diktatorspiel experiment

Dictator games: a meta study

• Published: 20 May 2011
• Volume 14 , pages 583–610, ( 2011 )

Cite this article

• Christoph Engel 1  

19k Accesses

1019 Citations

166 Altmetric

20 Mentions

Explore all metrics

Over the last 25 years, more than a hundred dictator game experiments have been published. This meta study summarises the evidence. Exploiting the fact that most experiments had to fix parameters they did not intend to test, in multiple regression the meta study is able to assess the effect of single manipulations, controlling for a host of alternative explanatory factors. The resulting rich dataset also provides a testbed for comparing alternative specifications of the statistical model for analysing dictator game data. It shows how Tobit models (assuming that dictators would even want to take money) and hurdle models (assuming that the decision to give a positive amount is separate from the choice of amount, conditional on giving) provide additional insights.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save.

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Incentivization matters: a meta-perspective on dictator games

Using Dictator Game Experiments to Learn About Charitable Giving

Taking games: a meta-analysis

Aguiar, F., Branas-Garza, P., Cobo-Reyes, R., Jimenez, N., & Miller, L. M. (2009). Are women expected to be more generous? Experimental Economics , 12 , 93–98.

Article   Google Scholar  

Andreoni, J., & Bernheim, B. D. (2009). Social image and the 50–50 norm. A theoretical and experimental analysis of audience effects. Econometrica , 77 , 1607–1636.

Bardsley, N. (2008). Dictator game giving. Altruism or artefact? Experimental Economics , 11 , 122–133.

Blackwell, C. (2007). A meta-analysis of tax compliance experiments. http://aysps.gsu.edu/isp/files/ISP_CONFERENCES_TAX_COMPLIANCE_AND_EVASION_BLACKWELL.pdf .

Bolton, G. E., Katok, E., & Zwick, R. (1998). Dictator game giving. Rules of fairness versus acts of kindness. International Journal of Game Theory , 27 , 269–299.

Brañas-Garza, P. (2007). Promoting helping behavior with framing in dictator games. Journal of Economic Psychology , 28 , 477–486.

Brañas-Garza, P., Cobo-Reyes, R., Espinosa, M. P., Jiménez, N., Kovárík, J., & Ponti, G. (2010). Altruism and social integration. Games and Economic Behavior , 69 (2), 249–257.

Brosig, J., Riechmann, T., & Weimann, J. (2007). Selfish in the end? An investigation of consistency and stability of individual behavior. http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/2035/1/MPRA_paper_2035.pdf .

Camerer, C. F. (2003). Behavioral game theory. Experiments in strategic interaction . New York: Sage.

Google Scholar  

Cárdenas, J. C., & Carpenter, J. (2008). Behavioural development economics: lessons from field labs in the developing world. Journal of Development Studies , 44 , 311–338.

Croson, R. T. A., & Marks, M. (2000). Step returns in threshold public goods. A meta- and experimental analysis. Experimental Economics , 2 (3), 239–259.

Dana, J., Daylian, M. C., & 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 , 193–201.

DerSimonian, R., & Laird, N. (1986). Meta-analysis in clinical trials. Controlled Clinical Trials , 7 , 177–188.

Druckman, D. (1994). Determinants of compromising behavior in negotiation. A meta-analysis. Journal of Conflict Resolution , 38 (3), 507–556.

Eckel, C. C., & Grossman, P. J. (1998). Are women less selfish than men?: Evidence from dictator experiments. Economic Journal , 108 , 726–735.

Eckel, C. C., Grossman, P. J., & Johnston, R. M. (2005). An experimental test of the crowding out hypothesis. Journal of Public Economics , 89 , 1543–1560.

Eichenberger, R., & Oberholzer-Gee, F. (1998). Rational moralists: the role of fairness in democratic economic politics. Public Choice , 94 , 191–210.

Engel, C. (2005). Generating predictability. Institutional analysis and institutional design . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Book   Google Scholar  

Engel, C. (2007). How much collusion? A meta-analysis on oligopoly experiments. Journal of Competition Law and Economics , 3 , 491–549.

Epps, T. W., & Singleton, K. J. (1986). An omnibus test for the two-sample problem using the empirical characteristic function. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation , 26 , 177–203.

Forsythe, R., Horowitz, J. L., Savin, N. E., & Sefton, M. (1994). Fairness in simple bargaining experiments. Games and Economic Behavior , 6 , 347–369.

Frey, B., & Bohnet, I. (1995). Institutions affect fairness. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics , 151 , 286–303.

Goeree, J. K., McConnell, M. A., Mitchell, T., Tromp, T., & Yariv, L. (2010). The 1/d law of giving. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics , 2 (1), 183–203.

