Are women less selfish than men?: Evidence from dictator experiments Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Research in social sciences other than economics indicates substantial differences in behaviour between men and women. The general conclusion drawn from this work is that women will be more socially-orientated (selfless), and men more individually-orientated (selfish). This paper reports the results of a double-anonymous dictator experiment designed to permit the emergence of basic gender differences in economic behaviour. Our results are intended to provide a baseline for further research. We find that women, on average, donate twice as much as men to their anonymous partners when any factors that might confound cooperation are eliminated.

published proceedings

  • ECONOMIC JOURNAL

altmetric score

  • 27.55

author list (cited authors)

  • Eckel, C. C., & Grossman, P. J.

citation count

  • 599

complete list of authors

  • Eckel, CC||Grossman, PJ

publication date

  • May 1998