When future income mobility reduces antisocial behavior: an experiment

This paper examines how the mechanism of future income mobility – effort or luck – and the psychological biases that shape mobility expectations – overconfidence and overoptimism – affect antisocial behavior. In a lab experiment, participants can reduce others’ earnings at a personal cost, a proxy for antisocial behavior, with and without future income mobility. Mobility is modeled as a probabilistic process driven by either effort or luck. Participants are assigned to three income levels with varying prospects of upward mobility. Results suggest that effort-driven future mobility suppresses antisocial behavior more than luck-driven mobility, especially for poorer-than-average participants. Overconfidence and overoptimism, however, do not reduce antisocial behavior through excessive expectations of upward mobility.