Colin Camerer: CalTech Department of Business Economics

We conducted economic experiments to investigate interethnic discrimination with the members of three ethnic groups, i.e., Vietnamese, Khmer and Chinese, in southern Vietnam. Vietnamese are the major ethnic group, and Khmer and Chinese are main minority groups. Chinese are the richest and Khmer are the poorest among the three ethnic groups.

We found that 1) Khmer (poor minority) show the strongest solidarity. 2) Vietnamese (majority) do not show solidarity when they are matched with Khmer (poor minority), but demonstrate ingroup bias when they are matched with Chinese (rich minority). 3) Vietnamese often comply with the social norm of fair allocations, choosing equal splits both in Dictator Game and Third Party Punishment Game. 4) Khmer send much more in Third party Punishment game than in Dictator Game, while Chinese reduce the amount sent when the third party is introduced (crowing-out effects). 4) Both minorities punish Vietnamese more severely when Vietnamese violate the norm. 5) Both minorities protect ingroup victims more than they do outgroup victims.