The Dictator Game

In this study my main purpose is to examine gender differences in behavior under social pressure in the dictator game. In addition, I also try to visualize the underlying decision process by thoroughly reviewing existing literature and by means of my own experiment. In different treatments I check for a pure gender difference, a gender difference in behavior under social pressure, and a possible differing social experimenter demand effect in the case of either a male or a female experimenter. Results show that (1) it is likely that a pure gender difference exists with women behaving more altruistically and that (2) a female experimenter positively influences female giving behavior. In addition, participants state that the importance of fairness as a motive for giving is significantly higher than the importance of any other motive.