Groups Are More Libertarian than Individuals
Philipp Doerrenberg, Christoph Feldhaus, Felix Kölle, Axel Ockenfels
Management Science · 2026 · Volume 72 · Issue 5
Abstract
Using a series of controlled laboratory experiments involving decisions to intervene in others’ choice opportunities, we find that groups grant more autonomy to others than individuals. This finding is robust across two decision contexts, one involving individual decision making (Internality) and one involving social decision making (Externality). Analyses of the group chat logs and two additional experiments show that participants tend to shy away from proposing interventions in social contexts, even when they intervene individually. We conclude that interventions differ systematically between individual and social contexts, and that transferring decision-making power to groups can lead to a “liberal shift”. This paper was accepted by Marie Claire Villeval, behavioral economics and decision analysis. Funding: A. Ockenfels gratefully acknowledges support of the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the excellence strategy [Grant EXC 2126/1-390838866] and the European Research Council (ERC) [Grant EU Horizon 2020 741409]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.03636 .
Keywords
teams, decision making, autonomy, interventions, experiment
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