Geographical Differences in Subjective Well-Being Predict Extraordinary Altruism

Brethel-Haurwitz, Kristin M.; Marsh, Abigail A.

doi:10.1177/0956797613516148

Cited by 61 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…These characteristics seem applicable to the pandemic, wherein the fear of infection has co-occurred with that of losing one's job and/or access to essential goods like medication, food, or even toilet paper. However, the notion of a fundamentally selfish human nature is called into question by the ubiquitous nature of everyday altruism in modern societies (Mattis et al, 2009;Sisco & Weber, 2019), and by instances of extraordinary altruism in highly risky (e.g., heroic rescues; https://www.carnegiehero.org/) or costly scenarios (e.g., non-directed organ donation; Brethel-Haurwitz & Marsh, 2014). Importantly, it has been suggested that challenging contexts may in fact promote rather than hinder altruistic motivation (Buchanan & Preston, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with higher levels of everyday altruism

Vieira¹,

Pierzchajlo²,

Jangard³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Threatening situations have been shown to influence prosocial and altruistic behaviour in laboratory studies. However, it is unknown whether those effects would transfer to a real-life crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we examined the impact of changing COVID-19 threat on everyday altruism. Specifically, we investigated the association between defensive emotions associated with varying levels of perceived threat imminence, and reported frequency of altruistic behaviours. A sample of 600 United States residents was recruited online via Prolific at 4 different timepoints in March and April (n=150 each week). We collected self-report measures of everyday altruism, Perceived COVID-19 threat, and defensive emotions associated with varying threat imminence (anticipatory versus acute anxiety). Linear mixed effects models were used to predict variation in everyday altruism as a function of perceived COVID-19 threat and defensive emotions. Our results revealed a clear and consistent association between acute anxiety in response to the pandemic, and frequency of altruistic behaviours. No significant association was found between altruism and less acute defensive responses. These results suggest acute defensive emotions associated with higher threat imminence may promote altruistic action during a real-life crisis.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with higher levels of everyday altruism

Vieira¹,

Pierzchajlo²,

Jangard³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…1 In experimental research, it has also been shown that people often reduce others' payoffs at personal cost when the cost imposed on others is larger than that incurred by the decision maker (e.g., Zizzo & Oswald 2001, Abbink et al 2010, Abbink & Herrmann 2011, Brañas-Garza et al 2014, which is consistent with individuals having a preference for increasing their relative standing. However, the opposite is often observed as well: people are willing to sacrifice their own payoffs in order to increase the welfare of others (e.g., Piliavin & Charng 1990, Forsythe et al 1994, Ledyard 1995, Camerer 2003, Staffiero et al 2013, Brethel-Haurwitz & Marsh 2014, which could be modeled as if others' payoffs enter positively into the individuals' utility functions. 2 Based on all this evidence, we shall assume that individuals aim at increasing their relative standing within the group they belong to (i.e., they are "competitive") 3 but also at enhancing the performance of the group, or social efficiency (i.e., they are "cooperative"; see McClintock 1972, Van Lange et al 1997, Charness & Rabin 2002.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Preferences 2.0: Connecting Competition, Cooperation and Inter-Temporal Preferences

2017

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This paper presents a "second generation" theory on the nature of social preferences. Incorporating an inter-temporal ingredient, we generate an outcome-based model which focuses on the conflict between cooperation towards social efficiency and competition for the individual relative standing. We build on the argument that cooperative (competitive) patterns are more likely to arise when the future is perceived as secure and predictable (unsecure and unpredictable). In order to accommodate this argument with recent experimental results showing a relationship between individuals' inter-temporal preferences and social behavior in one-shot games, social efficiency is assumed to trigger long-run satisfaction whereas relative standing is linked to short-run satisfaction. In so doing, we add a dynamic component to social preferences. This feature of the model implies that more patient individuals are more willing to get involved in cooperative affairs while more impatient individuals are more likely to display competitive patterns. Yet, an individual's inter-temporal preferences interact with contextual factors (cues of future (un)predictability) to determine her course of action. The theory is then tested to shed new light on individuals' decisions in different games used in experimental research where a relationship between game play and inter-temporal preferences has been found. We show that our new combination of social and inter-temporal preferences adds well to the explanatory power of economic theory on human decision making.

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“…intuitive) processes. Finally, a recent study examined the extremely costly behavior of kidney donation (albeit not from a dual process perspective) and found that across the United States, kidney donation was more likely in areas with higher subjective well-being [92] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risking Your Life without a Second Thought: Intuitive Decision-Making and Extreme Altruism

2014

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When faced with the chance to help someone in mortal danger, what is our first response? Do we leap into action, only later considering the risks to ourselves? Or must instinctive self-preservation be overcome by will-power in order to act? We investigate this question by examining the testimony of Carnegie Hero Medal Recipients (CHMRs), extreme altruists who risked their lives to save others. We collected published interviews with CHMRs where they described their decisions to help. We then had participants rate the intuitiveness versus deliberativeness of the decision-making process described in each CHMR statement. The statements were judged to be overwhelmingly dominated by intuition; to be significantly more intuitive than a set of control statements describing deliberative decision-making; and to not differ significantly from a set of intuitive control statements. This remained true when restricting to scenarios in which the CHMRs had sufficient time to reflect before acting if they had so chosen. Text-analysis software found similar results. These findings suggest that high-stakes extreme altruism may be largely motivated by automatic, intuitive processes.

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Geographical Differences in Subjective Well-Being Predict Extraordinary Altruism

Cited by 61 publications

References 31 publications

Acute anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with higher levels of everyday altruism

Acute anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with higher levels of everyday altruism

Economic Preferences 2.0: Connecting Competition, Cooperation and Inter-Temporal Preferences

Risking Your Life without a Second Thought: Intuitive Decision-Making and Extreme Altruism

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