Sex-Hormone Genes and Gender Difference in Ultimatum Game: Experimental Evidence from China and Israel

Abstract

Combining the methodologies of experiment economics and molecular genetics, we report genetic association between sex-hormone genes and ultimatum game (UG) behavior in a discovery sample from China and a replication sample from Israeli. We find that the estrogen receptor β gene (ESRβ) is significantly associated with UG responder behavior for female subjects but not for male subjects in both Chinese and Israeli samples. The androgen receptor gene (AR) is significantly associated with ultimatum game responder behavior for male but not for female subjects solely in the Chinese population. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of gender difference in fairness preference at the level of molecular genetics.

Keywords: utimatum game, genetics, neuroeconomics, gender difference, sex hormone

JEL Classification: C91, D14, D81, D87, G11