Abstract
We study questionnaire responses to situations in which sacrificing one life may save many other lives. We demonstrate gender differences in moral judgments: males are more supportive of the sacrifice than females. We investigate a source of the endorsement of the sacrifice: antisocial preferences. First, we measure individual proneness to spiteful behavior, using an experimental game with monetary stakes. We demonstrate that spitefulness can be sizable—a fifth of our participants behave spitefully—but it is not associated with gender. Second, we find that gender is consistently associated with responses even when we account for individual differences in the propensity to spitefulness.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 389-406 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Theory and Decision |
Volume | 85 |
Early online date | 25 Jun 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2018 |
Keywords
- Moral dilemma
- Moral judgments
- Experiment
- Gender
- Antisocial preferences
- Individual differences