Does the presence of a physically disabled person in the group increase cooperation? An experimental test of the empathyaltruism hypothesis

Arnaud Tognetti (), David Doat, Dimitri Dubois () and Rustam Romaniuc ()
Additional contact information
Arnaud Tognetti: Karolinska Institutet [Stockholm], IAST - Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse
David Doat: ANTHROPO LAB - Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Expérimentale - ETHICS EA 7446 - Experience ; Technology & Human Interactions ; Care & Society : - ICL - Institut Catholique de Lille - UCL - Université catholique de Lille

CEE-M Working Papers from CEE-M, Universtiy of Montpellier, CNRS, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro

Abstract: The empathy-altruism hypothesis postulates that the awareness of others' need, pain, or distress increases empathetic feelings, which in turn triggers cooperative behaviour. Although some evidence supports this hypothesis, previous studies were prone to the ‘experimenter demand effects' raising concerns about the interpretation of the results. To avoid this issue, we designed a laboratory experiment where we examined whether the presence of individuals with a genuine physical disability would increase group cooperation in a public goods game. By manipulating the group composition during a social dilemma, we created a more ecologically valid environment closer to real-life interactions. Our results showed that the presence of physically disabled individuals did not affect group cooperation. Specifically, their presence did not affect the contributions of their physically abled partners. The lack of a surge in cooperative behaviour questions the interpretation of previous studies and suggests that they may be explained by an experimenter demand effect. Alternatively, our results may also suggest that in the context of a social dilemma with real stakes, people with physical disabilities are not perceived as being in need or do not induce enough empathy to overweight the cost of cooperation and trigger cooperative behaviours.

Keywords: cooperation; empathy-altruism hypothesis; public goods game; physically disabled individuals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-exp and nep-soc
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02103832v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02103832v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Does the presence of a physically disabled person in the group increase cooperation? An experimental test of the empathyaltruism hypothesis (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpceem:halshs-02103832

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEE-M Working Papers from CEE-M, Universtiy of Montpellier, CNRS, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Laurent Garnier ().