Cooperation and Discrimination in a Bilingual Province – Evidence from Primary School Children in Merano

Abstract:

Cooperation is a fundamental cornerstone for the well-functioning of human societies. A potential downside of it is that cooperation within groups may co-evolve with out-group discrimination. This is particularly relevant when two groups with distinctly different characteristics (e.g., with respect to race, religion, or language) live closely together, because under such circumstances in-group cohesion may fuel segregation and thus tensions between groups. Here we present experimental evidence from a bilingual city in Northern Italy on whether the language spoken by a partner in a prisoner’s dilemma game affects behavior. We examine how discrimination based on language develops in practically all six- to eleven-year old primary school children in the city. We find that cooperation generally increases with age, but that the gap between cooperation among in-group members and cooperation towards children speaking another language is considerable. This gap is due to both, in-group favoritism and language groups discrimination.