Nighttime Ethics: Do Moral Choices Differ by Time-of-Day/Night?

David Dickinson ()
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David Dickinson: Appalachian State University

No 18839, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: We examine time-of-day (TOD) effects on moral choice by comparing afternoon (DAY: 3pm-5pm) and nighttime (NIGHT: 3am-5am) decisions across three incentivized tasks. While the NIGHT treatment successfully induced sleepiness, we report no evidence that circadian suboptimality shifts decisions towards one’s default ethical tendencies. Rather, the NIGHT treatment increased dishonesty in a victimless Die-Roll task but not when dishonesty harms another participant (modified Coin-Flip task) or in consequential moral dilemmas affecting only others’ outcomes (Payoff-Trolley task). Exploratory evidence from response times suggests immorality results from deliberative processes. Overall, these results indicate that moral choice exhibits task-dependent stability during circadian fatigue.

Keywords: behavioral economics; honesty; trolley problem; moral choice; sleep; time-of-day (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D01 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07
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