Goerg, S. J., & Kaiser, J. (2009). Non-parametric testing of distributions—the epps-singleton two-sample test using the empirical characteristic function. Stata Journal , 9 , 454–465.

Güth, W., Schmittberger, R., & Schwarze, B. (1982). An experimental analysis of ultimatum bargaining. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization , 3 , 367–388.

Harbord, R. M., & Higgins, J. P. T. (2008). Meta-regression in stata. Stata Journal , 8 , 493–519.

Harless, D. W., & Camerer, C. F. (1994). The predictive utility of generalized expected utility theories. Econometrica , 62 , 1251–1289.

Henrich, J., & Boyd, R. (2005). Economic man’ in cross-cultural perspective. Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. Behavioral and Brain Sciences , 28 , 795–815.

Hoffman, E., McCabe, K., Shachat, K., & Smith, V. L. (1994). Preferences, property rights, and anonymity in bargaining games. Games and Economic Behavior , 7 , 346–380.

Hopfensitz, A. (2009). Previous outcomes and reference dependence. A meta study of repeated investment tasks with and without restricted feedback. http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/16096/1/Hopfensitz_2009.pdf .

Houser, D., & Schunk, D. (2009). Social environments with competitive pressure: gender effects in the decisions of German schoolchildren. Journal of Economic Psychology , 30 , 634–641.

Huck, S., Normann, H.-T., & Oechssler, J. (2004). Two are few and four are many. Number effects in experimental oligopolies. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization , 53 , 435–446.

Jones, G. (2008). Are smarter groups more cooperative? Evidence from prisoner’s dilemma experiments, 1959–2003. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization , 68 (3-4), 489–497.

Kahneman, D., Knetsch, J. L., & Thaler, R. (1986). Fairness and the assumptions of economics. Journal of Business , 59 , S285–S300.

Leider, S., Möbius, M. M., Rosenblat, T., & Quoc-Anh, D. (2009). What do we expect from our friends? https://mercury.smu.edu.sg/rsrchpubupload/15345/ExpectFriends.pdf .

Levitt, S. D., & List, J. A. (2007). What do laboratory experiments measuring social preferences reveal about the real world? Journal of Economic Perspectives , 21 , 153–174.

McDowell, A. (2003). From the help desk. Hurdle models. Stata Journal , 3 , 178–184.

Oosterbeek, H., Sloof, R., & van de Kuilen, G. (2004). Cultural differences in ultimatum game experiments. Evidence from a meta-analysis. Experimental Economics , 7 , 171–188.

Oxoby, R. J., & Spraggon, J. (2008). Mine and yours. Property rights in dictator games. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization , 65 , 703–713.

Percoco, M., & Nijkamp, P. (2009). Estimating individual rates of discount. A meta-analysis. Applied Economics Letters , 16 (12), 1235–1239.

Prante, T., Thacher, J. A., & Berrens, R. P. (2007). Evaluating Coasean bargaining experiments with meta-analysis. Economics Bulletin , 3 (68), 1–7.

Rigdon, M., Ishii, K., Watabe, M., & Kitayama, S. (2009). Minimal social cues in the dictator game. Journal of Economic Psychology , 30 , 358–367.

Ross, L., & Nisbett, R. E. (1991). The person and the situation. Perspectives of social psychology . New York: McGraw-Hill.

Selten, R. (1967). Die Strategiemethode zur Erforschung des eingeschränkt rationalen Verhaltens im Rahmen eines Oligopolexperiments. Beiträge zur experimentellen Wirtschaftsforschung . Ernst Sauermann. Tübingen: Mohr: 136–168.

Stanley, T. D. (2001). Wheat from chaff. Meta-analysis as quantitative literature review. Journal of Economic Perspectives , 15 (3), 131–150.

Thompson, S. G., & Pocock, S. J. (1991). Can meta-analyses be trusted? Lancet , 338 (8775), 1127–1130.

Weizsäcker, G. (2010). Do we follow others when we should? A simple test of rational expectations. American Economic Review , 100 , 2340–2360.

Zelmer, J. (2003). Linear public goods. A meta-analysis. Experimental Economics , 6 , 299–310.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Kurt-Schumacher-Straße 10, 53113, Bonn, Germany

Christoph Engel

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christoph Engel .

Electronic Supplementary Material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

(PDF 164 KB)

Rights and permissions.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Engel, C. Dictator games: a meta study. Exp Econ 14 , 583–610 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-011-9283-7

Download citation

Received : 08 March 2010

Accepted : 26 April 2011

Published : 20 May 2011

Issue Date : November 2011

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-011-9283-7

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Dictator game
• Multiple regression
• Hurdle model

JEL Classification

• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research