Humans Have a Generous Impulse

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A new study suggests that how cooperative you are depends on how quickly you respond to the situation. David Rand, Harvard University behavioral scientist and lead author of this new study, conducted an experiment where subjects contributed money to a common pool in a computerized game. In the game, subjects were placed in groups of four and given 40 cents each. Each person was then asked how much they individually wanted to contribute to the pool and was told that whatever amount ended up in the pool at the end would be doubled and divided equally amongst the four players.

They found that people that chose quickly donated an average of 27 cents, while those that took longer to contribute averaged 21 cents. In another experiment, some players were told that they had to make their contribution decision in under ten seconds and others were told they had to wait at least ten seconds before making a decision. Researchers found the same results, that those who had to quickly decide gave more while those having more time to think gave less.

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Psychologic research says that the faster choice is always the more intuitive choice. Rand noted that, "If they stop and think about it, they realize, Oh, this is one of those situations where actually I can take advantage of the person and get away with it." Therefore, when people take more time to evaluate the situation, they act against their cooperative impulse and become more selfish.

I chose this article because I thought it was interesting that humans are actually more intuitively cooperative when you'd think they'd be more greedy and selfish. But when you think of situations involving peer pressure it actually makes sense. If a friend is really hounding you to do something or try something and not giving you any time to think, chances are most people just cooperate with them and do what they're asking them to do. But if you just ignore your friend and take the time to think about the consequences of what'd you be doing, I think a lot more people would refuse the friend's offer. So anytime you are in a situation where you really need a friend to do something for you, your best bet would be to give them very little time to think about it! 

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Article: Mulling Over a Decision Makes People More Selfish, Study Suggests
Written by: Helen Fields

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/09/mulling-over-a-decision-makes-pe.html?ref=hp