This study examined the effect of same-sex peer models perceived as similar, neutral, or dissimilar on two types of altruistic behaviour in fifth grade children. The dependent variable was altruistic responses, operationally defined as penny donations and volunteering of service time to work on a charitable project. A two-factor design was employed for each experiment in which the three treatment conditions: model-similar, model-neutral, model-dissimilar, and the no-model control group were nested within the sex factor. A total sample of 320 subjects for both experiments was drawn from six public elementary schools in North Burnaby. The research questions for the two experiments were: 1. Does the presence of a model elicit more donations of money and service time for charitable purposes in fifth grade children than no model? 2. Does the similarity shared between the observer and model affect the donations of money and service time for charitable purposes? 3. Are there any sex differences in donating money and service time for charitable purposes? Each subject was interviewed individually by an experimenter who attempted to manipulate through a verbal description the perceptions of a peer-model. Following a brief introduction the subject observed the model play a marble game through which rewards of pennies or five-minute time tokens were dispensed on a pre-determined schedule. The subject then played a game alone and received either money or time tokens which could be contributed by dropping them into a donation can before leaving the experimental room. The no-model control group played the game alone following initial instructions from the experimenter. The data was analyzed by an ANOVA and orthogonal comparisons of the means of the different treatment groups. As hypothesized, a same-sex peer model was more effective in eliciting altruistic responses than no model. The greater the real or assumed similarity between the observer and model the more effective the model was in eliciting penny and service donations. The presence of a model perceived as similar was significantly more effective in eliciting money donations and service time than a model perceived as dissimilar. No sex differences were found in the donations of money or time to work on a charitable project. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The growth of state authority in the societies of modern liberal democracies has resulted in a diminished scope for the exercise of individual obligations, duties and rights in private life. The decreasing sphere of individual authority may be partly explained by liberal theorists', and particularly John Locke's contention that individuals cannot provide without the coercion of the state, those public goods such as justice which distinguish the state of nature from civil society. For while man can be benevolent in private life, in public life he cannot be trusted to see beyond his own self-interest. Therefore, Locke and others concluded that public goods, which are produced by many and consumed by all, must be provided by the state. The thesis argues that benevolence or altruism is a theoretically possible if not prevalent motivation in public life. The spread of state authority manifest in the welfare state, reduces the opportunities and atrophies the willingness of individuals to behave altruistically. Moreover, different kinds of situations impose constraints upon the choice of an altruistic course of action. In a formal analysis of simple variable sum noncooperative games of the 2 x 2 order, altruism is shown to be a choice alternative in only a minority of games. But where altruism is not constrained, it is a demonstrable pressure on subjects' choices in two experiments. The subjects in the two experiments were required to choose between the two alternatives of a 2 x 2 game where decision pressures were defined over the payoff values of the matrix. The decision pressures represented in the games were benevolence, Pareto optimality, collective rationality, competition, and individual gains maximization. While the pressures of individual maximization and competition were revealed as the strongest by a multiple regression analysis, benevolence was shown to have a surprisingly strong influence upon the subjects' decisions. The finding supports the contention that individuals may be capable even in highly competitive albeit abstract situations, of sufficient benevolence to provide some of the public goods now supplied by the state. The findings therefore lend weight to the classical liberal argument for a reduced if not minimal state. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

