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Social Experiment on Altruism in Filipinos

This experiment proposal aims to study altruism in Filipinos. The researchers will conduct a social experiment where they drop a 20 peso bill or wallet in a public place where people can see it, to observe whether people will return it to its owner. They cite definitions of altruism as a behavior intended to help others without expectation of personal benefit. The goal is to better understand altruistic tendencies by eliminating selfish motives that could influence behavior.

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Allan Diverson
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26 views2 pages

Social Experiment on Altruism in Filipinos

This experiment proposal aims to study altruism in Filipinos. The researchers will conduct a social experiment where they drop a 20 peso bill or wallet in a public place where people can see it, to observe whether people will return it to its owner. They cite definitions of altruism as a behavior intended to help others without expectation of personal benefit. The goal is to better understand altruistic tendencies by eliminating selfish motives that could influence behavior.

Uploaded by

Allan Diverson
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

EXPERIMENT PROPOSAL

NAME: CASTILLO, COLICO, DELA CRUZ, DIVERSON DATE:

SECTION: SCHEDULE: M-Th 6:00pm to 9:00pm

GROUP #4

PROPOSAL # 5

TITLE:

SOCIAL EXPERIMENT: ALTRUISM

INTRODUCTION:

How honest are people around you? The purpose of this experiment is to observe Filipinos in

terms of altruism behavior. “Unlike experiments on markets or mechanisms, experiments on altruism are

about an individual motive or intention. This raises serious obstacles for research. How do we define an

altruistic act, and how do we know altruism when we see it? The famous philosopher Thomas Nagel

provides this definition of altruism: "By altruism I mean not abject self-sacrifice, but merely a willingness

to act in the consideration of the interests of other persons, without the need of ulterior motives (1970, p.

79)." Notice that there are two parts to this definition. First is that the act must be in the consideration of

others. It may or may not imply sacrifice on one’s own part, but it does require that the consequences for

someone else affect one’s own choice. The second aspect is that one does not need “ulterior motives”

rooted in selfishness to explain altruistic behaviors. Of course, ulterior motives may exist alongside of

altruism, but they cannot be the only motives. If this is our definition of altruism, then how do we know

altruism when we see it? The answer, unfortunately, is necessarily a negative one—we only know when

we don’t see it. Altruism is part of the behavior that you cannot capture with a specifically defined ulterior

motive. Experimental investigation of altruism is thus focused around eliminating any possible ulterior

motives rooted in selfishness. One of the central motives that potentially confounds altruism is the warm-

glow of giving, that is, the utility one gets simply from the act of giving without any concern for the
interests of others (Andreoni 1989, 1990). While it is possible that warm-glow exists apart from altruism,

it seems most likely that the two are complements—the stronger your desire to act unselfishly, the greater

the personal satisfaction from doing so. Indeed, the two may be inextricably linked. Having a personal

identity as an altruist may necessarily precede altruistic acts, and maintaining that identity can only come

from actually being generous.”

“There are many people who do a great many things, so it is often intimidating to think that doing one

altruistic act a day could get very far.  However, my hope is that it inspires others to also do generous acts

for others. Maybe my one drop in the bucket won't account for much, but one drop is a good start.

Most definitions of altruism discuss the idea that the altruistic act is unselfish and that it provides no

benefit to the person performing that act.  That is a tough definition to live up to and many others have

discussed whether a pure altruistic act is even possible. My goal is to live with the spirit of that intention.”

PROCEDURE/METHOD:

The researchers will drop a 20 pesos or a wallet where it is visible to the people.

REFERENCES:

[Link]

[Link]

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