Asymmetry between cost and benefit: The role of social value orientation, attention, and age

Abstract

Previous work showed that the willingness to help is impacted by the perception of the cost for the donor and the benefit for the recipient. Here we set up to extend this literature by investigating the role played by social value orientation (SVO), attention, and age (early adolescents vs. middle-late adolescents vs. young adults). Results showed that these three variables have a significant impact on the perception of the cost and the benefit of a donation. Exploratory analyses showed that perception of the cost is predicted by a three-way interaction between SVO, attention, and age (but the same three-way interaction does not predict the perception of the benefit). Finally, we found that the way the perceived cost and the perceived benefit impact the willingness to help is different for early adolescents compared to the other two groups. Early adolescents’ decisions are less impacted by perceived cost (and more impacted by perceived benefit).