• Medientyp: E-Artikel
  • Titel: Empathy promotes altruistic behavior in economic interactions
  • Beteiligte: Klimecki, Olga M.; Mayer, Sarah V.; Jusyte, Aiste; Scheeff, Jonathan; Schönenberg, Michael
  • Erschienen: Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2016
  • Erschienen in: Scientific Reports
  • Sprache: Englisch
  • DOI: 10.1038/srep31961
  • ISSN: 2045-2322
  • Entstehung:
  • Anmerkungen:
  • Beschreibung: <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>What are the determinants of altruism? While economists assume that altruism is mainly driven by fairness norms, social psychologists consider empathy to be a key motivator for altruistic behavior. To unite these two theories, we conducted an experiment in which we compared behavior in a standard economic game that assesses altruism (the so-called Dictator Game) with a Dictator Game in which participants’ behavioral choices were preceded either by an empathy induction or by a control condition without empathy induction. The results of this within-subject manipulation show that the empathy induction substantially increased altruistic behavior. Moreover, the increase in experienced empathy predicted over 40% of the increase in sharing behavior. These data extend standard economic theories that altruism is based on fairness considerations, by showing that empathic feelings can be a key motivator for altruistic behavior in economic interactions.</jats:p>
  • Zugangsstatus: Freier Zugang