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Actions and the Self: I Give, Therefore I am?
Tobias Regner1, Astrid Matthey2,3
1Department of Economics, University of Jena, Jena, Germany.
Frontiers in Psychology
|August 27, 2021
Summary
People often use self-deception, exploiting situational excuses, rather than investing in a pro-social identity when making choices in reciprocal giving scenarios. This study found self-deception to be more prevalent.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Economics
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Self-signaling theory suggests individuals manage their identity by acting prosocially.
- Conversely, people may exploit situational factors, like uncertainty, to justify selfish behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To experimentally contrast identity management and self-deception motivations in a reciprocal giving context.
- To determine the prevalence of each motivation in influencing behavior.
Main Methods:
- An experiment was conducted involving a reciprocal giving setting.
- Trustees' back transfer choices were recorded across varying trustor transfer levels.
- Trustees provided back transfer schedules under different implementation probabilities.
Main Results:
- Self-deception was found to be more prevalent than identity management.
- Approximately twice as many subjects exploited situational excuses compared to those investing in a prosocial identity.
- The study identified reciprocators and analyzed their responses to varied self-image factors.
Conclusions:
- Self-deception appears to be a dominant motivation in reciprocal giving decisions.
- Situational excuses are frequently utilized to rationalize selfish choices over prosocial identity investment.
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