Advice and Behavior in a Dictator Game : An Experimental Study

We experimentally study the effects of advice on decision-making in a dictator game. In the experiment, participants receive no advice, selfish advice, or fair advice before making decisions. Advisors in our experiment do not receive any financial incentives for their advice. We find that participants who receive selfish advice are more likely to behave selfishly compared to those who receive no advice, whereas participants who receive fair advice are not influenced in their decision-making. Our study is the first to demonstrate the impact of selfish advice in moral dilemmas and the asymmetric effect of advice can be attributed to the “moral wiggle room.”