Collaboration induces debt-motivated altruism

Q1 Psychology
Mary C. McGrath
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Collaboration with others—even a minimal instance—increases willingness to bear costs on their behalf. What is the mechanism underlying this effect? This prosocial behavior could be driven by an egoistic motivation or an altruistic motivation—and altruistic motivations could reflect either unbounded altruism or bounded altruism. I hypothesize that the collaboration effect operates by creating a sense of obligation or indebtedness to one's partner, thereby increasing willingness to sacrifice via a bounded form of altruism. I test this hypothesis in a randomized experiment and replication (Experiments 1 and 2), finding evidence that people behave as if collaboration creates an obligation of debt owed to the collaborator. Then, I rule out that the mechanism at work is simply increased inequality aversion, demonstrating that collaboration can decrease inequality aversion within a context of baseline equality (Experiment 3) and within a context of disadvantageous inequality (Experiment 4).
合作引发了债务驱动的利他主义
与他人合作——即使是极小的合作——也会增加为他人承担成本的意愿。这种效应背后的机制是什么?这种亲社会行为可能是由利己主义动机或利他主义动机驱动的,而利他主义动机既可以反映无限利他主义,也可以反映有限利他主义。我假设合作效应是通过创造一种对合作伙伴的义务或负债感来发挥作用的,从而通过有限形式的利他主义增加了牺牲的意愿。我在一个随机实验和重复实验(实验1和2)中验证了这一假设,发现人们的行为似乎表明合作创造了对合作者的债务义务。然后,我排除了在起作用的机制只是增加了对不平等的厌恶,这表明在基线平等(实验3)和不利不平等(实验4)的背景下,合作可以减少对不平等的厌恶。
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来源期刊
Current research in behavioral sciences
Current research in behavioral sciences Behavioral Neuroscience
CiteScore
7.90
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0.00%
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0
审稿时长
40 days
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