Prosocial People Take Better Care of Their Own Future Well-Being

Abstract

There is neuroscientific evidence that people consider future versions of themselves as other people. As a result, intertemporal choice should refer to the interaction between multiple selves. We combine this notion of multiple selves in delay discounting with the approach for otherregarding preferences known as Social Value Orientation. The Social Value Orientation is a psychologically richer framework that generalizes the economic assumption of narrow selfinterest. People are assumed to vary in their motivations toward resource allocation between them and the others. When making such allocation decisions they may still be individualistic, but can also be competitive, prosocial, or even altruistic. We apply an experimental measure of impatience to a sample of 437 undergraduates, measure their Social Value Orientation, and collect selected demographic variables: gender, age, handedness, parenthood, religiousness, and current emotional state. We find prosocial participants to be more patient. Those who care for the others in the present also take better care of themselves in the future. We also find a participant's age and handedness to matter for his or her Social Value Orientation.

Social Preferences, Financial Literacy and Intertemporal Choice

“…Apart from List 3 (which did not show statistical significance), a negative correlation was found between prosocial SVO and impatience. This result was also in line with the literature [2] [19] [22].…”

“…This is so because those with superior financial literacy usually make plans and save more [11], and those who take better care of their future well-being [2] and are more patient [19] tend to be prosocial. However, in our sample that is not necessarily true.…”

“…Intertemporal choice is then about the interaction between multiple selves and other-regarding preferences influence decisions that involve discounting the future [1] [2]. Brain areas recruited when imagining oneself in the future (called "prospection") are the same as those recruited when mentalizing about other people (known as "theory of mind").…”

Awe: Efeitos Cognitivos, Emocionais e Motivacionais do Deslumbramento num Contexto Experimental

“…Essa possibilidade teórica também ganha força com base em estudos anteriores não relacionados ao awe que apontam para semelhanças neurológicas entre a maneira como são considerados os eus presente e futuro de uma pessoa, e a própria pessoa e outros indivíduos, num contexto de tomada de decisões (Jamison & Wegener, 2010). Já foi observada uma correlação entre a tendência a abrir mão de benefícios para si em prol da colaboração com outras pessoas (quantificada por escores de orientação de valor social) e a realização de escolhas economicamente mais prudentes a longo prazo, como escolhas mais favoráveis ao "eu futuro" de um indivíduo em detrimento de seu "eu presente" (Silva et al, 2015). Tal resultado sugere que esse fenômeno possa depender do que poderia ser descrito como "empatia consigo mesmo", ou da capacidade de entender e levar em consideração seus próprios sentimentos e necessidades num momento futuro em que eles difiram ou até venham de encontro aos atuais.…”