Costless and costly prosociality: correspondence among personality traits, economic preferences, and real world prosociality

Prosociality can either be costly (e.g., donating to charity) or costless (e.g. posthumous organ donation). Whereas links between personality and costly prosociality and have been explored, links with costless prosociality and personality are at present unknown. We address this in two studies. Study...

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Main Authors: Ferguson, Eamonn, Zhao, Kun, O'Carroll, Ronan, Smillie, Luke
Format: Article
Published: SAGE 2018
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49758/
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author Ferguson, Eamonn
Zhao, Kun
O'Carroll, Ronan
Smillie, Luke
author_facet Ferguson, Eamonn
Zhao, Kun
O'Carroll, Ronan
Smillie, Luke
author_sort Ferguson, Eamonn
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Prosociality can either be costly (e.g., donating to charity) or costless (e.g. posthumous organ donation). Whereas links between personality and costly prosociality and have been explored, links with costless prosociality and personality are at present unknown. We address this in two studies. Study 1 (N = 200) confirms the distinction between costless and costly prosociality based on willingness to engage with health and non-health prosociality. Study 2, using data from 4 samples (student and community; N = 733) shows that across incentivized and hypothetical economic games to assess costless (generosity game; GG) and costly (dictator game; DG) prosociality, that organ donor behavior was linked to greater allocations in the GG and charity/volunteering behavior in the DG. Costless and costly prosocialities are associated with different personality traits (e.g., costly with politeness and compassion, and costless with intellect). Implications for cooperative phenotypes and recruiting organ donors are discussed.
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spelling nottingham-497582020-05-04T19:31:15Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49758/ Costless and costly prosociality: correspondence among personality traits, economic preferences, and real world prosociality Ferguson, Eamonn Zhao, Kun O'Carroll, Ronan Smillie, Luke Prosociality can either be costly (e.g., donating to charity) or costless (e.g. posthumous organ donation). Whereas links between personality and costly prosociality and have been explored, links with costless prosociality and personality are at present unknown. We address this in two studies. Study 1 (N = 200) confirms the distinction between costless and costly prosociality based on willingness to engage with health and non-health prosociality. Study 2, using data from 4 samples (student and community; N = 733) shows that across incentivized and hypothetical economic games to assess costless (generosity game; GG) and costly (dictator game; DG) prosociality, that organ donor behavior was linked to greater allocations in the GG and charity/volunteering behavior in the DG. Costless and costly prosocialities are associated with different personality traits (e.g., costly with politeness and compassion, and costless with intellect). Implications for cooperative phenotypes and recruiting organ donors are discussed. SAGE 2018-09-05 Article PeerReviewed Ferguson, Eamonn, Zhao, Kun, O'Carroll, Ronan and Smillie, Luke (2018) Costless and costly prosociality: correspondence among personality traits, economic preferences, and real world prosociality. Social Psychological & Personality Science . ISSN 1948-5514 Altruism Costly Personality Organ Donation. Dictator Game http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550618765071 doi:10.1177/1948550618765071 doi:10.1177/1948550618765071
spellingShingle Altruism
Costly
Personality
Organ Donation. Dictator Game
Ferguson, Eamonn
Zhao, Kun
O'Carroll, Ronan
Smillie, Luke
Costless and costly prosociality: correspondence among personality traits, economic preferences, and real world prosociality
title Costless and costly prosociality: correspondence among personality traits, economic preferences, and real world prosociality
title_full Costless and costly prosociality: correspondence among personality traits, economic preferences, and real world prosociality
title_fullStr Costless and costly prosociality: correspondence among personality traits, economic preferences, and real world prosociality
title_full_unstemmed Costless and costly prosociality: correspondence among personality traits, economic preferences, and real world prosociality
title_short Costless and costly prosociality: correspondence among personality traits, economic preferences, and real world prosociality
title_sort costless and costly prosociality: correspondence among personality traits, economic preferences, and real world prosociality
topic Altruism
Costly
Personality
Organ Donation. Dictator Game
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49758/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49758/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49758/