Buying Kindness: Effect of an Extrinsic Incentive for Helping on Perceived Altruism

Batson, C. Daniel; Coke, Jay S.; Jasnoski, Mary L.; Hanson, Michael Hanchett

doi:10.1177/014616727800400118

Cited by 78 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Studies of volunteerism and altruistic behavior in a variety of contexts have demonstrated that external social pressures to help others can undermine intrinsic commitment to help, and cause volunteers to discontinue their participation sooner, or at higher rates than volunteers who did not experience such pressures. [11][12][13] We also expected that, in addition to the conditions under which individuals joined the registry, their stated motives for joining would also be associated with the likelihood they would drop out of the registry later. Previous research has demonstrated that motives are related to continued volunteerism or to feelings about participation in volunteer activities among volunteer 'buddies' for AIDS patients, 14,15 4-H volunteers, 16 social service volunteers, 17 elderly volunteers, 18 kidney donors 4,19 and bone marrow donors.…”

Section: Recruitment Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors associated with attrition from a national bone marrow registry

Switzer

Stukas

et al. 1999

Bone Marrow Transplant

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Summary:During its 10-year existence, the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) has been extremely successful at recruiting potential bone marrow donors to join the volunteer registry. Due in part to successful recruitment and the longevity of the registry, the focus of the NMDP has now shifted to decreasing potential attrition when volunteers are recontacted for additional testing to determine whether they would be the optimal donor for a specific patient. Our own interest in the bone marrow donation process led us to examine four domains of variables -demographic characteristics, volunteer history, recruitment-related characteristics and donationrelated concerns -that we hypothesized would be associated with increased likelihood of donor attrition at a key donor decision-point (DR-stage blood typing). Questionnaires were mailed to potential donors after they were contacted at the DR-stage, and had made the decision of whether or not to continue with blood typing. Our final sample included 756 volunteers who decided to continue with typing, and 258 individuals who declined further participation in the registry. In the bivariate analyses, factors in three of the four domains (all except demographic characteristics) were found to be substantially correlated with likelihood of attrition. Logistic regression indicated that nine central variables across the three domains produced the majority of increased attrition likelihood. Finally, a dose-response analysis suggested that as the number of attrition-related factors endorsed by an individual increased, his/her likelihood of dropping out of the registry also increased. Implications for future research and interventions to reduce potential donor attrition are discussed.

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Section: Recruitment Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors associated with attrition from a national bone marrow registry

Switzer

Stukas

et al. 1999

Bone Marrow Transplant

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“…Still, two experiments have successfully demonstrated that extrinsic incentives for help giving can lead helpers to describe themselves as less altruistically motivated. During the course of an experiment on "first impressions," Batson, Coke, Jasnoski, and Hanson (1978) asked male undergraduates to help an experimenter code data. Payment for this help was offered before subjects agreed to help (payment condition), after the subjects' agreement (payment after), or payment was not mentioned at all (no payment).…”

Section: Measurement Of Altered Self-perceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An examination of self-perception mediation of the foot-in-the-door effect.

DeJong¹

1979

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

133

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In 1966, Freedman and Fraser demonstrated that an individual is more likely to comply with a large request for help if that person has previously agreed to an initial small request-a phenomenon they called the "foot-in-the-door" effect. In the present survey, studies that have sought to replicate the foot-inthe-door effect are reviewed. The adequacy of a self-perception explanation for the foot-in-the-door effect is assessed by examining (a) the importance of the size of the initial request; (b) the effect of noncompliance with the initial request; (c) the impact of salient external justifications for the initial act of compliance; (d) the impact of social labels on subsequent levels of compliance; and (e) attempts at actually measuring changes in self-perception. Alternative explanations of the foot-in-the-door effect are considered and rejected, and directions for future research are outlined.

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“…The introduction of a monetary reward for performing a task which subjects originally regarded as intrinsically enjoyable consistently reduced the intrinsic pleasure subjects reported deriving from the task and, furthermore, reduced their rate of volunteering to repeat the experiment. (Deci, 1975;Notz, 1975;Staw, 1975) Batson et al (1978) confirm that this general principle applies in the case of moral motives. "Buying kindness," the offer of monetary rewards for helping others with a task, reduced the subjects' self-reported altruism [6].…”

Section: ) Patriotic Duo'mentioning

confidence: 91%

“…6 Social psychologists ordinarily explain these results somewhat implausibly in terms of"attribution theory". Batson et al ( 1978), for example, suppose that where altruism also pays subjects simply tend to attribute their behaviour to the baser motive: the introduction of an extrinsic reward has not made people worse, really; it has only confused them about their own motives. But when there are both altruistic and egoistic reasons for an action, why should subjects always attribute the choice to the egoistic motive?…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making moral incentives pay

Goodin

1980

Policy Sci

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Politicians often appeal to moral principles as a least-cost method of enforcing their policy demands. To do so effectively, they must understand how such principles fit into ordinary people's decision functions. Here [ distinguish three ways for formally representing moral principles. One reduces morality to enlightened self-interest, denying that morality has any special place in the decision calculus. Another, x~hile acknowledging that people do internalize moral principles per se, enters them into utility functions as just another consumption good. Truly strong moral principles, however, are best represented by a third model of seriously held moral principles which must be kept formally apart from mundane considerations. Such principles are as precarious as they are powerful. Policy-makers who want to tap them must respect the formalisms that make them strong, most typically by shielding moral principles from contamination by egoistic impulses. President Carter's declaration of "the moral equivalent of war" against the energy crisis is only the latest instance of a time-honoured strategy. Politicians everywhere have, from time to time, attempted to secure voluntary compliance with policies imposing heavy burdens upon people by appealing to their deepest moral sentiments.But before we can design social policies to play on people's better instincts, we must first understand how moral principles figure in ordinary people's decision calculi.Here I shall survey three models, one representing morality as enlightened selfinterest, another depicting it as internalized norms and a third focusing upon formally distinct "seriously-held" moral principles. Policy-makers would most like to evoke the very strong principles of this third category. But to do so they must respect the formalisms that give these principles their strength. In particular, they must avoid mixing moral and material incentives lest people be put off their principles altogether.

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Buying Kindness: Effect of an Extrinsic Incentive for Helping on Perceived Altruism

Cited by 78 publications

References 8 publications

Factors associated with attrition from a national bone marrow registry

Factors associated with attrition from a national bone marrow registry

An examination of self-perception mediation of the foot-in-the-door effect.

Making moral incentives pay

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