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hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Study: People expect others to mirror their own selfishness, generosity [illinois.edu]:

New research shows that a person's own behavior is the primary driver of how they treat others during brief, zero-sum-game competitions. Generous people tend to reward generous behavior and selfish individuals often punish generosity and reward selfishness – even when it costs them personally. The study found that an individual's own generous or selfish deeds carry more weight than the attitudes and behaviors of others.

[...] Previous research into this arena of human behavior suggested that social norms are the primary factor guiding a person's decision-making in competitive scenarios, said Paul Bogdan, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who led the research in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology with U. of I. psychology professors Florin Dolcos and Sanda Dolcos.

"The prevailing view before this study was that individuals form expectations based on what they view as typical. If everyone around me is selfish, then I'm going to learn to accept selfishness and behave accordingly," Bogdan said. "But we show that your judgments of other people's behavior really depend on how you behave yourself."

[...] Cultural norms toward self-interest or generosity do influence people, as other studies have found, Florin Dolcos said. "But we are not only observers. This study is showing that we filter information about the world through our own view."

Those individuals whose behavior switched from generous to selfish over time were more likely to punish generosity and reward selfishness – but only after their own behavior changed, the team found.

This helps explain the phenomenon of social alignment, for better and for worse, Florin Dolcos said.

"You may have groups of selfish people who are more accepting of other selfish people, and in order to be part of that group, newcomers might display the same behavior," he said.

Ultimately, the study finds that a person's own generous or selfish nature drives their behavior in many arenas of life, Sanda Dolcos said.

"This is not just about decision-making," she said. "It has practical relevance to many types of social interactions and social evaluations."

Journal Reference:
Paul C Bogdan, Florin Dolcos, Matthew Moore, et al., Social Expectations are Primarily Rooted in Reciprocity: An Investigation of Fairness, Cooperation, and Trustworthiness, Cogn Sci. 2023 Aug;47(8):e13326. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13326 [doi.org]

Original Submission