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This thesis is a response to the sociobiological paradigm which sees all aspects of life as fundamentally 'selfish'. This view is built upon two concepts, firstly, that the evolutionary process of natural selection leads to a world characterised by 'selfish' genes and 'selfish' individual organisms. Secondly, that all aspects of human nature, including benevolence, are defined by natural selection and are consequently selfish in motivation also. In Chapter 2, the first of these ideas is shown as inappropriate, not least, because selection favours genes that 'cooperate' and individuals that 'sacrificially' expend themselves in producing offspring. In Chapter 3, the second concept is discounted as only some aspects of human behaviour and culture can be explained in terms of natural selection. These points are central to the discussions on 'altruism' in Chapters 4-6. While sociobiologists have rightly noted that kin and reciprocal forms of 'altruism' occur in nature and in human society, their rendering of them in terms of genetic and individual 'selfishness' is again entirely misleading. The arguments of some sociobiologists for group selected forms of 'altruism' in nature and human culture are shown as unconvincing. Further, the sociobiological contention that human benevolence is constrained to the aiding of kin, reciprocal partners and group members is also countered. Humans exhibit the capacity to care for those outside of these sociobiological categories. Moreover, rather than being primarily selfish in motivation, humans are both more altruistic and more egoistic than the sociobiological view can accommodate. Chapter 7 considers the sociobiological interpretation of the New Testament (NT) teachings on love as selfishly concerned only with the care of kin, reciprocators and group members. This view is largely acceded to by the theologian, Stephen Pope, while another, Patrfcia Williams, has argued that the NT directly strives to counter such innate forms of behaviour. Chapters 8-10 investigate some of the NT teachings on love and argue for a more profound and complex altruism than any of these views. Chapter 8 contends that NT love is a deeply humble and sacrificial altruism where the needs of the other are placed before those of the self; one that is patterned after the example of Christ. It is a radical altruism, which as Chapter 9 argues, encompasses kin but also goes beyond this category in the requirement to love the new family of believers. This love of the group, the church, is itself transcended in a love for all others. Chapter 10 argues that this NT altruism is not bound by reciprocity for it prioritises the care of the weak, those who cannot reciprocate; and extends love to enemies, those who will not reciprocate. The view that such a love is ultimately reciprocal on the grounds of its heavenly reward is countered, as the NT reward of love is the promise that the believer's capacity for self-giving love will be perfected.

The rising prevalence of media use and the decreasing use of books create a need for research on the positive learning effects these platforms may have on children. This study will explore how learning platforms (specifically books, television, and computers) in early childhood affect development of social awareness – in particular, empathy and altruistic behavior. The researcher will recruit approximately 192 participants, ages 3 to 5, and randomly assign them to one of three groups: book readers, television viewers, and computer gamers. The subject of the platform will be kept consistent through the use of the children’s television program Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. The dependent variables, empathy and altruistic behavior, will be measured in the lab before and after a 6-month period in which the platform stimuli will be presented in the children’s homes by parents. All learning platforms are expected to have a positive effect on empathy and altruistic behavior, with books having the highest effect in participants. The results will help caregivers, parents, and teachers take steps to effectively create a better social awareness learning environment for children.

Vaccines famously possess positive externalities that make them susceptible to the collective action dilemma: when I get vaccinated, I protect not only myself, but also those who I might otherwise have infected. Thus, some people will have an incentive to free ride on the immunity of others. In a population of rational agents, the critical level of vaccination uptake required for herd immunity will therefore be difficult to attain in the long run, which poses difficulties for disease eradication. In this doctoral dissertation, I explore different implications of the collective action dilemma of vaccination, and different ways of ameliorating it. First: given that coercion or force could solve the dilemma, and democracies may be less likely to engage in policies that violate the physical integrity of citizens, democracies may also be at a disadvantage compared to non-democracies when securing herd immunity. In essay I, I show that this is, empirically, indeed the case. Barring the use of extensive coercion therefore necessitates other solutions. In essay II, I highlight the exception to individual rationality found in other-regarding motivations such as altruism. Our moral psychology has likely evolved to take other's welfare into account, but the extent of our prosocial motivations vary: a wider form of altruism that encompasses not just family or friends, but strangers, is likely to give way to a more narrow form when humans pair-bond and have children. This dynamic is shown to apply to the sentiments underlying vaccination behavior as well: appeals to the welfare of society of getting vaccinated have positive effects on vaccination propensity, but this effect disappears in people with families and children. On this demographic, appeals to the welfare of close loved ones instead appears to have large effects. In essay III, I investigate whether the prosocial motivations underlying vaccination behavior are liable to be affected by motivation crowding - that is, whether they are crowded out when introducing economic incentives to get vaccinated. I find that on average, economic incentives do not have adverse effects, but for a small minority of highly prosocially motivated people, they might.

