Social Distance and Delay Exert Multiple Control over Altruistic Choices
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Social Distance and Delay Exert Multiple Control over Altruistic Choices Jordan Belisle 1 & Dana Paliliunas 1 & Lisa Vangsness 2 & Mark R. Dixon 3 & Caleb R. Stanley 3
# Association for Behavior Analysis International 2020
Abstract We evaluated the degree to which delay to reinforcement and social distance concurrently influenced altruistic choices within a discounting paradigm. Forty participants completed two discounting tasks in a repeated measures design. In the SELF task, delay was parametrically imposed on the participant; in the OTHER task, delay was parametrically imposed on the hypothetical other. Results of a multilevel analysis of indifference data supported a hyperbolic discount rate for social distance in both conditions and delay in the OTHER condition. Results also suggested a statistically significant difference in the discount rate between the two discounting tasks (t = -4.53, p < .001 and t = -4.03, p < .001, respectively). Due to a poor fit of the hyperbolic delay discount rate for the SELF task, we compared the hyperbolic fit to a logarithmic model that described an increase in subjective value as a function of delay to reinforcement for the participant. Given support of these models at the individual and group level, we developed multiplicative models for the SELF and OTHER tasks that provided strong fits for the obtained median indifference values. Results are discussed in terms of interpreting human behavior believed to be altruistic as well as potential implications for influencing social policy. Keywords Delay discounting . Social discounting . Choice . Altruism
Altruism refers to acting for the benefit of others at one’s own expense (Batson & Powell, 2003; Kurzban, Burton-Chellew, & West, 2015). Scientific study concerning the mechanisms that underlie altruistic behavior has spanned over a century, representing a multidisciplinary effort to determine why people act in the best interest of others, and when they fail to do so, how society can influence altruistic behavior (Batson, 2002; Gates & Steane, 2009). Group selection has been put forward as an explanation for the evolution of altruistic tendencies in several organisms, including humans (Boorman & Levitt, 2012; Ebstein, Israel, Chew, Zhong, & Knafo, 2010). Recent neurobiological research has implicated altruismspecific neural structures that appear to participate differently
* Jordan Belisle [email protected] 1
Missouri State University, 901 South National Avenue, Springfield, MO, USA
2
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA
3
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA
in altruistic and selfish choices (Morishima, Schunk, Bruhin, Ruff, & Fehr, 2012). Both approaches undoubtedly serve to isolate internal, efficient causes that underlie altruistic behavior; however, behavior analytic models of altruism may specially contribute to this growing field of research by isolating external and temporally extended events that can influence altruistic choices. Such efforts are advantageous given th
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