Shades of outrage? Socio-economic causes of environmental degradation and stated WTP

This study explicitly acknowledges that environmental damage typically occurs within a social context. We conducted a willingness-to-pay (WTP) survey of 844 individuals to measure the welfare losses induced by an environmental externality: we used two treatments in which the socioeconomic background of those who caused the externality varied. The treatments varied in the degree of control (or agency) that the generators of the externality had over their actions. The study finds no statistical difference in mean WTP across treatments, indicating no evidence of Kahneman's “outrage effect,” whereby individuals are particularly upset by what they regard as intentional harms.