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The effect of luck framing on distributional preferences

Antonio Carlos Mercer, Angela Cristiane Santos Póvoa and Wesley Pech

Research in Economics, 2021, vol. 75, issue 4, 320-329

Abstract: This paper experimentally investigated luck framing. Specifically, we analyzed the difference between being assigned an advantageous role in a distribution game and being assigned the same role while being explicitly told that you were lucky to be in that favorable position. We tested this difference by implementing a dictator game and a no-veto-cost ultimatum game. We observed that: a) dictators transferred larger amounts in the game when they were explicitly told they were lucky to be the dictator compared to dictators who did not receive this message, and b) responders in the no-veto-cost ultimatum game who were explicitly told they were lucky to be in that role were significantly less likely to reject a particular offer compared to responders in the game who did not receive this message. The combination of these results is consistent with the hypothesis that people are more likely to behave in a more prosocial and egalitarian manner when they are reminded that they are lucky to be in a particular position.

Keywords: Random assignment; Luck; Framing effects; Dictator game; Ultimatum game; Social preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C78 C91 D81 D90 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reecon:v:75:y:2021:i:4:p:320-329

DOI: 10.1016/j.rie.2021.09.001

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