Are happier people less judgmental of other people's selfish behaviors? Experimental survey evidence from trust and gift exchange games

Michalis Drouvelis, Nattavudh Powdthavee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

356 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

What determines people's moral judgments of selfish behaviors? Here we study whether people's normative views in trust and gift exchange games, which underlie many situations of economic and social significance, are themselves functions of positive emotions. We use experimental survey methods to investigate the moral judgments of impartial observers empirically, and explore whether we could influence subsequent judgments by deliberately making some individuals happier. We find that moral judgments of selfish behaviors in the economic context depend strongly on the behavior of the interaction partner of the judged person, but their relationships are significantly moderated by an increase in happiness for the person making the judgment.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)111-123
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics
Volume58
Early online date17 Aug 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2015

Keywords

  • Happiness
  • Moral judgments
  • Trust games
  • Gift exchange games

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Are happier people less judgmental of other people's selfish behaviors? Experimental survey evidence from trust and gift exchange games'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this