(Correspondent: Zhong Yiming) Dr. Wei Mengxing participated in the 2024 Economic Science Association (ESA) Asia-Pacific Annual Conference at Nanyang Technological University from May 17th to 19th, and presented her paper “Norms, Emotions, and Culture in Human Cooperation and Punishment: Theory and Evidence” during the conference. The paper explores the psychological and social underpinnings of investment and punishment in social dilemmas, providing a belief-based micro-theoretical foundation for the intrinsic tendency to follow social norms and punish norm violators. The theoretical predictions of the model have been successfully validated in experiments in China and the UK, where emotions such as shame, frustration and anger, which are endogenous to the model, play a key role. The paper also theorizes a relevant cross-cultural behavioral difference. In addition, Dr. Wei Mengxing actively discussed with the participating scholars on beliefs and social norms, the application of AI, as well as behavioral finance.

The Economic Science Association (ESA) is a professional organization dedicated to the study of economic behavior using controlled experiments, and its annual Asia-Pacific Conference aims to promote the exchange of cutting-edge scholarship and knowledge sharing in the field of behavioral and experimental economics in the Asia-Pacific region. The ESA Asia-Pacific Conference is one of the most influential conferences in the field of experimental and behavioral economics in the Asia-Pacific region. During the conference, participating scholars had in-depth exchanges and lively discussions on topics such as applications of AI, risky decision-making, cooperation and competition, behavioral finance, and market design.

Dr. Wei Mengxing is presenting her research paper during the conference