Dictator Game Research Articles

Social preferences and psychopathy in a sample of male prisoners—a pilot study

Social decisions are influenced by a person’s social preferences. High psychopathy is defined by antisocial behaviour, but the relationship between psychopathy and social preferences remains unclear. In this study, we used a battery of economic games to study social decision-making and social preferences in relation to psychopathy in a sample of 35 male prison inmates, who were arrested for sexual and severe violent offenses (mean age = 39 years). We found no evidence for a relationship between social preferences (measured with the Dictator and Ultimatum Games, Social Value Orientation, and one-shot 2 × 2 games) and psychopathy (measured by the overall Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised score and both factors). These results are surprising but also difficult to interpret due to the small sample size. Our results contribute to the ongoing debate about psychopathy and social decision-making by providing crucial data that can be combined with future datasets to reach large sample sizes that can provide a more nuanced understanding about the relationship between psychopathy and social preferences.

Influence of peer information and personality on social exclusion in a three‐person dictator game

AbstractWe study the conflict between financial interests and prosocial behavior in a new variant of a three‐person dictator game, which we refer to as “social exclusion game.” In this game, one person, the dictator, decides whether all three players (the dictator and two receivers) receive the fair outcome (equal payoffs) or an unfair outcome, which excludes one of the receivers and raises the dictator's payoff. We elicit the minimal payment necessary to induce the dictator to exclude the third person and investigate how this is influenced by peer information and the Big Five personality factor agreeableness. The data support our hypotheses.

Understanding post disaster prosociality: Comparing post earthquake cooperation and fairness in two Italian regions

Natural disasters put an enormous strain on communities' ability to cooperate. Community resilience, which heavily depends on individuals’ prosocial attitudes, reduces the effects of disasters, determining completely different dynamics even in neighboring regions. We designed an exploratory empirical study in which we collected empirical data on behavior in two games together with survey data in seven municipalities located in two Italian regions affected by two major earthquakes. We measured contributions in the Public Goods Game and fairness in a modified Dictator Game, with the aim of testing for the effects of damage suffered, and embeddedness in the community on prosociality. We compared two different explanations, damage suffered and embeddedness, and we concluded that, in our sample, embeddedness was not related to differences in contributions, while damage suffered by the individuals was. This study contributes to the literature on post-disaster prosociality by presenting a unique lab–in-the-field experiment, and showing the differential impact of the same disaster in neighboring regions.

Incentive-Induced Social Tie and Subsequent Altruism and Cooperation

Abstract In this paper, we studied the spillover effects of cooperative and competitive incentive schemes on subsequent decisions involving altruism and cooperation. We collected data with a laboratory experiment where subjects were asked to perform Mini Dictator games and a Public Good game after playing an incentivized real effort task. We found that cooperative incentives foster higher subsequent altruism and cooperation as compared with competitive or individual incentives. By contrast, competitive incentives induced more envy towards competitor peers and more spiteful behaviour when giving implies a larger payoff for the recipient. The effect of incentives on altruism and cooperation was moderated by relative rank in the incentivized effort task and by individual level of impulsivity.

Can Large Language Models Serve as Rational Players in Game Theory? A Systematic Analysis

Game theory, as an analytical tool, is frequently utilized to analyze human behavior in social science research. With the high alignment between the behavior of Large Language Models (LLMs) and humans, a promising research direction is to employ LLMs as substitutes for humans in game experiments, enabling social science research. However, despite numerous empirical researches on the combination of LLMs and game theory, the capability boundaries of LLMs in game theory remain unclear. In this research, we endeavor to systematically analyze LLMs in the context of game theory. Specifically, rationality, as the fundamental principle of game theory, serves as the metric for evaluating players' behavior --- building a clear desire, refining belief about uncertainty, and taking optimal actions. Accordingly, we select three classical games (dictator game, Rock-Paper-Scissors, and ring-network game) to analyze to what extent LLMs can achieve rationality in these three aspects. The experimental results indicate that even the current state-of-the-art LLM (GPT-4) exhibits substantial disparities compared to humans in game theory. For instance, LLMs struggle to build desires based on uncommon preferences, fail to refine belief from many simple patterns, and may overlook or modify refined belief when taking actions. Therefore, we consider that introducing LLMs into game experiments in the field of social science should be approached with greater caution.

Young dictators-Speaking about oneself decreases generosity in children from two cultural contexts.

Sharing of resources is a common feature of human societies. Yet, there is substantial societal variation in children's generosity, and this variation emerges during middle childhood. Societal differences in self-construal orientation may be one factor influencing the ontogeny of generosity. Here, we examine anonymous Dictator Game sharing in 7-and-8-year-olds from two distinct societies: India and the UK (N = 180). We used self-construal manipulations to investigate whether priming self- or other-focused conversations would differentially influence children's generosity. There were no differences in generosity between populations. While a significant reduction in generosity was found following self-priming in both societies, other-priming was ineffectual. The findings are discussed in relation to experimental features and the role of anonymity and reputational concerns.

