Costless and Costly Prosociality: Correspondence Among Personality Traits, Economic Preferences, and Real-World Prosociality

Citation

Ferguson E, Zhao K, O'Carroll R & Smillie LD (2019) Costless and Costly Prosociality: Correspondence Among Personality Traits, Economic Preferences, and Real-World Prosociality. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 10 (4), pp. 461-471. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550618765071

Abstract
Prosociality can either be costly (e.g., donating to charity) or costless (e.g., posthumous organ donation). Whereas links between personality and costly prosociality have been explored, links with costless prosociality and personality are at present unknown. We address this in two studies: Study 1 (N ¼ 200) confirms the distinction between costless and costly prosociality based on willingness to engage with health and nonhealth prosociality. Study 2, using data from four samples (student and community; N ¼ 733), shows that across incentivized and hypothetical economic games to assess costless (generosity game) and costly (dictator game) prosociality, that organ donor behavior was linked to greater allocations in the GG and charity/volunteering behavior in the DG. Costless and costly prosocialities are associated with different personality traits (e.g., costly with politeness and compassion and costless with intellect). Implications for cooperative phenotypes and recruiting organ donors are discussed.

Keywords
altruism; costly; personality; organ donation; dictator game

Journal
Social Psychological and Personality Science: Volume 10, Issue 4

People

Professor Ronan O'Carroll

Professor, Psychology