Definition
The dictator game is an experimental paradigm in which one participant (the dictator) receives an endowment and then decides to what extent she/he wants to split this endowment with another, anonymous participant (the recipient). The action space of the dictator ranges from giving nothing to giving all of the endowment to the recipient. The dictator fully determines the final allocation as the recipient plays a passive role. After learning these rules, the dictator makes a decision. The endowment split, i.e., the pie size given to the recipient, is the dependent variable of the game.
Introduction
Although self-interest drives the homo economicus, does this apply to homo sapiens as well? Researchers have long asked whether humans show willingness to sacrifice personal payoffs to ensure fairness. In the wake of this question, researchers developed the dictator gamewith the goal of answering this question. The dictator game, a kind of bargaining experiment without any...
References
Andreoni, J., & Bernheim, B. D. (2009). Social image and the 50-50 norm: A theoretical and experimental analysis of audience effects. Econometrica, 77(5), 1607–1636. https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA7384.
Bardsley, N. (2008). Dictator game giving: Altruism or artefact? Experimental Economics, 11, 122–133. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-007-9172-2.
Bekkers, R. (2007). Measuring altruistic behavior in surveys: The all-or-nothing dictator game. Survey Research Methods, 1(3), 139–144. https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2007.v1i3.54.
Bolton, G. E., & Ockenfels, A. (2000). ERC: A theory of equity, reciprocity, and competition. American Economic Review, 90(1), 166–193. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.90.1.166.
Brandstätter, H., & Güth, W. (2002). Personality in dictator and ultimatum games. Central European Journal of Operations Research, 10(3), 191.
Dana, J. D., Cain, D. M., & Dawes, R. M. (2006). What you don’t know won’t hurt me: Costly (but quiet) exit in dictator games. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 100(2), 193–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.10.001.
Dana, J. D., Weber, R. A., & Kuang, X. (2007). Exploiting moral wriggle room: Experiments demonstrating an illusory preference for fairness. Economic Theory, 33, 67–80. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.400900.
Engel, C. (2011). Dictator games: A Meta study. Experimental Economics, 14(4), 583–610. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-011-9283-7.
Forsythe, R., Horowitz, J. L., Savin, N. E., & Sefton, M. (1994). Fairness in simple bargaining experiments. Games and Economic Behavior, 6(3), 347–369.
Franzen, A., & Pointner, S. (2013). The external validity of giving in the dictator game. Experimental Economics, 16(2), 155–169. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-012-9337-5.
Güth, W., Schmittberger, R., & Schwarze, B. (1982). An experimental analysis of ultimatum bargaining. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 3, 367–388.
Hilbig, B. E., & Zettler, I. (2009). Pillars of cooperation: Honesty-humility, social value orientations, and economic behavior. Journal of Research in Personality, 43(3), 516–519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.01.003.
Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Hepp, J., Klein, S. A., & Zettler, I. (2015). From personality to altruistic behavior (and back): Evidence from a double-blind dictator game. Journal of Research in Personality, 55, 46–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2014.12.004.
Kahneman, D., Knetsch, J. L., & Thaler, R. H. (1986). Fairness and the assumptions of economics. Journal of Business, 59(4), 285–300. https://doi.org/10.1086/296367.
Zhao, K., Ferguson, E., & Smillie, L. D. (2017). Individual differences in good manners rather than compassion predict fair allocations of wealth in the dictator game. Journal of Personality, 85(2), 244–256. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12237.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Leder, J., Schütz, A. (2018). Dictator Game. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_652-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_652-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences