Prosocial apathy for helping others when effort is required

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Behavioral Economics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Prosocial acts, beneficial to others but costly to oneself, are vital for human coexistence.
• While financial and moral costs of prosociality are known, everyday prosocial acts primarily involve effort.
• Understanding the effort-based nature of everyday prosociality is crucial for comprehending social interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate human willingness to initiate and exert effort in prosocial acts.
• To determine if individuals exhibit 'prosocial apathy' or 'superficial prosociality' in effort-based tasks.
• To explore the relationship between prosocial motivation, effort, and subclinical psychopathy/social apathy.

Main Methods:

• Computational modeling of an effort-based task assessing prosocial choices.
• Quantifying the effort exerted in actions benefiting self versus others.
• Correlating prosocial effort levels with subclinical psychopathy and social apathy scores.

Main Results:

• Individuals are less willing to initiate highly effortful prosocial acts compared to self-benefiting acts.
• Even when choosing prosocial acts, people exert less force (effort) for others than for themselves.
• Lower prosocial motivation correlated with higher subclinical psychopathy and social apathy.

Conclusions:

• People exhibit 'prosocial apathy,' being less motivated to initiate effortful helping behaviors.
• Individuals may display 'superficial prosociality,' exerting less effort for others.
• These findings shed light on everyday prosociality and its potential disruption in social disorders.