Giving, taking, and gender in dictator games

We investigate whether a pure framing has any effect on the decisions made in a dictator game. We run a between subject dictator game with a giving and a taking frame whilst keeping the strategy space the same. Complying with the literature we find no overall difference in the amount allocated to the recipient across treatments. Contributing to the literature we further find that females are not only more altruistic than males; they also allocate significantly more to the recipient in the taking game compared to the giving game. Males do not show such behavior. A taking frame makes males significantly more selfish, but females significantly more egalitarian compared to a giving frame.