etiquette - Share prize money from conference presentation award with co-authors?

I am a PhD student and I recently won a young scientist award and prize money (~500 USD) at a conference for the "best presentation". I did the majority of the work for the presentation, and I was the only one present at the conference. However, my co-authors (8 people) all wrote their share for the conference proceedings (that's what makes them co-authors). The co-authors are in various stages of their career, from professors to fellow PhD students.

1. Should I share my prize money with the co-authors? If yes, with all of them in equal amounts? Or only with those who would be eligible for a young scientist award themselves?


2. Would it change the situation if I won the award for something else, say "best paper"?

Answer

First, let me say that I really like jakebeal's answer and his dinner idea. Some of the other answers make good points as well. However, none of the answers so far address the key point of whether morally the award is meant for you alone or also for your coauthors, except for Stephen Kolassa's answer, which I think gets it entirely backwards.

By your description, the award is a young scientist award and monetary prize, given for the "best presentation". It has your name on it. You are the person who actually showed up at the conference and delivered this "best presentation"; presumably it was your good performance that won you this honor. Moreover, the conference organizers speak English (or whatever language "best presentation" was translated from) and know full well the difference between the meaning of "best presentation" and "best paper" and between the meaning of "award given to young scientist X" and "award given to paper authors X, Y and Z". I think it is presumptuous and rather inappropriate for some of us to be questioning their intent here. They wanted to give you the award, not your coauthors. So, from a moral/ethical point of view, I see no principle that says you have any obligation to share the award money in any way, either by a cash distribution or by paying for a dinner. One could even hypothetically argue (depending on whether traveling to the conference was a burden for you and something the other coauthors wished to avoid) that it is the other coauthors who should be paying for your dinner.

With that said, from the practical point of view would it be a good idea for you to share the prize money? Well, if I were your coauthor I would flatly refuse to accept any share of the money, for the reasons stated above. I would also find it a bit strange to be invited to a dinner at your expense. I would not take offense to such an invitation, and I find the dinner idea appealing in general, but I would politely tell you that you deserve to keep the award money and I prefer to pay for my own dinner. I also find it very hard to imagine any professor who would feel slighted by not being offered to share in the prize money from a PhD student's young scientist award, so I find Stephen Kolassa's talk of making enemies a bit unreasonable. The one aspect of the prize-sharing suggestions that I can agree with is that it may make sense to offer the other PhD student coauthors a share of the prize money (or a free dinner), purely as a gesture showing kindness and generosity on your part. I don't think you are obligated to do this in any moral sense, but it will very probably win you some good will that may be helpful to you down the road, and is just a nice thing to do in general.