TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Dickinson, David L.
        TI  - Nighttime Ethics: Do Moral Choices Differ by Time-of-Day/Night?
        PY  - 2026/Jul/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18839
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18839
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - behavioral economics
KW  - honesty
KW  - trolley problem
KW  - moral choice
KW  - sleep
KW  - time-of-day
        ER  -