Selfishness is good for us—thinking “me (and my relatives) first” lets humans ensure their survival and that of their genes. But generosity can be good, too; it binds humans into safe communities. So if both behaviors are beneficial, which one dominates? A new Nature paper suggests that it all comes down to timing: when we have to make a fast decision, we act more generously than when we have time to think about our choices.
Harvard researchers recruited subjects from around the world via a crowdsourcing website. Then they tested the participants’ cooperation with a few economic games. Split into groups of four, people received 40 cents and a request: choose how much to put into a group fund. The communal cash would be doubled and then evenly shared amongst the whole team. If you donate a lot, everyone in the group will make more money. But if you’re stingy, you’ll keep your own cash and still manage to freeload off of the more generous group members. And the choice to act for the group or the individual’s benefit was linked to how much time people spent thinking. When subjects made their decision more quickly, …
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