Advice and behavior in a dictator game: An experimental study

Abstract

We experimentally examine the effects of advice on decision making in a dictator game in which participants receive no advice, selfish advice, or fair advice before making decisions and the advisors do not benefit from the decision makers’ actions. We find that participants receiving fair advice are more inclined to exhibit fair behavior, whereas those receiving selfish advice are more likely to act selfishly; however, no significant difference in magnitude between the effects of fair and selfish advice is found. We also discover that both types of advice have a more pronounced impact on participants with relatively lower social tendencies, as indicated by the social value orientation test. This study is the first to directly demonstrate the impact of fair and selfish advice in moral dilemmas.