Supplementary Information Files for Not all group members are created equal: heterogeneous abilities in inter-group contests

Supplementary Information Files for Not all group members are created equal: heterogeneous abilities in inter-group contestsCompetition between groups is ubiquitous in social and economic life, and typically occurs between groups that are not created equal. Here we experimentally investigate the implications of this general observation on the unfolding of symmetric and asymmetric competition between groups that are either homogeneous or heterogeneous in the ability of their members to contribute to the success of the group. Our main finding is that relative to the benchmark case in which two homogeneous compete against each other, heterogeneity within groups per se has no discernable effect on competition, while introducing heterogeneity between groups leads to a significant intensification of conflict as well as increased volatility, thereby reducing earnings of contest participants and increasing inequality. We further find that heterogeneous groups share the labor much more equally than predicted by theory, and that in asymmetric contests group members change the way in which they condition their efforts on those of their peers. Implications for contest designers are discussed.

本补充信息文件针对《并非所有群体成员均等：群体间竞赛中的异质性能力》一文进行了深入研究。在社会与经济生活中，群体间的竞争无处不在，且往往发生在实力不均等的群体之间。本研究通过实验手段，探讨了这一普遍现象对同质与异质群体在竞争中的对称性与非对称性影响。主要发现是，与两个同质群体竞争的基准案例相比，群体内部的异质性本身对竞争并无明显影响，而引入群体间的异质性则显著加剧了冲突，并导致波动性增加，从而降低了竞赛参与者的收益，并加剧了不平等。此外，我们发现异质群体在共享劳动方面比理论预测得更为平等，而且在非对称竞赛中，群体成员改变了对同伴努力条件的依赖方式。对于竞赛设计者的启示亦进行了讨论。