Social Discounting
Assess how generosity decays with social distance.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Key concept?
Prosocial preferences as a function of social distance.
How to operate?
Use the slider to split a fixed endowment between yourself and recipients at different social distances. Click Submit to proceed to the next distance.
What is social distance?
It reflects closeness to others, ranging from family and friends to acquaintances and strangers. Larger numbers indicate greater distance.
How to interpret results?
Higher MeanOther indicates greater generosity; a more negative slope of log(1 + distance) means giving declines faster as distance increases.
Data export & privacy
You can export JSON/CSV containing experiment parameters and allocation records only, without personal identifiers.
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About Social Discounting
Background
Social discounting measures how the value we place on others' welfare decreases as social distance increases. Developed by Jones and Rachlin, it examines whether we treat a stranger the same as a friend when it comes to sharing resources.
Psychological Mechanisms
Social discounting reflects our innate human tendency toward parochial altruism — we are naturally more generous to those close to us. However, the rate of discounting varies widely across individuals and cultures, reflecting differences in social values and experiences.
Research Applications
Research on social discounting has implications for understanding cooperation, morality, and group behavior. It helps explain why people may act selfishly toward strangers while being highly cooperative within their in-group.
References
- Jones, B., & Rachlin, H. (2006). Social discounting. Psychological Science, 17(4), 283-286. 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01699.x
- Rachlin, H., & Jones, B. A. (2008). Social discounting and delay discounting. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 21(1), 29-43. 10.1002/bdm.567
- Rachlin, H. (2002). Altruism and selfishness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25(2), 239-250. 10.1017/S0140525X02000055
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About This Experiment
This experiment is an educational adaptation for demonstration purposes. It is not a clinical diagnostic tool. Results reflect your performance in this specific session and should not be interpreted as an assessment of your cognitive abilities.
Data Privacy
Your experiment data is processed and stored locally in your browser. No data is uploaded to any server unless you explicitly export it.
