Academic Background and Social Preferences: An Experimental Dataset of Chinese University Students

This article introduces an experimental dataset on social preferences among 3068 Chinese university students, collected in 101 laboratory sessions at two universities between 2019 and 2024. The dataset combines preference-elicitation tasks with individual background information and records three stages of science–humanities sorting: high-school track, university major, and institutional environment. The measures cover social allocation under different private costs and prices of giving. Descriptive and regression analyses show selective rather than uniform preference differences across academic backgrounds. Science-track students display lower levels of giving when it is personally costly, and institutional differences are most visible in dictator decisions. Preference distributions nevertheless overlap substantially across groups. The dataset offers a resource for studying how social preferences relate to successive educational choices.