Abstract
The role of the loss-gain context in human social decision-making remains heavily debated, with mixed evidence showing that losses (vs. gains) boost both selfish and prosocial motivations. Herein, we propose that the loss context, compared to the gain context, exacerbates intuitive reactions in response to the conflict between self-interest and prosocial preferences, regardless of whether those dominant responses are selfish or altruistic. We then synthesize evidence from three lines of research to support the account, which indicates that losses may either enhance or inhibit altruistic behaviors depending on the dominant responses in the employed interactive economic games, prosocial/proself traits, and the explicit engagement of deliberative processes. The current perspective contributes to the ongoing debate on the association between loss-gain context and human prosociality by putting forward a theoretical framework to integrate previous conflicting perspectives.
Highlights
Human behaviors and cognitions are disproportionately influenced by negative events relative to positive or neutral events, demonstrating a “negativity bias” (Baumeister et al, 2001; Rozin and Royzman, 2001; Vaish et al, 2008)
The current literature has provided seemingly contradictory evidence indicating that loss context could facilitate both self-interest concerns and prosocial motivations
Self-interest concerns might dominate over prosocial concerns in some contexts or for some people, whereas altruistic reactions represent intuitive responses for others, and those intuitive reactions are further amplified by the loss context
Summary
Human behaviors and cognitions are disproportionately influenced by negative events relative to positive or neutral events, demonstrating a “negativity bias” (Baumeister et al, 2001; Rozin and Royzman, 2001; Vaish et al, 2008). Task-irrelevant negative events often induce a larger interference on an individual’s ongoing task performance than that induced by irrelevant neutral or positive events (Williams et al, 1996; Feng et al, 2018). Negativity bias represents one of the most basic and overarching psychological principles (Baumeister et al, 2001; Rozin and Royzman, 2001) and might serve the Prosocial Gains and Losses evolutionarily adaptive function of avoiding detrimental situations. We focus on how negativity bias manifests in human decision-making, especially in social contexts
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