Language-based game theory in the age of artificial intelligence.

Understanding human behaviour in decision problems and strategic interactions has wide-ranging applications in economics, psychology and artificial intelligence. Game theory offers a robust foundation for this understanding, based on the idea that individuals aim to maximize a utility function. However, the exact factors influencing strategy choices remain elusive. While traditional models try to explain human behaviour as a function of the outcomes of available actions, recent experimental research reveals that linguistic content significantly impacts decision-making, thus prompting a paradigm shift from outcome-based to language-based utility functions. This shift is more urgent than ever, given the advancement of generative AI, which has the potential to support humans in making critical decisions through language-based interactions. We propose sentiment analysis as a fundamental tool for this shift and take an initial step by analysing 61 experimental instructions from the dictator game, an economic game capturing the balance between self-interest and the interest of others, which is at the core of many social interactions. Our meta-analysis shows that sentiment analysis can explain human behaviour beyond economic outcomes. We discuss future research directions. We hope this work sets the stage for a novel game-theoretical approach that emphasizes the importance of language in human decisions.

Sharing losses in dictator and ultimatum games: A meta-analysis

Are people less pro-social when sharing losses instead of gains? This paper reports the findings of a meta-analysis of 33 studies with 114 estimates from ultimatum and dictator games in which participants share losses (of money, time, or even physical well-being) instead of gains. We provide evidence that dictators leave significantly more to receivers when sharing losses. Proposers are also fairer when sharing losses, but the result is only significant when protocol biases are controlled for. Receivers, on the other hand, demand significantly more in the loss-sharing ultimatum game than in the gain-sharing game. They also demand significantly more when the strategy method is employed. Moreover, we found that non-students are more generous and fairer when sharing losses than students. Finally, we found that, whether sharing a loss of time, a loss of money, or physical pain, players’ behaviors do not differ in terms of the percentage of loss shared or demanded.

Common and distinct equity preferences in children and adults.

Fairness plays a crucial role in children's social life and has garnered considerable attention. However, previous research and theories primarily examined the development of children's fairness behaviors in the conflict between self-interest motivation and fairness-complying motivation, neglecting the influence of advantage-seeking motivation. Moreover, despite the well-established role of gain/loss frame in human decision-making, it remains largely unclear whether the framing effect modulates fairness behaviors in children. It was hypothesized that children would exhibit advantage-seeking motivation resulting in more selfish behaviors in the loss context. To examine the hypothesis, we combined an adapted dictator game and computational modeling to investigate various motivations underlying fairness behaviors of children in both loss and gain contexts and to explore the developmental directions by contrasting children and adults. In addition, the current design enabled the dissociation between fairness knowledge and behaviors by asking participants to decide for themselves (the first-party role) or for others (the third-party role). This study recruited a total of 34 children (9-10 years, Mage = 9.82, SDage = 0.38, 16 females) and 31 college students (Mage = 19.81, SDage = 1.40, 17 females). The behavioral results indicated that children behaved more selfishly in first-party and more fairly in third-party than adults, without any significant framing effects. The computational results revealed that both children and adults exhibited aversion to advantageous and disadvantageous inequity in third-party. However, they showed distinct preferences for advantageous inequity in first-party, with advantage-seeking preferences among children and aversion to advantageous inequity among adults. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of children's social preferences and their developmental directions.

Being prosocial and happy, and believing in life-determining forces across cultures

AbstractBelieving that your life is shaped by internal forces, such as your own free will, is usually thought to lead to positive outcomes, such as being prosocial and happy. Believing that it is shaped by external forces, such as deterministic laws of nature, is usually thought to lead to negative outcomes. However, whether that is the case might vary with culture and with the nature of the force, specifically, whether the force is teleological. To test this, we investigated beliefs in five countries: China, India, Lithuania, Mongolia, and the USA. We investigated beliefs in the importance of choice (an internal, teleological force), gods and fate (external, teleological forces), and chance and luck (external, non-teleological forces). Participants (N = 1035) played a hypothetical dictator game, rated their happiness, and rated how much, in their opinion, their life is determined by these forces. Choice was perceived as the most important and its perceived importance was positively associated with subjective happiness across cultures. It was also positively associated with prosocial intentions, although only in India. Perceived importance of gods and fate was mostly positively associated with prosocial intentions. Perceived importance of gods, but not fate, was positively associated with subjective happiness across cultures. Finally, perceived importance of chance and luck was mostly either negatively associated with prosocial intentions and subjective happiness or not at all. Our results highlight the importance of studying agency beliefs in different cultures and distinguishing different kinds of determination: not just internal and external but also teleological and non-teleological.

