DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES Identity, Communication, and Conflict: An Experiment

The experiment was conducted at the University of Nottingham by a research assistant unaware of the aim of the experiment. [...] The significance and signs of the coefficients of the control variables are consistent with the results in existing literature. [...] With regards to the impact of communication, we find that the decline in bids in later rounds is substantially attenuated when demographics are not shared: the difference in average bids between the second half and the first half is much smaller in the ND-C treatment compared to the ND-NC treatment (p = 0.024). [...] In contrast to the conventional wisdom, we find that overall, the salience of the immigration identity does not increase the conflict level on the aggregate level. [...] In the dimension of identity, our study warrants further investigations in the definition and understanding of the concept of identity in conflict.