Exploring the conflict between self-interest and concern for others

经济学家们经常提出的关于人性的普遍观点是，人们的动机完全是出于自身利益。然而，人类强烈的社会性表明，人们并不是纯粹的利己主义者。威廉·坎宁安博士（俄亥俄州州立大学）试图对一个古老的问题提出新的见解，即人们是否有动机照顾他人的利益（即，（不自私地思考和行动）。例如，坎宁安博士实验室的初步数据已经表明，在同情心方面得分高的人似乎会无私地提供帮助。三项研究将研究人们是否曾经无私的问题，通过（a）使用一种旨在揭示人们动机的新颖决策活动和（B）直接测量视觉注意力的眼动追踪方法。 这些研究将解决三个重要问题：（a）人们更可能对谁表示关注（例如，相似与不相似的其他）？(b)自我利益是不是比关心他人更自动或更基本的过程？(c)驱动这些效应的注意力和动机机制是什么？在每一项拟议的研究中，同情心（以及同情心的缺失）都将被测量，以了解自动利己主义是否是人类的普遍现象，或者是否存在关键的个体差异，可能会使人们从利己主义转向不那么自私的关注他人。 例如，如果人们必须迅速做出决定，那么自我利益是否更有可能主导他们的决定？ 这是真的吗？即使对于那些非常富有同情心的人来说也是如此吗？ 此外，人们花在观察另一个人身上可能发生的事情上的时间，是否能预测他们对那个人的慷慨程度？ 思考这些问题将使我们对帮助他人的动机有新的认识。 就更广泛的影响而言，拟议的研究将有助于培训各种学生。作为这项工作的一部分，研究人员计划改进和完善一种新的测量方法，该方法将免费提供给其他有兴趣研究利他主义和/或利己主义的研究人员。更好地了解人们是否以及何时以真正无私的方式行事，对于理解一系列重要问题具有重要意义，这些问题包括帮助处于困境中的陌生人的问题，以及选择要求帮助的职业，如护理或消防。

The commonly-held view of human nature, often put forth by economists, is that people are motivated strictly by self-interest. However, the intensely social nature of human beings suggests that people are not purely self-interested. Dr. William Cunningham (Ohio State University) attempts to shed new light on the age-old question of whether people are ever motivated to look after the interests of others (i.e., to think and behave unselfishly). Pilot data from Dr. Cunningham's lab have already shown, for example, that people who score high on measures of compassion engage in what appears to be unselfish helping. Three studies will study the question of whether people are ever unselfish by (a) using a novel decision-making activity designed to uncover people's motivations and (b) an eye-tracking method that will directly measure visual attention. The studies will address three important questions: (a) For whom are people more likely to show concern (e.g., similar versus dissimilar others)? (b) Is self-interest a more automatic or fundamental process than concern for others? (c) What are the attentional and motivational mechanisms that drive these effects? In each of the proposed studies, compassion (and the absence thereof) will be measured to see whether automatic self-interest is a human universal, or if there are critical individual differences that may shift people from self-interest to a less selfish focus on others. For example, if people have to make decisions quickly, is self-interest more likely to dominate their decisions? Is this true even for people who are highly compassionate? Further, will the amount of time people spend looking at what could happen to another person predict how generously they behave toward that person? Answering such questions will yield new insights into the motivation to help others. In terms of broader impacts, the proposed studies will facilitate the training of a wide range of students. As a part of this work, the researchers plan to refine and polish a new measure that will be made freely available to other researchers interested in studying altruism and/or self-interest. Better understanding whether and when people behave in a truly unselfish fashion could have important implications for understanding a host of important questions ranging from questions about helping strangers in distress to choosing careers in demanding helping professions such as nursing or firefighting.