Prosocial Option Research Articles

Public Sector Employees: Risk Averse and Altruistic?

We assess whether public sector employees have a stronger inclination to serve others and are more risk averse than employees in the private sector. A unique feature of our study is that we use revealed rather than stated preferences data. Respondents of a large-scale survey were offered a substantial reward and could choose between a widely redeemable gift certificate, a lottery ticket, or making a donation to a charity. Our analysis shows that public sector employees are significantly less likely to choose the risky option (lottery) and, at the start of their career, significantly more likely to choose the pro-social option (charity). However, when tenure increases, this difference in pro-social inclinations disappears and, later on, even reverses. Further, our results suggest that quite a few public sector employees do not contribute to charity because they feel that they already contribute enough to society at work for too little pay.

Public Sector Employees: Risk Averse and Altruistic?

We assess whether public sector employees have a stronger inclination to serve others and are more risk averse than employees in the private sector. A unique feature of our study is that we use revealed rather than stated preferences data. Respondents of a large-scale survey were offered a substantial reward and could choose between a widely redeemable gift certificate, a lottery ticket, or making a donation to a charity. Our analysis shows that public sector employees are significantly less likely to choose the risky option (lottery) and, at the start of their career, significantly more likely to choose the pro-social option (charity). However, when tenure increases, this difference in pro-social inclinations disappears and, later on, even reverses. Our results further suggest that quite a few public sector employees do not contribute to charity because they feel that they already contribute enough to society at work for too little pay.

Giving is self-rewarding for monkeys.

Helping and sharing among humans is often motivated by empathy and accompanied by a sense of satisfaction. To determine whether similar self-rewarding mechanisms may underpin assistance among nonhuman primates, eight female brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) underwent testing in a simple choice paradigm. Paired with a partner, subjects could select either a "selfish" option that rewarded only themselves, or a "prosocial" option that rewarded both of them. Subjects systematically favored the prosocial option provided their partner was a) familiar, b) visible, and c) receiving rewards of equal value. Prosocial tendencies increased with social closeness, being lowest toward strangers and highest toward kin. That the monkeys understood the options was suggested by greater orientation to the partner during prosocial than selfish choices. Prosocial preferences were reduced by inequity, when the partner received a superior reward. If the view between both monkeys was blocked, choices became strikingly selfish. Thus, under certain conditions, delivering benefits to others seems gratifying to nonhuman primates.

An Evaluation of the Social Desirability of Prosocial Self—Other Allocation Choices

Abstract New Zealand university students participated in two studies that assessed the effect of social desirability on prosocial choice options in two-person decomposed games used to measure social values. Study 1 indicated that the prosocial option was very socially desirable. Study 2 indicated that the individuals who chose the prosocial option did not differ in their expression of general social desirability motives from the individuals who chose other nonprosocial options. These data suggest that, although the structure of the task offered the participants a salient, socially desirable way to respond, a choice of the prosocial option was probably more a reflection of the participants' true social value orientations than of the effect of social desirability.