The impact of identifiability and the endowment effect on health care rationing dilemmas

• Main Author: Kalén, Helena
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för beteendevetenskap och lärande 2013
• Subjects: identifiability; endowment effect; decision making; moral dilemma
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-94678

The identifiability effect - the human tendency to help identified victims to a greater extent than unidentified - has been proved of being an important aspect of moral judgment. However, the endowment effect - the human tendency to overestimate our properties - is unexplored within this area, such as the impact of identifiability on the endowment effect. For the purpose of examining the impact of identifiability and endowment on moral dilemmas, an experiment with 192 participants was conducted, using a charity scenario concerning African children, framed as a trolley dilemma. The results showed that a majority of the participants choose to maximize the number of children saved. No significant effects of identifiability or endowment were found. The main conclusion of the study was that the dilemma affected men and women differently. Women felt stronger feelings of sympathy, were less confident in choosing and perceived the choice more difficult than men.