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Considerations of Mutual Exchange in Prosocial Decision-Making
Suraiya Allidina1, Nathan L Arbuckle2, William A Cunningham1
1Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Frontiers in Psychology
|June 14, 2019
Summary
Prosocial behavior, or helping others, depends on the possibility of mutual exchange, even when direct reciprocity isn't possible. People's beliefs about others' intentions also significantly influence their willingness to help.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Economics
- Social Psychology
- Decision-Making Science
Background:
- Direct reciprocity, where individuals help those who helped them, is a known factor in prosocial decision-making.
- Less is understood about how potential mutual exchange influences helping behavior when the other party's actions are unknown.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of potential mutual exchange in prosocial behavior when direct reciprocity is impossible.
- To examine how beliefs about another person's intentions affect prosociality in the absence of direct reciprocity.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a two-party economic decision-making task where participants' actions were unknown to the other party.
- Conducted two studies to isolate the effects of potential mutual exchange and beliefs about intentions.
Main Results:
- Prosociality was significantly reduced when the other person had no opportunity for mutual exchange.
- Beliefs about the other person's intentions influenced prosocial behavior, even without direct reciprocity.
- Beliefs about others' intentions correlated with participants' own task motivations.
Conclusions:
- Prosociality is influenced by the social conditions enabling mutual exchange.
- Mental models of others' behavior, shaped by beliefs about intentions, are crucial for prosociality.
- These findings support a model where prosociality integrates potential for mutual exchange with self-related beliefs about others' intentions.
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