Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/25614 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2007,047
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
We perform an experimenta linvestigation using a dictator game in which individuals must make a moral decision —to give or not to give an amount of money to poor people in the Third World. A questionnaire in which the subjects are asked about the reasons for their decision shows that, at least in this case, moral motivations carry a heavy weight in the decision: the majority of dictators give the money for reasons of a consequentialist nature. Based on the results presented here and of other analogous experiments, we conclude that dicator behavior can be understood in terms of moral distance rather than social distance and that it systematically deviates from the egoism assumption in economic models and game theory.
Subjects: 
Dictator game
moral distance
moral motivations
experimental economics
JEL: 
A13
C72
C91
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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