Promoting helping behavior with framing in dictator games

Abstract

A number of recent papers on double-blind dictator games have obtained significant generous behavior when information regarding the recipient or any other social context is provided. In contrast, the lack of information discourages other-regarding behavior and the subject’s behavior closely approximates the game-theoretic prediction based on the selfishness assumption. This paper uses framing to explore the role of helping behavior in dictator games. The whole experiment includes both classroom and regular experiments for the baseline and the framing treatment. To enlarge on the moral costs attached to selfish behavior in the game I included a “non-neutral” sentence at the end of the instructions, which reads, “Note that he relies on you”. The baseline and framed DG are statistically different from each other, indicating that the additional sentence promotes generous-regarding behavior.