Hyper-altruistic behavior vanishes with high stakes #MMPMID34432813
Branas-Garza P; Jorrat D; Kovarik J; Lopez MC
PLoS One 2021[]; 16 (8): e0255668 PMID34432813show ga
Using an incentivized experiment with statistical power, this paper explores the role of stakes in charitable giving of lottery prizes, where subjects commit to donate a fraction of the prize before they learn the outcome of the lottery. We study three stake levels: 5euro (n = 177), 100euro (n = 168), and 1,000euro (n = 171). Although the donations increase in absolute terms as the stakes increase, subjects decrease the donated fraction of the pie. However, people still share roughly 20% of 1,000euro, an amount as high as the average monthly salary of people at the age of our subjects. The number of people sharing 50% of the pie is remarkably stable across stakes, but donating the the whole pie-the modal behavior in charity-donation experiments-disappears with stakes. Such hyper-altruistic behavior thus seems to be an artifact of the stakes typically employed in economic and psychological experiments. Our findings point out that sharing with others is a prevalent human feature, but stakes are an important determinant of sharing. Policies promoted via prosocial frames (e.g., stressing the effects of mask-wearing or social distancing on others during the Covid-19 pandemic or environmentally-friendly behaviors on future generations) may thus be miscalibrated if they disregard the stakes at play.
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PLoS+One 2021 ; 16 (8): e0255668
