Prosocial preferences do not explain human cooperation in public-goods games
It has become an accepted paradigm that humans have "prosocial preferences" that lead to higher levels of cooperation than those that would maximize their personal financial gain. However, the existence of prosocial preferences has been inferred post hoc from the results of economic games,...
| Huvudupphovsmän: | , |
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| Materialtyp: | Journal article |
| Språk: | English |
| Publicerad: |
National Academy of Sciences
2012
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| _version_ | 1826280528128507904 |
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| author | Burton-Chellew, M West, S |
| author_facet | Burton-Chellew, M West, S |
| author_sort | Burton-Chellew, M |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | It has become an accepted paradigm that humans have "prosocial preferences" that lead to higher levels of cooperation than those that would maximize their personal financial gain. However, the existence of prosocial preferences has been inferred post hoc from the results of economic games, rather than with direct experimental tests. Here, we test how behavior in a public-goods game is influenced by knowledge of the consequences of actions for other players. We found that (i) individuals cooperate at similar levels, even when they are not informed that their behavior benefits others; (ii) an increased awareness of how cooperation benefits others leads to a reduction, rather than an increase, in the level of cooperation; and (iii) cooperation can be either lower or higher than expected, depending on experimental design. Overall, these results contradict the suggested role of the prosocial preferences hypothesis and show how the complexity of human behavior can lead to misleading conclusions from controlled laboratory experiments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:15:03Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:7a88c7de-ec2b-4be7-abe9-32765f8cdae2 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:15:03Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:7a88c7de-ec2b-4be7-abe9-32765f8cdae22022-03-26T20:44:40ZProsocial preferences do not explain human cooperation in public-goods gamesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:7a88c7de-ec2b-4be7-abe9-32765f8cdae2EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordNational Academy of Sciences2012Burton-Chellew, MWest, SIt has become an accepted paradigm that humans have "prosocial preferences" that lead to higher levels of cooperation than those that would maximize their personal financial gain. However, the existence of prosocial preferences has been inferred post hoc from the results of economic games, rather than with direct experimental tests. Here, we test how behavior in a public-goods game is influenced by knowledge of the consequences of actions for other players. We found that (i) individuals cooperate at similar levels, even when they are not informed that their behavior benefits others; (ii) an increased awareness of how cooperation benefits others leads to a reduction, rather than an increase, in the level of cooperation; and (iii) cooperation can be either lower or higher than expected, depending on experimental design. Overall, these results contradict the suggested role of the prosocial preferences hypothesis and show how the complexity of human behavior can lead to misleading conclusions from controlled laboratory experiments. |
| spellingShingle | Burton-Chellew, M West, S Prosocial preferences do not explain human cooperation in public-goods games |
| title | Prosocial preferences do not explain human cooperation in public-goods games |
| title_full | Prosocial preferences do not explain human cooperation in public-goods games |
| title_fullStr | Prosocial preferences do not explain human cooperation in public-goods games |
| title_full_unstemmed | Prosocial preferences do not explain human cooperation in public-goods games |
| title_short | Prosocial preferences do not explain human cooperation in public-goods games |
| title_sort | prosocial preferences do not explain human cooperation in public goods games |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT burtonchellewm prosocialpreferencesdonotexplainhumancooperationinpublicgoodsgames AT wests prosocialpreferencesdonotexplainhumancooperationinpublicgoodsgames |