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They Come To Play

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey Carpenter

    (Middlebury College, USA, jpc@middlebury.edu)

  • Allison Liati

    (Middlebury College, USA, aliati@middlebury.edu)

  • Brian Vickery

    (Middlebury College, USA, bvicker@middlebury.edu)

Abstract

Our experiment challenges the standard, social preference, interpretation of choices in the double blind dictator game played in the lab without any context. We present treatments formulated to minimize the social preference reasons to give and, despite this, the allocations are identical to our replication of the standard double blind game, implying that altruism might be the wrong interpretation of giving. Instead, we hypothesize that giving might be driven by participants coming to the lab ready ‘to play’. The fact that there are strong correlations between participant responses to an attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder questionnaire and both the rate and level of giving provides direct support for the hypothesis that lab participants impulsively give money away. However, we also show that having players earn their endowments attenuates the bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey Carpenter & Allison Liati & Brian Vickery, 2010. "They Come To Play," Rationality and Society, , vol. 22(1), pages 83-102, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:22:y:2010:i:1:p:83-102
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463109358486
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Nisvan Erkal & Lata Gangadharan & Nikos Nikiforakis, 2011. "Relative Earnings and Giving in a Real-Effort Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 3330-3348, December.
    2. Simone Gobien & Björn Vollan, 2016. "Exchanging Land for Solidarity: Solidarity Transfers among Voluntarily Resettled and Non-resettled Land-Reform Beneficiaries," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(3), pages 802-818.
    3. Dutcher, E. Glenn & Salmon, Timothy C. & Saral, Krista J., 2015. "Is "Real" Effort More Real?," MPRA Paper 68394, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Thielmann, Isabel & Hilbig, Benjamin E., 2019. "No gain without pain: The psychological costs of dishonesty," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 126-137.
    5. Ferguson, Eamonn & Flynn, Niall, 2016. "Moral relativism as a disconnect between behavioural and experienced warm glow," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 163-175.
    6. Lotito, Gianna & Migheli, Matteo & Ortona, Guido, 2017. "Competition, Information and Cooperation," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201731, University of Turin.
    7. Simone Gobien & Björn Vollan, 2013. "Playing with the social network: Social cohesion in resettled and non-resettled communities in Cambodia," Working Papers 2013-16, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    8. Engel, Christoph & Goerg, Sebastian J., 2018. "If the worst comes to the worst: Dictator giving when recipient’s endowments are risky," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 51-70.
    9. Grundmann, Susanna, 2020. "Do just deserts and competition shape patterns of cheating?," Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Volkswirtschaftliche Reihe V-79-20, University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics.

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