Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/108543 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2014-036
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
We conduct a modified dictator game in order to analyze the role self-image concerns play in other-regarding behavior. While we generally follow Konow (2000), a cognitive dissonance-based model of other-regarding behavior in dictator games, we relax one of its assumptions as we allow for individual heterogeneity among individuals' standards of behavior. Subjects' self-image, their belief regarding the average socially appropriate behavior of others and our proxies for the cognitive dissonance costs are positively correlated with the dictator game choices. We also find that subjects whose choices involve two psychologically inconsistent cognitions indeed report higher levels of experienced conflict and take more time for their decisions (our proxies for cognitive dissonance).
Subjects: 
cognitive dissonance
other-regarding behavior
self-image
social norms
social preferences
JEL: 
C72
C91
D0
D80
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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