Preregistration

Decomposing Altruism

Author(s) / Creator(s)

Windmann, Sabine
Schultze, Martin

Abstract / Description

Altruism is defined as costly behavior that benefits others. Despite this seemingly clear definition, altruistic behaviors can take diverse forms whose interrelations are currently not well understood. In this project, we aim for “factor-pure” assessment of altruistic behavioral traits. Based on the existing literature, we distinguish between three forms of altruistic behavior. The first and most common form is helping/sharing, behavior through which resources such as time, money, food or information are being provided to needy individuals. A second form of altruistic behavior, costly punishment, describes investments into the defense of group norms by way of punishing defectors who free-ride on group cooperation for their own benefits. The behavior is often exerted either anonymously or indirectly via higher authorities and institutions to prevent risk of retaliation and retribution. The third and most confrontational form of altruistic behavior is moral courage, termed also civil courage in reference to civil-democratic values. This refers to the expression and defense of moral values against all forms of social threats including loss of wellbeing, social status, and (in the extreme) life. Moral/civil courage differs from altruistic punishment in the type of values that are being defended (moral/civil-democratic as opposed to conventional), and with regards to the anticipated costs which are unknown and potentially limitless in the case of moral courage, in contrast to being calculable and finite in the case of costly punishment. In addition, moral courage differs from helping/sharing as it refers to the confrontation of violators as opposed to the compensation of victims. Finally, helping/sharing refers to rewarding acts whereas costly punishment is punitive. We have designed a 64-item questionnaire aimed at measuring the three facets of altruistic behavioral traits via self-report. Our analyses will include classical item analysis, exploratory structural equation modeling, and alternative methods of scale construction such as ant colony optimization. We aim to investigate 400 participants selected via quota sampling. The project is preregistered at https://osf.io/2buh6/.

Persistent Identifier

PsychArchives acquisition timestamp

2018-11-27 09:24:52 UTC

Citation

Windmann, S., & Schultze, M. (2018, November). Decomposing Altruism. Leibniz Institut für Psychologische Information und Dokumentation (ZPID). https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1847
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Windmann, Sabine
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Schultze, Martin
  • PsychArchives acquisition timestamp
    2018-11-27T09:24:52Z
  • Made available on
    2018-11-27T09:24:52Z
  • Date of first publication
    2018-11
  • Abstract / Description
    Altruism is defined as costly behavior that benefits others. Despite this seemingly clear definition, altruistic behaviors can take diverse forms whose interrelations are currently not well understood. In this project, we aim for “factor-pure” assessment of altruistic behavioral traits. Based on the existing literature, we distinguish between three forms of altruistic behavior. The first and most common form is helping/sharing, behavior through which resources such as time, money, food or information are being provided to needy individuals. A second form of altruistic behavior, costly punishment, describes investments into the defense of group norms by way of punishing defectors who free-ride on group cooperation for their own benefits. The behavior is often exerted either anonymously or indirectly via higher authorities and institutions to prevent risk of retaliation and retribution. The third and most confrontational form of altruistic behavior is moral courage, termed also civil courage in reference to civil-democratic values. This refers to the expression and defense of moral values against all forms of social threats including loss of wellbeing, social status, and (in the extreme) life. Moral/civil courage differs from altruistic punishment in the type of values that are being defended (moral/civil-democratic as opposed to conventional), and with regards to the anticipated costs which are unknown and potentially limitless in the case of moral courage, in contrast to being calculable and finite in the case of costly punishment. In addition, moral courage differs from helping/sharing as it refers to the confrontation of violators as opposed to the compensation of victims. Finally, helping/sharing refers to rewarding acts whereas costly punishment is punitive. We have designed a 64-item questionnaire aimed at measuring the three facets of altruistic behavioral traits via self-report. Our analyses will include classical item analysis, exploratory structural equation modeling, and alternative methods of scale construction such as ant colony optimization. We aim to investigate 400 participants selected via quota sampling. The project is preregistered at https://osf.io/2buh6/.
    en_US
  • Publication status
    other
  • Citation
    Windmann, S., & Schultze, M. (2018, November). Decomposing Altruism. Leibniz Institut für Psychologische Information und Dokumentation (ZPID). https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1847
    en
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1482
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1847
  • Language of content
    eng
    en_US
  • Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)
    150
  • Title
    Decomposing Altruism
    en_US
  • DRO type
    preregistration
    en_US