The external validity of giving in the dictator game: A field experiment using the misdirected letter technique

We investigate the external validity of giving in the dictator game by using the misdirected letter technique in a within-subject design. First, subjects participated in standard dictator games (double blind) conducted in labs in two different studies. Second, after four to five weeks (study 1) or t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Experimental economics : a journal of the Economic Science Association 2013-06, Vol.16 (2), p.155-169
Main Authors: Franzen, Axel, Pointner, Sonja
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavioral/Experimental Economics
Design
Dictators
Donations
Economic models
Economic statistics
Economic theory
Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods
Economics
Economics and Finance
Endowment
Experiments
Game Theory
Games
Laboratories
Microeconomics
Operations Research/Decision Theory
Preferences
Social and Behav. Sciences
Students
Studies
Validity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We investigate the external validity of giving in the dictator game by using the misdirected letter technique in a within-subject design. First, subjects participated in standard dictator games (double blind) conducted in labs in two different studies. Second, after four to five weeks (study 1) or two years (study 2), we delivered prepared letters to the same subjects. The envelopes and the contents of the letters were designed to create the impression that they were misdirected by the mail delivery service. The letters contained 10 Euros (20 Swiss Francs in study 2) corresponding to the endowment of the in-lab experiments. We observe in both studies that subjects who showed other-regarding behavior in the lab returned the misdirected letters more often than subjects giving nothing, suggesting that in-lab behavior is related to behavior in the field.
ISSN:1386-4157
1573-6938
DOI:10.1007/s10683-012-9337-5