Self-Image Concerns and Dictator Game Giving

This thesis explores how self-image concerns affect decisions involving generosity. More specifically, whether increasing the moral ‘wiggle room’ for subjects in the dictator game to act selfishly, has a significant impact on their choices. The purpose of this thesis is to provide new empirical evidence on how concerns of self-image influence an individual’s behaviour in social interactions. An experiment is conducted with 161 subjects. The experiment involves three treatment groups, one as a control, and the others to test whether increased ‘wiggle room’ allows subjects to overcome self-image concerns and act more selfishly in the dictator game. The main findings show that increasing moral ‘wiggle room’ in the dictator game has no significant impact on subjects sharing behaviour. The results show little supporting evidence of self-image concerns amongst subjects playing the dictator game.