taking and The Examples……………….         2. Number of Respondents as to Their Quantitative Response Types             for Hypothetical Endowment Scenarios………………………………         3. Categories for Qualitative Responses and Their Respective             Percentages……………………………………………………………         4. Factor Analysis for Subscales of Social Awareness Inventory……….         5. Reliability Coefficients for Subscales of Social Awareness             Inventory………………………………………………………………         6. Binary Logistic Regression Results when Real Endowment Effect is Taken as the Dependent Variable………………………………….. 7. Correlations between Perspective Taking Scores and Individualism-collectivism Scores (n=120)……………………………………………..  LIST OF APPENDICES                                                                                             A)        The Scenarios………………………………………………………….. B)        Scenarios (Turkish form)……………………………………………… C)        Real Endowment Sheets………………………………………………. D)        Real Endowment Sheets (Turkish form)……………………………… E)        The Individualism-Collectivism Scale (Turkish version)…………….. F)         Social Awareness Inventory………………………………………….. G)        Social Awareness Inventory (Turkish form)…………………………. H)        The Flowchart for the Procedure…………………………………….. I)         Debriefing Mail for the Experiment (Turkish form)………………… J)         Debriefing Mail for the Experiment (English form)…………………