We report on three controlled experiments in which persons belonging to an ethnic majority group made choices that affected the payoff of another (vulnerable) person who was either a member of the majority group or an ethnic minority group. Each of the experiments consisted of several experimental waves that varied in the extent to which issues related to ethnicity were salient in society. Across all three experiments, decision makers behaved more generously towards persons of a minority background in waves with high ethnic salience, while behavior towards persons from the majority was unaffected. Evidence is provided indicating that this finding is most likely due to decision makers acting out of image concerns. This is a joint work with Emel Ozturk, Yi Sheng, Sigrid Suetens.
