From personality to altruistic behavior (and back): Evidence from a double-blind dictator game

•There is large variation in altruistic behavior that is insufficiently understood.•We link actual behavior (double-blind dictator giving) to personality.•Also, we show that recipients form (valid) judgments of dictators’ personality.•Contributes to the integration of behavioral economics and personality research.

There is large individual variation in altruistic behavior, spurring recurring calls for an integration of behavioral economics and personality research. However, the empirical picture has remained inconsistent. To overcome the limitations of prior work, we consider (and compare) both the classic five-factor and the HEXACO models of personality structure, use a double-blind dictator game to strictly rule out spurious effects of social desirability, and extend the research focus to include the recipient side. Results show that (i) Honesty–Humility is the primary factor to predict dictators’ altruistic behavior which (ii) predicts recipients’ fairness perceptions (in combination with their prior expectations) which (iii) predict recipients’ (zero-acquaintance) observer judgments of dictators’ trait Honesty–Humility which (iv) are associated with dictators’ true (self-reported) Honesty–Humility scores.