No abstract

The purpose of the study was to test hypotheses regarding a form of social discounting in which the subjective value of a reward decreases as a function of the number of people it is shared with. Based on evolutionary theory, individuals’ social discounting rates were expected to depend on both reward amount and the type of relationship with the people with whom the reward would be shared. As predicted, smaller amounts were discounted less steeply than larger ones, and social discounting was steepest when sharing with strangers and shallowest when sharing with family. The effect of the type of social relationship is consistent with Hamilton’s inclusive fitness theory. The shallower discounting of smaller rewards may be adaptive when resources are limited; alternatively, this finding may be due to the degree of disappointment that is anticipated if the reward is unfairly shared, assuming that the disappointment increases with the size of the reward being withheld by the group.

No abstract

ArticleSocial discounting rate is negatively correlated with fluid intelligence Personality and Individual Differences Suggested Citation: Osiński, Jerzy; Ostaszewski, Paweł; Karbowski, Adam (2014) : Social discounting rate is negatively correlated with fluid intelligence, Personality and Individual Differences, ISSN 0191-8869, Elsevier, Amsterdam, Vol. 59, pp. 44-49, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013 The purpose of the study was to verify a hypothesis, inspired by the handicap principle, of a positive relationship between subjective value of a hypothetical monetary reward shared with others and the level of fluid intelligence. Manipulation involved the amount of reward to be shared (small vs. large amount) and subject's relationship to recipients (related vs. unrelated). As expected, a positive correlation was found between the subjective value of a reward to be shared with others, measured as the area under the curve for the discounting function and Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices scores, but the relationship was only present for rewards shared with relatives. In addition, participants who made altruistic choices in all items scored higher in RPM than those who were not as consistent.The implications of results for the evolutionary interpretation of the relationship between intelligence and altruism are discussed.

Based on the assumption that social distance and time are dimensions of psychological distance important for altruistic choices it was predicted that enhancement of altruism due to delaying rewards when choosing between a reward for oneself and for another person would be more pronounced the greater the social distance between the subject and another person. In order to test this hypothesis, social discounting using hypothetical monetary rewards and manipulation of social distance and reward delay was measured in a group of 161 college students. The results indicate that delaying rewards increasingly enhances preference for altruistic choices as the social distance between subject and beneficiary grows.