Imagine being a nice guy: A note on hypothetical vs. incentivized social preferences

Abstract

We conducted an experimental study on social preferences using dictator games similar to Fehr et al. (2008). Our results show that social preferences differ between subjects who receive low-stakes monetary rewards for their decisions and subjects who consider hypothetical stakes. Our findings indicate that, apart from incentives, gender plays an important role for the categorization of different social preferences.

Keywords

• social preferences
• generosity
• egalitarianism
• incentive mechanisms
• dictator games