The importance of moral reflection and self-reported data in a dictator game with production

Abstract

This paper studies how individual behavior is affected by moral reflection in a dictator game with production, and the informational value of self-reported data on fairness. We find that making individuals reflect on fairness before they play the dictator game has a moderate effect on the weight attached to fairness in distributive choices, and a strong effect on what people consider fair. Furthermore, we find that self-reported data have substantial informational value, but still do not add explanatory power to a random utility model estimated on purely behavioral data. Finally, by studying the behavior of individuals who deviate from their self-reported fairness ideal, we do not find much support for the hypothesis that people are self-serving in their choice of fairness ideal.