Harm to self outweighs benefit to others in moral decision making
Abstract
Principles guiding decisions that affect both ourselves and others are of prominent importance for human societies. Previous accounts in economics and psychological science have often described decision making as either categorically egoistic or altruistic. Instead, the present work shows that genuine altruism is embedded in context-specific egoistic bias. Participants were willing to both forgo monetary reward to spare the other from painful electric shocks and also to suffer painful electric shocks to secure monetary reward for the other. However, across all trials and conditions, participants accrued more reward and less harm for the self than for the other person. These results characterize human decision makers as egoistically biased altruists, with important implications for psychology, economics, and public policy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jul 10, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.1706693114
Entities
People
- B. Locke Welborn
- Lukas J Volz
- Matthias S. Gobel
- Michael S. Gazzaniga
- Scott T. Grafton
Organizations
- The Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies
- United States Army
- University of California, Santa Barbara