A nationwide lost-letter experiment in Italy, in which stamped, sealed, addressed, but unmailed letters were dispersed in public spaces across 188 communities, revealed a strong positive association between a community's level of market integration and the probability of a passerby mailing the letter; this association held for letters addressed to foreign names as well as Italian names, suggesting that market exchange facilitates expansion of prosocial behavior beyond group boundaries, according to the authors.
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Article #18-19934: "Market integration accounts for local variation in generalized altruism in a nationwide lost-letter experiment," by Delia S. Baldassarri.
MEDIA CONTACT: Delia S. Baldassarri, New York University, NY; tel: 917-916-2434; e-mail: delia.b@nyu.edu
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences