Eye-image as nonverbal social cue has asymmetric gender effects in dictator taking games

Dictator giving games often demonstrate that nonverbal social cues, such as drawn-in eyes on display, induce pro-social behavior in the form of giving more. Notably, sometimes this effect is seen to differ between males and females. However, the effects of social cues on negative behavior along with its gender dimension have not been studied in a controlled setting. We investigate this with a dictator taking game with and without an eye-image involving a gender balanced subject pool. We find that the eye-image affects the taking behavior of the males and females very differently. Males take significantly less, and females take significantly more in the presence of the eye-image, compared to a baseline. The two groups’ opposing effects cancel each other to produce no overall treatment effect. Furthermore, while with the eye-image males are less likely to act selfishly (i.e., to take the whole amount) and more likely to act as an egalitarian, the females exhibit the opposite behavior. We discuss possible reasons for this asymmetric gender effects.