Curry, Oliver S., Price, Michael E. and Price, Jade G. (2008) Patience is a virtue: cooperative people have lower discount rates. Personality and individual differences, 44 (3). pp. 780-785. ISSN 0191-8869
Abstract
Reciprocal altruism involves foregoing an immediate benefit for the sake of a greater long-term reward. It follows that individuals who exhibit a stronger preference for future over immediate rewards should be more disposed to engage in reciprocal altruism – in other words, ‘patient’ people should be more cooperative. The present study tested this prediction by investigating whether participants’ contributions in a public-good game correlated with their ‘discount rate’. The hypothesis was supported: patient people are indeed more cooperative. The paper discusses alternative interpretations of this result, and makes some suggestions for future research.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01918... |
| Additional Information: | © 2007 Elsevier Ltd |
| Library of Congress subject classification: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics |
| Sets: | Research centres and groups > Darwin@LSE Research centres and groups > Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS) |
| Rights: | http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/rights/LSERO.htm |
| URL: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/25843/ |
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