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

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.

Understanding Altruism of Nonprofit Workers: The Roles of Motivation Types

This paper studies the impact of motivation types on altruism levels among the nonprofit organization (NPO) workforces in Turkey. To measure altruism, we used a probabilistic dictator game with real stakes. In a sample of 228 NPO workers, 73% opted to donate an average of 50 out of approximately 100 USD instead of retaining the entire 100 USD for themselves in the case they might win. Our results show that the NPO workforce’s altruism levels vary greatly depending on their motivation type. Religiously motivated NPO workers show the highest levels of altruism, whereas career-oriented NPO workers show the lowest levels of altruism. Moreover, paid NPO workers show significantly lower levels of altruism compared to unpaid workers. In addition, motivation types partially explain the differences in altruism between unpaid and paid workers.

Mind the framing when studying social preferences in the domain of losses

There is no consensus in whether monetary losses make individuals more generous or selfish. Utilizing a dictator game (DG), we study the impact of loss framing on altruism and find that dictators’ altruism is sensitive to the loss frame they are embedded in. In a DG in which the dictators share a loss between themselves and a recipient, the monetary allocations are more benevolent than in a setting without a loss and in a DG in which the dictators share what remains of their endowments after a loss. These differences are explained by the social norms the loss frames invoke.

Watching eyes effect: the impact of imagined eyes on prosocial behavior and satisfactions in the dictator game.

The concept of the watching eyes effect suggests that the presence of eye or eye-like cues can influence individual altruistic behavior. However, few studies have investigated the effects of imagined eyes on altruistic behaviors and the psychological measures of dictators and recipients in the dictator game. This study used a 2 (Presentation Mode: Imagined/Visual) 2 (Cue Type: Eye/Flower) between-subject design and measured the effects of recipients' psychological variables and the communication texts between the dictator and the recipient. The results showed that there was a significant interaction between Presentation Mode and Cue Type. In the imagined condition, the dictator exhibited more altruistic behavior than in the visual condition. However, there was no significant difference in altruistic behavior between the Imagined Eye and Imagined Flower conditions. In addition, the study found that the Cue Type had a significant main effect on the recipients' satisfaction with the allocation outcome. Notably, in the Visual Flower condition, the dictator used more egoistic norm words when communicating with the recipient than other conditions. This study provides novel evidence on the effect of imagined social cues on individual behavior in the dictator game, and to some extent validates the robustness of the watching eyes effect under manipulation of higher-level verbal cognitive processes. At the same time, the study is the first to explore the impacts on recipients' psychological variables and the communication texts. These efforts offer new insights into the psychological and cognitive mechanisms underlying the watching eyes effect.

Enforcement of Fairness Norms by Punishment: A Comparison of Gains and Losses.

Although in everyday life decisions about losses are prevalent (e.g., the climate crisis and the COVID-19 crisis), there is hardly any research on decisions in the loss domain. Therefore, we conducted online experiments with a sample of 672 participants (mostly students), using third-party punishment dictator games (DGs) in the loss domain to explore the impact of losses and punishment threats on the conformity to the fairness norm. Subjects in the treatment condition have to divide a loss of -10 € with the threat of a third-party punishment with different strengths (control: gains, no punishment). Overall, the statistical evidence seems rather weak, but when it comes to losses, subjects are more rational and straightforward with their words and deeds than with gains. Therefore, in the loss domain, subjects are more likely to believe that the fairness norm should be followed, and they subjectively perceive that the others do as well. Furthermore, although dictators' decisions are more selfish in the loss domain, dictators there react more strongly to the punishment threat by reducing their demands than in the gains domain. This holds as long as the punishment threat is strong enough, as judged from a rational perspective.

Are psychotic-like experiences associated with aberrant prosocial decision-making behavior?

Deficits in social functioning and decision-making are well-documented in schizophrenia, but their relationship with positive symptoms and social conflicts is poorly understood. We created a new paradigm based on the Dictator Game (DG) to explore differences in social decision-making between individuals experiencing high levels of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), particularly hallucinations and delusions, and controls with less PLEs. A large community sample (N = 1,161) completed a DG in an online study whereby extreme groups were built based on the positive subscale of the CAPE. Overall, participants experiencing PLEs did not act less prosocial than controls but showed a somewhat aberrant decision-making behavior, particularly a pattern of behaving more prosocial in fair situations and generally favoring punishment over compensation relative to controls. Mediation analyses suggest that measures of empathy and Machiavellism have predictive power for prosocial behavior beyond group status. The present study raises the possibility that individuals with high levels of PLEs may be less able to adapt their behavior to the situation at hand than controls. These irregularities might be due to deficits in social cognition which may elicit conflict, thus compromising social functioning and possibly contributing to the formation of positive symptoms.