This study addresses the effects of altruism and intention for succession on family firm's risk-taking behaviors. Results show that higher levels of familial altruism in family firms with succession plans lead to lower levels of R&D investment, but have no significant impacts on their earnings management. Also, altruism in these family firms decreases their cost of debt. / May 2016

The aim of this thesis is to analyze motivation of companies to support social, environmental and development projects. The analysis is focused on Central European companies, namely the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. In the empirical part of the research interviews with selected companies and non-profit organizations are conducted. By interviewing both sides we can see how both donors and main recipients view the motivation behind the support. Afterwards, the relationship between supporting social, environmental and development projects and long term financial performance is examined. Coefficients are assigned to each company according to their involvement in the three categories - social, environmental and development. As measures of financial performance we choose stock market returns, which are then regressed on the three coefficients and selected control variables. The regression results show that supporting development projects tends to have a positive influence on companies' stock market performance. We do not confirm that supporting social and environmental projects improves stock market performance of companies. This outcome suggests that supporting development projects is a win-win situation for both companies and non-profit organizations. Companies can improve their...

The value of statistical life is an estimate of the monetary benefits of preventing an anonymous death. Society's willingness to pay to eliminate private health risks determines agencies' value-of-statistical-life estimates. Most estimates ignore society's willingness to pay to eliminate others' health risks. There are two possible reasons. First, altruism does not exist: Peter is not willing to pay to save Paul's life. The second possible reason is a bit more complicated. Certain economists argue that increasing benefit estimates to account for altruism involves double-counting. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate these possibilities. Accounting for altruism, it turns out, is not double-counting if altruism is paternalistic. Furthermore, I empirically demonstrate that people are willing to pay to reduce others' health risks. Thus, the two justifications for ignoring altruism are, seemingly, unfounded, which indicates that analysts should increase the value of statistical life to account for altruism.

The strong normative expectation that dictates we should help our elderly parents is a largely unrecognised evolutionary puzzle. Why do we invest so heavily in our parents when they are long past their reproductive years? Adult children looking after their own offspring often face a double burden of care, and choosing to help aging parents is often in conflict with the primary evolutionary task of parenthood - your own genetic posterity by ensuring your children become parents themselves. Despite the large altruism literature, no one has yet addressed this particular issue. This thesis investigates this theoretical paradox and adds to the sparse empirical work on kin and nonkin-directed altruism. As a test of the two most popular Inclusive Fitness evolutionary explanations of altruistic behaviours; Kin Selection (Hamilton, 1964) and Reciprocal Altruism (Trivers, 1971), this study takes a side-wise look at helping attitudes and behaviours across multiple types of relationships. A Choice Model experiment assessed 453 people from all Australian states stratified by age (145 16-24 year olds; 162 25-54 year olds, and 146 over 55 year olds). Participants responded to sixteen hypothetical situations where they could choose to help only one person from two persons requiring their help. The scenarios contained ten variables (relationship type; sex, type of help; history of reciprocation etc.) that were systematically varied. Data was analysed using Hierarchical Bayesian estimation methods, and after factoring out our general tendency toward a species wide cooperation, found broad support for Inclusive Fitness principles. Generally, there was a clear pattern of helping behaviour that saw friends as of at least equal importance to more distant relatives (cousins etc). Elderly parents are helped for no better reason than they are needy and this is an unequivocal demonstration of our species’ primary social imperative - cooperation - a clear inference that adult children are looking for the rewards that cooperation brings. This research also provides interesting insights into the nature of extended family dynamics as a sequelae of our rapid social evolution. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)