Dissertation Research: Generalized Reciprocity: Understanding the Social Contagion of Altruistic Behavior

论文研究：广义互惠：理解利他行为的社会传染

• 批准号: 1303526
• 负责人: Michael Macy
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-05-15 至 2015-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1303526&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Generalized; Reciprocity; Understanding

Michael MacyMilena TsvetkovaCornell UniversityAnonymous acts of generosity are widespread in daily life: people donate blood, stop to help a stranded motorist, write anonymous online reviews, or contribute code to open-source software, often without any direct reward or recognition. An important key to this puzzle may be the possibility that helping behavior can be contagious -- helping in response to receiving or observing help has the potential to trigger a chain of generosity that reaches far beyond the original act..Bridging two large but largely disconnected existing literatures -- on altruistic behavior and social contagion -- this dissertation project identifies two mechanisms that alter the probability to help a stranger: generalized reciprocity (a recipient of help is likely to pay it forward) and third party imitation (an observer of help giving is likely to emulate it). These mechanisms are hypothesized to affect behavior differently: while receiving help from strangers multiple times will increase the probability to help a stranger, observing help between strangers will initially increase and then decrease that probability; this latter decrease, however, will be smaller for those who have received help. As a result, when third-party imitation interacts with generalized reciprocity, cascades of generosity are expected to be more frequent but reach fewer people. To test the validity and robustness of the macro-implications and the empirical relevance of the hypothesized mechanisms, two studies are proposed: a simulation experiment with an agent-based model and an online experiment with human subjects.Broader ImpactsThe project will advance theoretical knowledge about helping behavior and its diffusion and methodologies for online behavioral experiments. In addition, the potential ripple effect of generosity means that when we help others, we may also be indirectly helping many more people downstream. Better understanding of the mechanisms that can trigger these cascades has the potential to inform efforts to mobilize voluntary contributions and pro-social behavior by more effectively targeting those who have benefited in the past. In particular, generalized reciprocity and third-party imitation can be harnessed to enhance creative participation and community formation in large-scale online collaborative projects and user-generated-content communities.

Michael Macymilena tsvetkovacornell大学宣传慷慨的行为在日常生活中很普遍：人们献血，停下来帮助滞留的驾车者，撰写匿名的在线评论或向开源软件贡献代码，通常没有任何直接奖励或任何直接奖励或认可。这个难题的一个重要关键可能是帮助行为可能具有感染力 - 响应接收或观察帮助的可能性有可能触发一系列慷慨的限制，范围远远超出了原始行为。.培养了两个大型但很大程度上脱节的文献，但在很大程度上脱节的文献改变了对奇异的概念性的探索性，这是一种奇异的概念性，可以探索一种奇异的概念性，以帮助某种性（一种有助于探索性的机构），以肯定的是一种概念性的概念性：一种有助于概念性（一种有助于概念性的机构）可能会向前付款）和第三方模仿（帮助捐赠的观察者可能会效仿它）。假设这些机制以不同的方式影响行为：虽然多次接收陌生人的帮助将增加帮助陌生人的可能性，但观察陌生人之间的帮助最初会增加，然后降低这种概率；但是，对于那些获得帮助的人来说，后者的减少将较小。结果，当第三方模仿与广义互惠相互作用时，慷慨的级联预计将更加频繁，但吸引人数更少。为了测试宏观吸收的有效性和鲁棒性以及假设机制的经验相关性，提出了两项​​研究：一种具有基于代理模型的模拟实验，以及对人类主题的在线实验。Boader的影响。BODARE的影响，项目将推进有关帮助行为及其在线行为实验的理论知识。此外，慷慨的潜在连锁反应意味着，当我们帮助他人时，我们也可能会间接帮助更多的人下游。更好地了解可能触发这些级联的机制，有可能通过更有效地针对过去受益的人来为动员自愿贡献和亲社会行为的努力提供帮助。特别是，可以利用广泛的互惠和第三方模仿，以增强在大规模在线协作项目和用户生成的社区中的创造性参与和社区形成。