HOW WELL DO SINGAPOREANS COMPETE? AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON SOCIAL IDENTITY AND COMPETITIVENESS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This paper seeks to investigate the role of social identity in influencing the competitiveness and performance of individuals. Specifically, we conduct an experiment to test if Singaporeans compete more and perform better against opponents who share the same or different social identity. By pitting Singaporeans participants against Singaporean and foreign opponents in a real effort task, we allow participants to choose a payment scheme to be compensated for their performance - a non-competitive piece rate which guarantees a certain payoff or a competitive tournament rate, which offers a higher payoff but only if they beat their opponent. We propose a model where competitiveness and performance of individuals are affected by risk preferences elicited by their opponent's identity. We found that Singaporeans compete more and perform better against Singaporeans because they feel less risk averse towards those who share the same identity. We also found gender differences in risk preferences and competitiveness.