Gender differences in dictator giving: A high-power laboratory test.

We gather information from a large laboratory sample comprising 1,161 subjects and study gender differences in altruism using a dual-role dictator game. We control for factors potentially affecting the role of gender in dictator giving, such as the subject's age, cognitive ability, and personal...

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Main Authors: Iván Barreda-Tarrazona, Ainhoa Jaramillo-Gutiérrez, Marina Pavan, Gerardo Sabater-Grande
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317886
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author Iván Barreda-Tarrazona
Ainhoa Jaramillo-Gutiérrez
Marina Pavan
Gerardo Sabater-Grande
author_facet Iván Barreda-Tarrazona
Ainhoa Jaramillo-Gutiérrez
Marina Pavan
Gerardo Sabater-Grande
author_sort Iván Barreda-Tarrazona
collection DOAJ
description We gather information from a large laboratory sample comprising 1,161 subjects and study gender differences in altruism using a dual-role dictator game. We control for factors potentially affecting the role of gender in dictator giving, such as the subject's age, cognitive ability, and personality traits, together with the dictator's self-reported emotions motivating the decision, and response time. We find that women behave in a significantly more generous way than men: after controlling for the factors mentioned above, females transfer 7.5 percentage points (about 40%) more of their endowment than males, on average. Moreover, we find that gender differences in giving are mediated by reasoning ability, personality traits and emotions.
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publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
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series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj-art-e5ff906348234611af54624168a3d95e2025-08-20T02:28:19ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01202e031788610.1371/journal.pone.0317886Gender differences in dictator giving: A high-power laboratory test.Iván Barreda-TarrazonaAinhoa Jaramillo-GutiérrezMarina PavanGerardo Sabater-GrandeWe gather information from a large laboratory sample comprising 1,161 subjects and study gender differences in altruism using a dual-role dictator game. We control for factors potentially affecting the role of gender in dictator giving, such as the subject's age, cognitive ability, and personality traits, together with the dictator's self-reported emotions motivating the decision, and response time. We find that women behave in a significantly more generous way than men: after controlling for the factors mentioned above, females transfer 7.5 percentage points (about 40%) more of their endowment than males, on average. Moreover, we find that gender differences in giving are mediated by reasoning ability, personality traits and emotions.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317886
spellingShingle Iván Barreda-Tarrazona
Ainhoa Jaramillo-Gutiérrez
Marina Pavan
Gerardo Sabater-Grande
Gender differences in dictator giving: A high-power laboratory test.
PLoS ONE
title Gender differences in dictator giving: A high-power laboratory test.
title_full Gender differences in dictator giving: A high-power laboratory test.
title_fullStr Gender differences in dictator giving: A high-power laboratory test.
title_full_unstemmed Gender differences in dictator giving: A high-power laboratory test.
title_short Gender differences in dictator giving: A high-power laboratory test.
title_sort gender differences in dictator giving a high power laboratory test
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317886
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AT ainhoajaramillogutierrez genderdifferencesindictatorgivingahighpowerlaboratorytest
AT marinapavan genderdifferencesindictatorgivingahighpowerlaboratorytest
AT gerardosabatergrande genderdifferencesindictatorgivingahighpowerlaboratorytest