Social value orientation moderates the effects of intuition versus reflection on responses to unfair ultimatum offers

We investigated whether social value orientation (SVO) moderates the effects of intuitive versus reflective information processing on responses to unfair offers. We measured SVO one week prior to an ultimatum game experiment in which participants had to accept or reject a series of 10 ultimatum offers including very low (unfair) ones. Before making these decisions, participants mentally contrasted their individual goals with the obstacle of pondering at length or acting in a hasty way; then they made the plan to adopt an intuitive or a reflective mode of processing (intuitive and reflective condition, respectively), or made no such plans (control condition). Participants with rather high (prosocial) SVO scores were more likely to accept unfair offers in the reflective than the intuitive condition. This effect also evinced for a subset of selfish individuals; however, the majority with rather low (selfish) scores made similar decisions in both conditions. This pattern of results suggests that SVO moderates the effects of intuitive versus reflective modes of processing on responses to low ultimatum offers.

Effects of social value orientation (SVO) and decision mode on controlled information acquisition—A Mouselab perspective

Insights into the processes underlying observed decisions are crucial for a comprehensive understanding of behavior. We investigate how individual social value orientation (SVO) relates to controlled information acquisition and how this relationship may be governed by intuitive versus reflective decision modes. We measure controlled information acquisition with the process tracing tool Mouselab and demonstrate its potential for advancing research on social decision-making. In two experiments, participants worked on two consecutive SVO tasks, in which they allocated points between themselves and others. Information regarding the available distributions of points had to be actively acquired by moving the mouse cursor over corresponding boxes on the screen. We observed a stable relationship between SVO and controlled information acquisition in both experiments: less selfish participants acquired more information and made more other-oriented acquisitions, and this relationship showed up in both an intuitive and a reflective decision mode. However, participants in a reflective decision mode acquired more information, their acquisitions were more strongly other-oriented, and their decisions were more prosocial compared to participants in an intuitive mode. Taken together, our results advance research on SVO by showing that non-selfish individuals invest considerable time and effort to gauge the consequences of their decisions for others, which might underlie the pervasive effects of SVO on many socially relevant behaviors. Moreover, we demonstrate how intuitive versus reflective decision modes can alter controlled information acquisition. Finally, our results illustrate that Mouselab is a simple-to-use and versatile tool for tracing cognitive processes underlying social psychological phenomena.

Do agreeableness and social value orientation predict altruistic behavior under time pressure?

Although time pressure is closely related to altruistic behavior, there is relatively little research on whether altruistic traits can predict altruistic behavior under time pressure. Using a modified dictator game paradigm, we investigated whether the altruistic traits of agreeableness and social value orientation could predict altruistic behavior under time pressure. We recruited 120 participants for the main study and used a one-factor within-subjects design in which respondents made decisions about allocation of 10 yuan and 100 yuan options under time pressure. Results show that although agreeableness negatively predicted altruistic behavior, and social value orientation positively predicted altruistic behavior under time pressure, these traits were not significantly related to real-life altruistic behavior. Thus, the two altruistic traits differed in their effects on altruistic behavior under intuitive processing, and there were different psychological mechanisms for the effects of the traits on altruistic behavior.

The self as a prior for the other: social learning under paranoia

To benefit from social interactions, people need to predict how their social partners will behave. Such predictions arise through integrating prior expectations with evidence from observations, but where the priors come from and whether they influence the integration is not clear. Furthermore, this process can be affected by factors such as paranoia, in which the tendency to form biased impressions of others is common. Using a modified social value orientation (SVO) task in a large online sample (n=697), we showed that participants used a Bayesian inference process to learn about partners, with priors that were based on their own preferences. Paranoia was associated with preferences for earning more than a partner and less flexible beliefs regarding a partner’s social preferences. Alignment between the preferences of participants and their partners was associated with better predictions and with reduced attributions of harmful intent to partners.

Expectation of Selfishness From Others in Borderline Personality Disorder

Social difficulties are apparent in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Behavior in BPD is characterized by mistrust and expectations of malevolence from others. We examined whether there is an asymmetry between their social behavior and their belief about other people’s social motivations. Subjects completed a task where they had to allocate money between themselves and an imagined other they will not meet and interact with. In addition they also had to report their expectations about how the imagined other would solve the task. We hypothesized that even though BPD patients will act in a prosocial way, they will expect selfish behavior from the other. We used the Slider Measure of social value orientation (SVO) and also created a modified version of the measure to examine the discrepancy between the subjects’ own SVO and their expectations from other people. We compared the results of thirty clinically diagnosed BPD patients to a matched sample of healthy participants. Our results show that the BPD group’s selfishness expectations significantly outweigh the expectations of selfishness in the HC group (U = 269, p = 0.007). This result further supports the mistrust and negativity bias observed in various aspects of social interactions in BPD.

Failure to replicate moral licensing and moral cleansing in an online experiment

Moral licensing occurs when someone who initially behaved morally or cooperatively, later behaves less morally, as if they had a “license” to act badly. On the flipside, moral cleansing occurs when someone first behaves immorally, which prompts them to later behaves more morally. To-date, few studies have investigated individual differences in the moral licensing and cleansing effects. This paper bridges this gap by investigating how cooperative preferences, as measured by social value orientation (SVO), influence engagement in these effects. We hypothesized that prosocial participants would be less likely to license, but more likely to cleanse. Contrary to predictions, we did not replicate the moral licensing or moral cleansing effects, and cooperative preferences did not influence engagement in the effect. However, checks suggest that our manipulations were successful. We postulate that licensing and cleansing effects are unlikely to be elicited online.