A small lie appears trivial but it obviously violates moral commandments. We analyze whetherthe preference for others’ truth telling is absolute or depends on the size of a lie. In a laboratoryexperiment we compare punishment for different sizes of lies controlling for the resultingeconomic...

This paper presents experimental evidence that contributions to a public good can bepath-dependent for a limited time span. We study a repeated linear public-good gamewith punishment opportunities. Our data shows that subjects who had experienced ahigher marginal return on public-good...

We investigate the role of affect and deliberation on social preferences. In ourlaboratory experiment subjects decide on a series of mini Dictator games while they are undervarying degrees of cognitive load. The cognitive load is intended to decrease deliberation andtherefore enhance the...

Machiavelli advises against delegating the distribution of favors. We test this claim in anexperiment, in which an investor can directly transfer money to a trustee or delegate thisdecision to another investor. Varying the value of the transfers of the investor and thedelegate, we find that the...

An apology is a strong and cheap device to restore social or economic relationships thathave been disturbed. In a laboratory experiment we find that harmdoers use apologies inparticular if they fear punishment and when their intentions cannot be easily inferred. Afteroffenses with ambiguous...