Reflecting on Relationships: The Effect of Priming Biological Family and Friendship Formation Ideals on Altruism Towards Strangers

Abstract

Although altruism tends to occur more frequently for biological family members than for friends, it is unclear how characteristics associated with either of these groups shape altruistic behavior in other settings. This experiment explored how being explicitly primed with normative ideas about family members (genetic similarities, intergenerational transmission of traditions) or friendship formation (coincidentally shared interests, forming connections with new people) influences altruism towards strangers. Participants answered questions about their relationship with a close biological relative or a friend before playing a public goods game, an economic decision-making task used to measure cooperation. They also completed measures of mood, empathy, and individualism-collectivism. It was hypothesized that friendship formation priming would induce more altruism, or greater contribution amounts in the game. While differences in public goods game contribution amounts and personality measure scores between the conditions were not significant, participants generally reciprocated contributions from group members. These results imply that family- and friendship-related ideals do not consistently induce altruism. Ideas for obtaining a larger and more robust sample are discussed.