Relative social status and conformism : Experimental evidence on local public good contributions

Through an artefactual field experiment conducted in Colombia, where participants make repeated contributions to a local natural conservation project, I test a novel way to identify high status individuals within a community, and show that status, so defined, is correlated with public good giving. Both absolute and relative status have a statistically significant and economically relevant influence on behavior. In particular, the same individual, when matched with a lower status partner, donates more and conforms less to the partner's action. The results indicate that contributions to local public goods can be enhanced by interventions that make relative status more salient.