ABAI Culturo Behavior Science Conferernce Poster #59, Michael Passage

Описание: Altruism by individuals may not always be enough to produce socially significant benefits. Sometimes these benefits require individuals to coordinate with others. This study examined the effects of a group contingency on the altruistic responding of groups of children (aged 6-14 years). The type of group contingency under investigation is a metacontingency because it involves interlocking behavioral contingencies (e.g., all participants choosing points exchangeable for donated toys) that produce an aggregate product (e.g., donated school toys). First, we exposed children to operant contingencies only by asking children to choose between an individually optimal choice (e.g., four points for themselves exchangeable for toys) and an individually suboptimal altruistic option (e.g., one point for themselves exchangeable for toys and three donated points exchangeable for toys). Next, two “altruistic” children were grouped with a “non-altruistic” child with donated points contingent upon all three members choosing to donate points. We also evaluated the effects of increasing the magnitude of donated points. Results from this study suggest (a) metacontingency conditions may increase altruistic responding by individual optimal responders, (b) metacontingency conditions may decrease altruistic responding by altruistic responders, and (c) the aggregate sum of donated points was higher during the operant contingency only condition.

This poster is accepted for the ABAI Culturo-Behavior Science for a Better World Conference, held online October 7-9, 2020.