New research published in the journal Rationality and Society casts doubt on the idea that human beings are purely driven by rational self-interest.
The study, by Chinese researchers Lin Tao and Wing-tung Au, found that an individual’s values can predict his or her behavior in experimental games.
“Do values influence behavior? The theory of Homo economicus, which assumes that actors are fundamentally driven by material self-interests, maintains that they do not. The competing perspective, which might be broadly termed Homo sociologicus, argues that they do,” the authors explained.
Past research has mostly failed to support the theory of Homo sociologicus. However, Tao and Au think this could be due to the methodological limitations of previous studies, which relied on self-reported values and behaviors.
“One obstacle is that a given action can arise from more than one plausible motive,” they said. “For example, the act of one person helping another could be an expression of the actor’s altruistic values, but it could also be a strategic choice anticipating return of favor in the future, or a calculated move to avoid sanctions or obtain rewards from others.”
But experimental scenarios derived from game theory allow researchers to eliminate this ambiguity by controlling incentive structures.
In their study of 274 Hong Kong students, Tao and Au used the two-player “Dictator Game,” where one person was asked to share a reward with another person who could only passively accept what was offered. The person chosen to be the dictator had no self-interested incentive to share anything with the other person.
The researchers found that the values of benevolence, universalism, achievement, and power — as measured by the Schwartz’s Portrait Value Questionnaire — all predicted individuals’ behavior in the Dictator Game. The value of hedonism was the only exception; it had no significant impact when considered alone.
“Dictators” who endorsed the values of benevolence and universalism shared more of their money with the other person in the game, while “dictators” who endorsed the values of achievement and power shared less.
Hedonism was associated with sharing more money, but only among participants who also endorsed benevolence.
“This suggests that for those individuals, helping and sharing with others may be more pleasurable than maximizing their own profits at the expenses of others,” the researchers remarked. “The finding, though still preliminary, has important theoretical implications as it prompts us to rethink the notion of pleasure.”
Tao and Au also found that priming the values by asking the participants to recall as many items from the Schwartz’s Portrait Value Questionnaire as they could increased impact of values on behavior. Priming the self by having the participants circle the Chinese character for “I” and “me” in sets of random words also increased the impact of values on behavior.
“It is especially intriguing that the latter, i.e. priming and making salient the self, can activate the values. It provides experimental evidence for an important argument in sociological theory — that the self is not necessarily selfish, but value-laden,” the researchers wrote in their study.
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Photo credit: Madeline Puckette
