Empathy promotes altruistic behavior in economic interactions.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Klimecki OM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5005993 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Empathy promotes altruistic behavior in economic interactions.
Klimecki Olga M OM Mayer Sarah V SV Jusyte Aiste A Scheeff Jonathan J Schönenberg Michael M
Scientific reports 20160831
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 w ...[more]
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