Dictators share money only to the extent recipients’ earned it, not to help them.

Evidence

63% of the dictators offered more than 50% of the money (to be compared with no such offer in the corresponding baseline condition). Offers made to recipients who had earned only the minimum of 10 were not statistically different from those made in the corresponding baseline condition. Offers made to recipients who had earned 20 were halfway between those made to the 40 and the 10 earners. Since 10 was guaranteed even to participants who failed to answer any question in the quiz, participants could consider that true earnings corresponded to money generated over and above 10. As the authors note, “only when receivers earned CAN 20 or CAN 40 were dictators sure that receivers’ property rights were not simply determined by the experimenter. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 122

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly extends the ‘On Sacrifice’ logic of partner-choice and earned entitlement — the dictator gives reciprocity, not charity, mirroring how costly signals must be earned rather than gifted.
• DEEPTHINKING: The idea that giving is driven not by welfare but by perceived entitlement — that generosity is a response to legitimacy of property rights rather than to need — is a genuinely counterintuitive account of fairness that resists a one-line summary.
• XREF: connects to: Earning money dramatically reduces dictators’ willingness to share it. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 115; Dictators respect others’ earned property but not windfall money. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 118; Dictators invoke entitlement to justify keeping shared stakes for themselves. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 128

Related

• Earning money dramatically reduces dictators’ willingness to share it. (similarity 0.93)
• Dictators respect others’ earned property but not windfall money. (similarity 0.91)
• Dictators invoke entitlement to justify keeping shared stakes for themselves. (similarity 0.85)
• Earned entitlements and game framing change how much people share. (similarity 0.80)
• Dictator-game choices reflect competing theories of rights, not selfishness. (similarity 0.79)
• Earned entitlements reshape perceived fairness in resource division. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Dictators invoke entitlement to justify keeping shared stakes for themselves. #corroborates (0.82) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 128