Exploring the conflict between self-interest and concern for others

经济学家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。威廉·坎宁安博士(俄亥俄州立大学)试图阐明一个古老的问题，即人们是否有动机照顾他人的利益(即，无私地思考和行为)。例如，坎宁安博士实验室的试点数据已经表明，在同情心指标上得分较高的人参与了似乎是无私的帮助。三项研究将通过(A)使用一种旨在揭示人们动机的新颖决策活动和(B)一种直接测量视觉注意力的眼球跟踪方法来研究人们是否曾经是无私的。这些研究将解决三个重要问题：(A)人们更有可能对谁表现出担忧(例如，相似的人与不同的人)？(B)与关心他人相比，自利是更自然的过程还是更基本的过程？(C)驱动这些效果的注意和激励机制是什么？在每一项拟议的研究中，都将衡量同情心(以及是否缺乏同情心)，以了解自动的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，可能会将人们从利己主义转向对他人不那么自私的关注。例如，如果人们必须迅速做出决定，那么利己主义是否更有可能主导他们的决定？即使是那些极富同情心的人也是如此吗？此外，人们花在观察另一个人身上可能发生的事情的时间会预测他们对那个人有多慷慨吗？回答这些问题将使我们对帮助他人的动机有新的见解。就更广泛的影响而言，拟议的研究将促进对广泛学生的培训。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，供其他对利他主义和/或利己主义感兴趣的研究人员免费使用。更好地理解人们是否以及何时以真正无私的方式行事，可能对理解一系列重要问题具有重要意义，从帮助陷入困境的陌生人的问题，到选择要求提供帮助的职业，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.