Hyper-altruistic behavior vanishes with high stakes

0545518 - NHÚ 2022 RIV US eng J - Článek v odborném periodiku
Brañas-Garza, P. - Jorrat, D. - Kovářík, Jaromír - López, M. C.
Hyper-altruistic behavior vanishes with high stakes.
PLoS ONE. Roč. 16, č. 8 (2021), č. článku e0255668. ISSN 1932-6203. E-ISSN 1932-6203
Grant CEP: GA ČR(CZ) GA17-25222S
Institucionální podpora: RVO:67985998
Klíčová slova: gender-differences * dictator games * ambiguity
Obor OECD: Applied Economics, Econometrics
Impakt faktor: 3.752, rok: 2021
Způsob publikování: Open access
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255668

Using an incentivized experiment with statistical power, this paper explores the role of stakes in charitable giving of lottery prizes, where subjects commit to donate a fraction of the prize before they learn the outcome of the lottery. We study three stake levels: 5€ (n = 177), 100€ (n = 168), and 1,000€ (n = 171). Although the donations increase in absolute terms as the stakes increase, subjects decrease the donated fraction of the pie. However, people still share roughly 20% of 1,000€, an amount as high as the average monthly salary of people at the age of our subjects. The number of people sharing 50% of the pie is remarkably stable across stakes, but donating the the whole pie–the modal behavior in charity-donation experiments–disappears with stakes. Such hyper-altruistic behavior thus seems to be an artifact of the stakes typically employed in economic and psychological experiments. Our findings point out that sharing with others is a prevalent human feature, but stakes are an important determinant of sharing. Policies promoted via prosocial frames (e.g., stressing the effects of mask-wearing or social distancing on others during the Covid-19 pandemic or environmentally-friendly behaviors on future generations) may thus be miscalibrated if they disregard the stakes at play.
Trvalý link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0322206


Vědecká data: S1 File, S1 Data