The topography of generosity: Asymmetric evaluations of prosocial actions
Nadav Klein & Nicholas Epley
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
December 2014, Pages 2366-2379
Abstract: Prosociality is considered a virtue. Those who care for others are admired, whereas those who care only for themselves are despised. For one’s reputation, it pays to be nice. Does it pay to be even nicer? Four experiments assess reputational inferences across the entire range of prosocial outcomes in zero-sum interactions, from completely selfish to completely selfless actions. We observed consistent nonlinear evaluations: Participants evaluated selfish actions more negatively than equitable actions, but they did not evaluate selfless actions markedly more favorably than equitable actions. This asymptotic pattern reflected monotonic evaluations for increasingly selfish actions and insensitivity to increasingly selfless actions. It pays to be nice but not to be really nice. Additional experiments suggest that this pattern stems partly from failing to make spontaneous comparisons between varying degrees of selflessness. We suggest that these reputational incentives could guide social norms, encouraging equitable actions but discouraging extremely selfless actions.
Nod to Kevin Lewis
1 comment:
"It pays to be nice but..." So, the piece is about how to profit from ... from selflessness? Profit? For starters, the authors should read what they wrote. (Make sense?) Then read The Fountainhead, esp. Ellsworth Toohey speeches. Methinks they would not know selfishness, if it came up and gave them a free box of paragraph marks (¶) to season their blocky writing.
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