Empathy-induced altruism in a prisoner's dilemma II: what if the target of empathy has defected?

• Published in: European journal of social psychology Vol. 31; no. 1; pp. 25 - 36
• Main Authors: Batson, C. Daniel, Ahmad, Nadia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.01.2001; Wiley
• Subjects: Altruism; Behavior. Attitude; Biological and medical sciences; Decision making; Empathy; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Game theory; Motivation; Personality. Affectivity; Prisoner's dilemma; Prisoner's dilemma games; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Social psychology; Human; Social behavior; Motivation; Decision making; Cooperation; Prisoner dilemma game; Female; Emotion emotionality; Empathy; Personality; Altruism

What if participants in a one‐trial prisoner's dilemma know before making their decision that the other person has already defected? From the perspective of classic game theory, a dilemma no longer exists. It is clearly in their best interest to defect too. The empathy‐altruism hypothesis predi...