Are happier people less judgmental of other people's selfish behaviors? Experimental survey evidence from trust and gift exchange games

•We investigate people's normative views in trust and gift exchange games using survey methods.•We also examine whether moral judgments are functions of positive emotions.•We find that there is a moral dimension to others' nonreciprocal actions.•Positive moods led subjects to be less judgmental on others' selfish behaviors.

What determines people's moral judgments of selfish behaviors? Here we study whether people's normative views in trust and gift exchange games, which underlie many situations of economic and social significance, are themselves functions of positive emotions. We use experimental survey methods to investigate the moral judgments of impartial observers empirically, and explore whether we could influence subsequent judgments by deliberately making some individuals happier. We find that moral judgments of selfish behaviors in the economic context depend strongly on the behavior of the interaction partner of the judged person, but their relationships are significantly moderated by an increase in happiness for the person making the judgment.