Uncertainty about the impact of social decisions increases prosocial behaviour.

ABSTRACT: Uncertainty about how our choices will affect others infuses social life. Past research suggests uncertainty has a negative effect on prosocial behaviour^1-12 by enabling people to adopt self-serving narratives about their actions^1,13. We show that uncertainty does not always promote selfishness. We introduce a distinction between two types of uncertainty that have opposite effects on prosocial behaviour. Previous work focused on outcome uncertainty (uncertainty about whether or not a decision will lead to a particular outcome). However, as soon as people's decisions might have negative consequences for others, there is also impact uncertainty (uncertainty about how others' well-being will be impacted by the negative outcome). Consistent with past research^1-12

SUBMITTER: Kappes A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6639117 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature