Evidence of an Alternative Currency for Altruism in Laboratory-Based Experiments
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Farrelly, Daniel
Moan, Emma
White, Kristi
Young, Sarah
Abstract / Description
Research shows that altruistic behaviours arise in varying social situations in line with different theories of causes of such behaviours. However most research uses financial costs only, which makes our understanding of altruism currently limited. This study presents findings of three experiments that use a novel and simple laboratory-based task that measures altruism based on the amount of time participants are willing to spend as a cost to help others. This task assessed two specific theories; altruistic punishment (Experiments 1 & 2) and empathy-altruism (Experiment 3). All experiments showed that the task was successful, as participants were more likely to altruistically punish violators of social contracts than other scenarios (Experiments 1 and 2), and also incur more costs to behave altruistically towards others when feeling empathic than different emotional states (Experiment 3). These results provide clear support for the use and value of this novel task in future research.
Keyword(s)
altruism cooperation punishment empathy experimentalPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2015-02-27
Journal title
Europe's Journal of Psychology
Volume
11
Issue
1
Page numbers
100–111
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Farrelly, D., Moan, E., White, K., & Young, S. (2015). Evidence of an Alternative Currency for Altruism in Laboratory-Based Experiments. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 11(1), 100–111. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v11i1.855
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Farrelly, Daniel
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Moan, Emma
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Author(s) / Creator(s)White, Kristi
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Young, Sarah
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2018-11-21T09:59:19Z
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Made available on2018-11-21T09:59:19Z
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Date of first publication2015-02-27
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Abstract / DescriptionResearch shows that altruistic behaviours arise in varying social situations in line with different theories of causes of such behaviours. However most research uses financial costs only, which makes our understanding of altruism currently limited. This study presents findings of three experiments that use a novel and simple laboratory-based task that measures altruism based on the amount of time participants are willing to spend as a cost to help others. This task assessed two specific theories; altruistic punishment (Experiments 1 & 2) and empathy-altruism (Experiment 3). All experiments showed that the task was successful, as participants were more likely to altruistically punish violators of social contracts than other scenarios (Experiments 1 and 2), and also incur more costs to behave altruistically towards others when feeling empathic than different emotional states (Experiment 3). These results provide clear support for the use and value of this novel task in future research.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationFarrelly, D., Moan, E., White, K., & Young, S. (2015). Evidence of an Alternative Currency for Altruism in Laboratory-Based Experiments. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 11(1), 100–111. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v11i1.855
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ISSN1841-0413
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/935
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1127
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v11i1.855
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Keyword(s)altruismen_US
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Keyword(s)cooperationen_US
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Keyword(s)punishmenten_US
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Keyword(s)empathyen_US
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Keyword(s)experimentalen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleEvidence of an Alternative Currency for Altruism in Laboratory-Based Experimentsen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue1
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Journal titleEurope's Journal of Psychology
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Page numbers100–111
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Volume11
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Visible tag(s)Version of Record