altruism

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Recommended: Gender and prosocial behavior

In this experimental study, we were studying the effect of gender and distraction on altruism. Three hypotheses were constructed. The first one states that the gender of the target affects the expression of altruistic behavior. The second states that the use of a female experimenter with a male target would demonstrate a more altruistic outcome. The third hypothesis states that prior distraction of the experimental target would affect the expression of altruistic behavior. Overall, we found that gender does have a significant affect on altruism and distraction does not have a significant affect on altruism.

Results

A chi-square test of independence was preformed to interpret the relation between gender of the target and altruism. The relationship between these variables was non-significant, χ2 (2, N=104) =.821, p=0.37, φ=.089
A chi-square test of independence was preformed to interpret the relation between gender of the experimenter and altruism. The relationship between these variables was significant, χ2 (2, N=104) =4.170, p=.041, φ=-.200 This result indicates that targets were not overall altruistic but were more altruistic towards female experimenters than male experimenters.
A chi-square test of independence was preformed to interpret the relationship between distraction and altruism. The relation between these variables was not significant but trending towards significance, χ2 (2, N=104) =2.89, p= .089, φ=-.167 with more participants the trending significance could have been called significant. People who were altruistic were more altruistic when the experimenter was distracted on their cellular device. Overall, the participants were not more altruistic when the experimenter was distracted.

Discussion

The purpose ...

... middle of paper ...

... Mouden, E. C., & Gardner, A. (2011). Sixteen common misconceptions about the evolution of cooperation in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32, 231–262.

Oda, R., Shibata, A., Kiyonari, T., Takeda, M. and Matsumoto-Oda, A. (2013), Sexually dimorphic preference for altruism in the opposite sex according to recipient. British Journal of Psychology, 104: 577–584

Works Cited

Trivers, R. L. (1971). The evolution of reciprocal altruism. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 46, 35–55.

West, A. S., Mouden, E. C., & Gardner, A. (2011). Sixteen common misconceptions about the evolution of cooperation in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32, 231–262.

Oda, R., Shibata, A., Kiyonari, T., Takeda, M. and Matsumoto-Oda, A. (2013), Sexually dimorphic preference for altruism in the opposite sex according to recipient. British Journal of Psychology, 104: 577–584

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