Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/265946 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 9911
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
An extensive literature documents that people are willing to sacrifice personal material gain to adhere to a moral motive. Yet, less is known about what happens when moral motives are in conflict. We hypothesize that individuals engage in what we term "motive selection," namely adhering to the moral motive that aligns with their self-interest. We test this hypothesis using a laboratory experiment that induces a conflict between two of the most-studied moral motives: fairness and truth-telling. In line with our hypothesis, our results show that individuals prefer to adhere to the moral motive that is more aligned with their self-interest.
Subjects: 
motivated reasoning
dictator game
lying game
motives
moral dilemmas
JEL: 
C91
D01
D63
D90
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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