THE SPITE DILEMMA IN VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION MECHANISM EXPERIMENTS

This article explains deviations from formal expectations regarding ch oice behavior in settings where economic rationality (i.e., own payoff maximization) dictates either cooperating (full contribution) or free riding (no contribution) in the provision of public goods via the vol untary contribution mechanism. The authors find that the difference be tween full contribution and the observed level of contribution is grea ter than or equal to the corresponding difference when free riding is the best strategy. This surprising result is interpreted as the ''spit eful'' behavior of subjects whose first priority is not the total amou nt of payoff they receive but the ranking among them.