Meta-analyses in Economic Psychology: A sustainable approach to cross-cultural differences

This manuscript is a methodological work on the state of research using meta-analytic procedures in Economic Psychology, with a focus on the investigation of cross-cultural differences. We review published meta-analyses and introduce a new classification thereof by data source, describing how the different categories relate to the study of cross-cultural differences. We also discuss related opportunities and challenges, proposing a sustainable methodological approach that is then implemented in three case studies where we re-analyze data from published meta-analyses. In doing so, the relevance of culture as a determinant is explored by relating country-level cultural indicators to experimental measures of risk aversion, tax compliance, and prosocial behavior, respectively. It turns out that, after we control for country-level cultural heterogeneity and economic development, country-level individualism predicts these economic outcomes. We discuss possible interpretations of our findings. meta-analysis, individualism, fractionalization, Multiple Price List, Tax Evasion Game, Dictator Game

The effect of conversation on altruism: A comparative study with different media and generations.

Despite the overwhelming evidence of climate change and its effects on future generations, most individuals are still hesitant to make environmental changes that would especially benefit future generations. In this study, we investigate whether dialogue can influence people's altruistic behavior toward future generations of humans, and how it may be affected by participant age and the appearance of the conversation partner. We used a human, an android robot called Telenoid, and a speaker as representatives of future generations. Participants were split among an old age group and a young age group and were randomly assigned to converse with one of the aforementioned representatives. We asked the participants to play a round of the Dictator Game with the representative they were assigned, followed by an interactive conversation and another round of the Dictator Game in order to gauge their level of altruism. The results show that, on average, participants gave more money after having an interactive conversation, and that older adults tend to give more money than young adults. There were no significant differences between the three representatives. The results show that empathy might have been the most important factor in the increase in altruistic behavior for all participants.

Long-term music instruction is partially associated with the development of socioemotional skills.

This study aims to investigate the development of pitch-matching, rhythmic entrainment, and socioemotional skills in children who received formal music instruction and other non-music based after school programs. Eighty-three children, averaging 6.81 years old at baseline, were enrolled in either a music, sports, or no after-school program and followed over four years. The music program involved formal and systematic instruction in music theory, instrumental technique, and performance. Most control participants had no music education; however, in some instances, participants received minimal music education at school or at church. Musical development was measured using a pitch-matching and drumming-based rhythmic entrainment task. Sharing behavior was measured using a variation of the dictator game, and empathy was assessed using three different assessments: the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescence (trait empathy), the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (theory of mind), and a Fiction Emotion-Matching task (state empathy). Results revealed no time-related associations in pitch-matching ability; however, formal music instruction improved pitch-matching relative to controls. On the contrary, improvements in rhythmic entrainment were best explained by age-related changes rather than music instruction. This study also found limited support for a positive association between formal music instruction and socioemotional skills. That is, individuals with formal music instruction exhibited improved emotion-matching relative to those with sports training. In terms of general socioemotional development, children's trait-level affective empathy did not improve over time, while sharing, theory of mind, and state empathy did. Additionally, pitch-matching and rhythmic entrainment did not reliably predict any socioemotional measures, with associations being trivial to small. While formal music instruction benefitted pitch-matching ability and emotion-matching to an audiovisual stimulus, it was not a significant predictor of rhythmic entrainment or broader socioemotional development. These findings suggest that the transfer of music training may be most evident in near or similar domains.

Who is generous and to whom? Generosity among Christians, Muslims, and atheists in the USA, Sweden, Egypt, and Lebanon

Abstract Are religious people more generous than non-religious people? If so, are they more generous in general or mainly to members of their religious ingroup (i.e., parochially generous)? Also, do levels of parochial generosity differ between Christians, Muslims, and atheists? This paper examined these questions by using a novel design of the Dictator Game, where participants in multiple rounds decided how much money to keep for themselves and give to three other players, of whom some information is revealed. Three studies (N = 1,719) with a Swedish sample, an American sample, and a sample from Egypt and Lebanon were conducted. We found that religious people were more generous compared to non-religious people when information about players’ religious affiliation was available, but not when it was not available. The results suggest that if religious people are more generous, this mainly occurs when religious information is salient. We also found evidence of parochial generosity among Christians, Muslims, and atheists as all three groups gave more to their religious ingroup than to both of their outgroups. However, Muslims seemed to differ from Christians and atheists by giving more to their ingroup than the other two groups gave to their respective ingroups in the USA and possibly in Sweden.