Concepedia

Which is the Fair Sex? Gender Differences in Altruism

The Quarterly Journal of Economics · 2001 · 1.4K citations · 31 references

TL;DR

The study investigates gender differences in altruism using a modified dictator game that varies participants’ incomes and prices. The study finds that altruism varies by gender: when costly, women give more; when cheap, men give more, with male and female demand curves crossing and men more price‑responsive, while men tend to be either fully selfish or fully selfless and women act as equalitarians preferring equal sharing.

Abstract

We study gender differences in altruism by examining a modified dictator game with varying incomes and prices. Our results indicate that the question "which is the fair sex?" has a complicated answer—when altruism is expensive, women are kinder, but when it is cheap, men are more altruistic. That is, we find that the male and female "demand curves for altruism" cross, and that men are more responsive to price changes. Furthermore, men are more likely to be either perfectly selfish or perfectly selfless, whereas women tend to be "equalitarians" who prefer to share evenly.