How many masks do you buy? A simple dilemma task to differentiate between individual and social rationality.
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ABSTRACT: Prior measures on rationality overlook the individual differences in the weight people place on social rationality versus individual rationality. The current research develops and validates an individual-collective dilemma task (ICDT) to distinguish different rationality types. It was translated from a reality that, at the beginning of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, a global shortage of face masks occurred because of the jumping demand for masks as a precautionary measure. The ICDT asked participants to decide how many masks to buy in front of a shortfall of masks, which facilitated coping with a hypothetical epidemic outbreak. Based on the number of masks they selected, three rationality groups emerged. Individual rationalists preferred self-interest goals to goals of social interests; social rationalists prioritized social-interest goals; balancers assigned equal weight to both goals. The ICDT showed sound test-retest reliability and criterion-related, discriminant, and convergent validity. The present research contributes to the literature on rationality assessment and offers policy-makers a valid and reliable tool to understand the distribution of rationalists among the public.Supplementary information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03338-x.
SUBMITTER: Yang Z
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9208711 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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