Gender effects in dictator game giving under voluntary choice of the recipient’s gender: Women favour female recipients

Abstract

Allowing for free choice of the recipient’s gender in a dictator game (N=357), women give more frequently to their own gender (70.3% vs 9.4%) while men do not prefer a specific recipient’s gender (33.3% vs 27.8%). Conditional on a positive transfer being made, the average amount of transfers to each gender does not vary between genders, though. Once a charity recipient is added to the possible choices, overall transfers increase and gender differences in average giving mostly vanish, as the charity becomes the primary recipient for all participants. The literature on cognitive dissonance (the feeling of distress once we act against our internalised values) emphasises the importance of voluntary choice for dissonance effects to take hold. Accordingly, we interpret our results as hinting at an important detail regarding the ongoing gender debate about altruistic giving: primary differences may not be found in the amount of transfers made but in the choice of the beneficiary’s gender.