Arno Apffelstaedt

We reframe group identity as an economic image concern by studying the utility individuals derive from public signals about how members of their group perform, and examine the behavioral and welfare relevance of these concerns using controlled experiments. We extend standard economic paradigms of image motivation to settings in which individual identities remain private, but group identities are publicly linked to observed behavior, allowing clean identification of image concerns tied to group membership rather than personal reputation. Across a series of laboratory and online experiments spanning multiple domains of social evaluation (generosity, intelligence, patriotism) and natural group identities (religion, university affiliation, political party), we provide causal evidence that individuals take costly actions to influence public beliefs about their group and attach substantial value to public group signals. Using incentivized willingness-to-pay measures, we show that group image concerns generate sizable welfare effects, even when behavioral responses are muted. Our results establish group image concerns as a distinct and economically meaningful source of utility—complementary to, but separate from, individual image concerns—and highlight their importance for understanding behavior and welfare in settings where group identity is salient.