The effects of exposure to images of others' suffering and vulnerability on altruistic, trust-based, and reciprocated economic decision-making.

ABSTRACT: In this paper we explored the effects of exposure to images of the suffering and vulnerability of others on altruistic, trust-based, and reciprocated incentivized economic decisions, accounting for differences in participants' dispositional empathy and reported in-group trust for their recipient(s). This was done using a pictorial priming task, framed as a memory test, and a triadic economic game design. Using the largest experimental sample to date to explore this issue, our integrated analysis of two online experiments (total N = 519), found statistically consistent evidence that exposure to images of suffering and vulnerability (vs. neutral images) increased altruistic in-group giving as measured by the "triple dictator game", and that the manipulation was significantly more effective i

SUBMITTER: Powell PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5862494 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature