Dual-Processing Altruism

Suna Pirita Kinnunen,Sabine Windmann

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00193

Abstract

Altruism refers to an other-benefiting behavior that is costly but bears no direct profit to oneself. At least three different forms can be distinguished: help giving, altruistic punishment, and moral courage. We investigated the differential impact of two thinking modes, intuitive (System 1) and rational (System 2), on these three altruistic behaviors. Situational (state-related) thinking style was manipulated via experimental instructions and generally preferred thinking style (trait-related) was assessed via questionnaires. We found that of the subjectively preferred thinking styles (trait), faith in intuition (System 1) promoted sharing and altruistic punishment, whereas need for cognition (System 2) promoted volunteering in a situation that required moral courage. By contrast, we did not find a significant effect of situational thinking style (state) on any of the altruistic behaviors, although manipulation checks were positive. Results elucidate the affective-motivational underpinnings of different types of altruistic behaviors.

Highlights

Altruism is a form of prosocial motivation that benefits others but is costly to oneself
We found that of the subjectively preferred thinking styles, faith in intuition (System 1) promoted sharing and altruistic punishment, whereas need for cognition (System 2) promoted volunteering in a situation that required moral courage
We have focused separately on state and trait processing styles and on three different types of altruistic behaviors, namely sharing and helping behavior, altruistic punishment, and moral courage

Summary

Introduction

Altruism is a form of prosocial motivation that benefits others but is costly to oneself. This can mean that the benefit to others is greater than the benefits to oneself, or in strictest terms that there are no benefits to oneself. In terms of overt behavior, altruism can take at least three forms: costly sharing, altruistic punishment, and moral courage. These three have been investigated rather independently in the past; it is not clear whether they originate from the same motivation. The first form of altruism is costly sharing and it refers to help giving, when one party gives from their resources to another without receiving anything in return. Abundant research has shown that the most often mentioned motivator this form of altruism is empathy (e.g., Batson, 1991), and it is thought to be supported by and serves to maintain positive affect (Stel et al, 2008)

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