Solidarity among the poor

•We design and implement a visual version of the solidarity game for use in low-literacy populations.•We find significant evidence of conditional gifts (informal risk sharing) in a low income population.•Less than 7% of participants do not make any conditional gifts. These individuals are more risk tolerant than other participants.•We find substantially more 'fixed gift' behavior than previous studies, over 40% of the participants.

We conduct a field experiment with low-income subjects in Dallas, Texas. We examine voluntary, informal risk sharing using a visual representation of the solidarity game developed for low-literacy populations. We find substantially more 'fixed gift to loser' behavior and less 'egotistical' behavior than in previous studies. Individuals who display 'egotistical' behavior are more risk tolerant. The amount of the conditional gifts is positively related to age, income, and connection to the community. However, trust and empathy, which are commonly discussed as drivers for solidarity, are not significantly related to the amount given.