Abstract
Decreasing social sensitivity (i.e., the ability of a person to perceive, understand, and respect the feelings and viewpoints of others), has been shown to facilitate selfish behavior. This is not only true for exogenous changes in social sensitivity, but also for social sensitivity influenced by someone’s social cognition. In this analysis, we examined one measure of social cognition, namely a person’s Theory of Mind (ToM), to examine differences in decision-making in standard non-strategic and strategic environments (dictator and ultimatum games). We found that participants with higher ToM gave a greater share in the non-strategic environment. In the ultimatum game, however, ToM showed no correlation with the offers of the ultimators. Instead, we found that general intelligence scores—measured by the Wonderlic test—shared a negative, albeit weak, correlation with the amount offered in the ultimatum game. Thus, we find that lower social cognition is an important explanatory variable for selfish behavior in a non-strategic environment, while general intelligence shares some correlation in a strategic environment. Similar to the change in social sensitivity created by a specific game design, social sensitivity influenced by individual personality traits can influence behavior in non-strategic environments.
Highlights
Prosocial behavior can be observed in environments where no direct financial or social benefit exists
We found that general intelligence scores—measured by the Wonderlic test—shared a negative, albeit weak, correlation with the amount offered in the ultimatum game
We find that lower social cognition is an important explanatory variable for selfish behavior in a non-strategic environment, while general intelligence shares some correlation in a strategic environment
Summary
Prosocial behavior can be observed in environments where no direct financial or social benefit exists. It is astonishing that humans will show prosocial and altruistic behavior towards unrelated individuals [2] Investigations into this type of behavior have shown that it is possible to manipulate individuals into more (or less) cooperative behavior by reducing the opportunities to free-ride [3,4,5,6] or changing the rules of the experiment [7]. A few weeks after you have finished the survey, you will be invited to play economic games. For taking the survey we reward you with $10, which you receive in cash when coming to the lab to play the economic games. There is one practice item followed by 36 test items In this part of the study you will be asked to choose among different alternatives. In this last part of the study you will be asked to answer a few questions about yourself.
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