Abstract

We study questionnaire responses to situations in which sacrificing one life may save many others. We demonstrate gender differences in moral intuitions; male participants are more supportive of the sacrifice than female participants. We investigate a new potential source of the endorsement of the sacrifice: spitefulness. First, we elicit spiteful behavior, using an experimental game with monetary stakes. We demonstrate that spitefulness is sizable: a quarter of the participants behave spitefully. Second, we conduct a regression analysis and find a gender effect on responses even when we control for individual difference in spitefulness. Our finding is important, for instance, for the effective application of punishment. In punishment, we usually weigh present harm to one person with the future benefit of others. Our analysis suggests that males are more effective punishers than females.