Higher socioeconomic status does not predict decreased prosocial behavior in a field experiment

In the recent publication of Nature Communications, Volume 12, Article number: 4266 (2021), James Andreoni, Nikos Nikiforakis, Jan Stoop challenge the prevailing assumption that individuals with higher socioeconomic status (SES) display decreased prosocial behavior. Read here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24519-5 Through a carefully designed field experiment, the researchers evaluated the willingness of individuals from different SES backgrounds to engage in a prosocial act—specifically, returning a misdelivered letter.

Key findings include:

The study addresses methodological shortcomings prevalent in prior research on SES and prosociality, including reliance on self-reported measures and convenience sampling. The use of actual high and low SES households who are not aware they are participating in an experiment provides robust empirical evidence.
Contrary to the negative association posited by earlier studies, the results reveal that misdelivered letters are significantly more likely to be returned by high SES households compared to their low SES counterparts.
The authors call for further exploration into the contexts under which high SES individuals may exhibit prosocial behavior, as well as an examination of the origins of stereotypes surrounding wealth and empathy.

By challenging the prevalent view about the prosociality of high SES individuals and emphasizing the need for a deeper investigation into the behaviors of different SES groups, the study lays the groundwork for new avenues of research that could address the complexities of social interactions in a rapidly changing economic landscape.

This study exemplifies C-BID's commitment to fundamental scientific research that challenges existing narratives and enhances understanding of human behavior.

Authors

James Andreoni

University of California

Nikos Nikiforakis

NYU Abu Dhabi

Jan Stoop

Erasmus University Rotterdam

New York University Abu Dhabi

Saadiyat Island

Abu Dhabi

United Arab Emirates

nyuad.cbid@nyu.edu

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