Altruism, cooperativeness and academic achievement: a lab in the field experiment in French middle schools

In this exploratory study, we investigate how altruism and cooperativeness are related to educational achievement. We run a lab in the field experiment with pupils from Middle Schools in Brittany, France, to study whether altruism and cooperativeness are correlated with educational success. Contrary to expectation, we find no significant relationship between cooperativeness and educational performance. In contrast, altruism is negatively related to academic achievement, but this relationship is gender-driven, as it is only significant for boys.