A very simple reciprocal activity elicited high degrees of altruism in 1- and 2-y-old children, whereas friendly but nonreciprocal activity yielded little subsequent altruism. In a second study, reciprocity with one adult led 1- and 2-y-olds to provide help to a new person. These results question the current dominant claim that social experiences cannot account for early occurring altruistic be...

THE EFFECT OF INBREEDING ON SOCIALITY IS STUDIED THEORETICALLY FOR THE EVOLUTION OF INTERACTIONS BETWEEN SIBLINGS IN CERTAIN MIXED MATING SYSTEMS THAT GIVE RISE TO INBREEDING: sib with random mating and selfing with random mating. Two approaches are taken. First, specific models of altruism are studied for the various mating systems. In the case of the additive model, inbreeding facilitates the...

This paper asks whether individuals consider the value future generations will receive from environmental quality when deciding what level of environmental protection to provide. Using data on life expectancy, I develop two tests for altruism towards future generations. One, a test for strong altruism, asks whether individual motives are purely altruistic when deciding to provide environmental ...

Background The Dark Triad literature examining pro-social behaviours is minimal, with mixed results. Participants and procedure This study investigates the relationships between altruistic based on self-report data from 286 adults. Altruism was assessed using two scales: a general measure as well more recent scale measur-ing compassionate altruism towards family, friends, strangers. Results Mac...

This paper studies the long-run aggregate and welfare effects of eliminating Social Security in a quantitative dynamic general equilibrium life-cycle model where parents and their children are linked by voluntary and accidental bequests. Social security in this model with impure altruism has a smaller effect on capital accumulation than in a pure life-cycle model, a bigger effect than in a mode...

If the bene ciary of an altruist's gift can be expected to use this gift e ciently, then a pure altruist (one who cares about the bene ciary's utility level, but not how utility is obtained) should only give gifts of money. This is often interpreted to mean that any other type of gift is evidence of paternal altruism. However, it is known (Linbeck and Weibull (1988)) that altruism creates an in...

Abstract Why do tax rates vary so much across countries? We study the role of other-regarding preferences and ethnic fragmentation in redistribution. A government is elected by altruistic voters chooses a redistributive income tax. Altruism directed towards social identity groups. Three main factors yield low levels redistribution: (i) strong in-group altruism among rich voters—referred to as c...

In an environment of anonymous random matching, Kandori [1992] showed that with a sufficiently rich class of simple information systems the folk theorem holds. We specialize to a gift-giving game and examine the stochastic stability of a process of learning and evolution in this setting. If the benefit of future altruism is too small, then there is no altruism. When the benefit of altruism is l...

Game theory is based on the assumption that individuals act according to self-interest and make decisions that maximize their personal payoffs. To test this fundamental assumption, we conducted a survey study in the context of influenza vaccination decisions. Contrary to the assumption of self-interest, we found that altruism plays an important role in vaccination decisions. Nevertheless, altru...

Hamilton's theory of inclusive fitness showed how natural selection could lead to behaviors that decrease the relative fitness of the actor and also either benefit (altruism) or harm (spite) other individuals. However, several fundamental issues in the evolution of altruism and spite have remained contentious. Here, we show how recent work has resolved three key debates, helping clarify how Ham...