Requests for a favor: The person being asked rewards effort put into asking; arguments of efficiency increase of giving convince only men; women give more when being reminded of their power & responsibility

Getting a Yes. An Experiment on the Power of Asking. Lisa Bruttel, Florian Stolley. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, May 7 2020, 101550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2020.101550

Highlights
• We study arguments that make the request for a favor successful.
• Explaining why the favor is needed increases giving.
• The person being asked rewards effort put into asking.
• Arguments referring to an efficiency increase of giving convince only men.
• Women give more when being reminded of their power and responsibility.

Abstract: This paper studies how the request for a favor has to be devised in order to maximize its chance of success. We present results from a mini-dictator game, in which the recipient can send a free-form text message to the dictator before the latter decides. We find that putting effort into the message, writing in a humorous way and mentioning reasons why the money is needed pays off. Additionally, we find differences in the behavior of male and female dictators. Only men react positively to efficiency arguments, while only women react to messages that emphasize the dictators power and responsibility.

Keywords: Dictator gameCommunicationInequalityText analysisExperiment