Getting a Yes: An Experiment on the Power of Asking

Lisa Bruttel, Florian Stolley () and Verena Utikal ()
Additional contact information
Verena Utikal: University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

No 2, CEPA Discussion Papers from Center for Economic Policy Analysis

Abstract: This paper studies how the request for a favor has to be devised in order to maximize its chance of success. We present results from a mini-dictator game, in which the recipient can send a free-form text message to the dictator before the latter decides. We find that putting effort into the message, writing in a humorous way and mentioning reasons why the money is needed pays off. Additionally, we find differences in the behavior of male and female dictators. Only men react positively to efficiency arguments, while only women react to messages that emphasize the dictator’s power and responsibility.

Keywords: dictator game; communication; inequality; text analysis; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D63 D64 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cbe and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-42763 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Getting a yes. An experiment on the power of asking (2020)
Working Paper: Getting a Yes. An Experiment on the Power of Asking (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pot:cepadp:02

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPA Discussion Papers from Center for Economic Policy Analysis Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Marco Winkler ().