Summary: | Understanding whether
preferences are sensitive to the frame has been a major topic of debate in the
last decades. For example, several works have explored whether the dictator
game in the give frame gives rise to a different rate of pro-sociality than the
same game in the take frame, leading to mixed results. Here we contribute to
this debate with two experiments. In Study 1 (N=567) we implement an extreme
dictator game in which the dictator either gets $0.50 and the recipient gets
nothing, or the opposite (i.e., the recipient gets $0.50 and the dictator gets
nothing). We experimentally manipulate the words describing the available
actions using six terms, from very negative (e.g., stealing) to very positive
(e.g., donating) connotations. We find that the rate of pro-sociality is
affected by the words used to describe the available actions. In Study 2
(N=221) we ask brand new participants to rate each of the words used in Study 1
from ``extremely wrong'' to ``extremely right''. We find that these moral
judgments can explain the framing effect in Study 1. In sum, our studies
provide evidence that framing effects in an extreme Dictator game can be
generated using morally loaded language.
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