Work

The tainted altruism effect: a successful pre-registered replication

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: Newman and Cain (Newman, Cain 2014Psychol. Sci.25, 648–655 ( doi:10.1177/0956797613504785 )) reported that observers view a person's choices as less ethical when that person has acted in response to both altruistic and selfish (commercial) motivations, as compared with purely selfish interests. The altruistic component reduces the observers' approval rather than raising it. This puzzling phenomenon termed the ‘tainted altruism’ effect, has attracted considerable interest but no direct replications in prior research. We report direct replications of Newman and Cain's Experiments 2 and 3, using a larger sample (n= 501) intended to be fairly representative of the US population. The results confirm the original findings in considerable detail.

Source: Royal Society Open Science

DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211152

Authors: Valerie Alcala, Kendra Johnson, Caroline Steele, Juanshu Wu, Donglai Zhang, Harold Pashler

Institution: University of California San Diego

Language: English

Topic: Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies

Subfield: Safety Research

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,471

Funder: National Science Foundation