%0 Report
        %A Dickinson, David L.
        %T Nighttime Ethics: Do Moral Choices Differ by Time-of-Day/Night?
        %D 2026
        %8 2026 Jul
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 18839
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18839
        %X We examine time-of-day (TOD) effects on moral choice by comparing afternoon (DAY: 3pm-5pm) and nighttime (NIGHT: 3am-5am) decisions across three incentivized tasks.  While the NIGHT treatment successfully induced sleepiness, we report no evidence that circadian suboptimality shifts decisions towards one’s default ethical tendencies.  Rather, the NIGHT treatment increased dishonesty in a victimless Die-Roll task but not when dishonesty harms another participant (modified Coin-Flip task) or in consequential moral dilemmas affecting only others’ outcomes (Payoff-Trolley task).  Exploratory evidence from response times suggests immorality results from deliberative processes. Overall, these results indicate that moral choice exhibits task-dependent stability during circadian fatigue.
        %K behavioral economics
%K honesty
%K trolley problem
%K moral choice
%K sleep
%K time-of-day