Aineiston nimi

Cognitive and Affective Empathy in the Dictator Game 2018-2019

Aineistonumero

FSD3588

Pysyvä tunniste

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3588

Aineiston laatu

Kvantitatiivinen aineisto

Tekijät

• Lappalainen, Olli (University of Turku)
• Herne, Kaisa (Tampere University)
• Hietanen, Jari (Tampere University)
• Palosaari, Esa (Tampere University)

Sisällön kuvaus

The experiment (2018-2019) on cognitive and affective empathy in the dictator game investigated the effects of prosociality, selfishness, and empathy on decision making. The research was carried out by the PCRC Decision Laboratory (PCRClab) at the University of Turku. The study was comprised of three parts. In the first part, data was collected with a questionnaire that measured participants' empathy. In the second part, participants took part in a round of the dictator game in an experimental setting at the PCRClab. Following their participation in the experiment, the participants completed a second questionnaire. The data were collected as a part of the Academy of Finland's Participation in Long-Term Decision-Making (PALO) project (project number 32662).

The participants completed the first questionnaire one to two weeks before the dictator game experiment. The questionnaire consisted of two measurement tools, Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis 1980) and Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE; Reniers et al. 2011) which were used to provide a multi-dimensional assessment of the participants' empathy. The IRI subscales measure perspective taking, fantasy, empathic concern, and personal distress. The QCAE measures cognitive and affective empathy. The cognitive empathy subscales measure perspective taking and online simulation, and the affective empathy subscales measure emotional contagion, peripheral responsivity, and proximal responsivity. Participants completed the second questionnaire on the following day after the dictator game experiment. The questionnaire measured the participants' alignment on a left-right political spectrum, interest in societal issues, and trust in institutions (e.g. the president, the parliament, politicians, the judicial system, and the police).

The following sections on the dictator game experiment contain information about the progression of the game, experimental conditions, participants' roles during the experiment (decision-maker or recipient), decision-makers' use of money during the experiment, and time spent on decision making. The dictator game experimental sessions were carried out over 12 days. During the sessions, the participants were randomly divided into pairs. Each participant was randomly assigned either the role of decision-maker or recipient, forming ten decision-maker and recipient pairs. During the experiment, the decision-maker received a sum of money (16 euros), and the on-screen instructions instructed them to decide whether they wanted to give some of the money to the recipient who had been randomly assigned to them. The decision-makers were then asked to indicate how much money, if any, they would like to give to the recipient. The recipient could not influence the decision-maker's decision in any way, and they had to accept the sum that was given to them. The participants completed the experiment anonymously on computers at the PCRClab, and they were not informed of their pair's identity. The participants received a monetary reward for participating, in addition to their earnings from the dictator game.

The dictator game had four experimental conditions (treatment variable) which examined how different incentives (e.g. the participant's certainty or uncertainty about their own role in the game, empathy induction) affected decision making. In the baseline experimental condition, the decision-makers were told that they had been assigned the decision-maker role and there was no empathy induction. In the second experimental condition the decision-makers were informed of their role in the game but before they had to decide how much money they would like to give to their pair, empathy was induced by asking the decision-makers to consider how receiving different amounts of money would make the recipient feel. The decision-makers also had to write down their estimations of the recipient's feelings before they decided how much money they would give to the recipient. The two remaining experimental conditions were role uncertainty with no empathy induction and role uncertainty with empathy induction. In these experimental conditions, the decision-makers were told that they had not been assigned a role yet and that roles would be randomly assigned after all participants had made their decision. They were then asked to decide how much money they would give the recipient if they were the decision-maker. In each experimental condition, the time that the decision-makers took to make a decision was measured.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, birth year, the highest education attained, mother tongue, and degree of urbanisation.

Asiasanat

behavioural economics; decision making; empathy; game theory; politics; roles; social behaviour; trust

Tieteenala/Aihealue

• Social sciences (OKM:n tieteenalaluokitus)
• Political behaviour and attitudes (CESSDAn aihepiiriluokitus)
• Social behaviour and attitudes (CESSDAn aihepiiriluokitus)

Sarja

Decision-Making Laboratory Experiments and Surveys

Jakelija

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Käyttöoikeudet

The dataset is (A) openly available for all users without registration (CC BY 4.0).

Kerääjät

• PCRC Decision Laboratory (PCRClab)

Ajallinen kattavuus

2018 – 2019

Aineistonkeruun ajankohta

2018-09-24 – 2019-04-09

Maa

Finland

Kohdealue

Finland

Havaintoyksikkötyyppi

Event/Process/Activity

Individual

Perusjoukko/otos

Volunteer participants from the participant register of Turku University's PCRC Decision Laboratory

Tutkimuksen aikaulottuvuus

Cross-section

Otantamenetelmä

Mixed probability and non-probability

The participants were members of the PCRC Decision Laboratory's (PCRClab) ORSEE-online recruitment system. Random sampling was used to select participants for the experiment from the online recruitment system's register. An invitation to participate in the study was sent out to a group that consisted of an equal number of men and women. The sample was later supplemented with additional participants to maintain an even gender distribution among the participants.

Anyone can sign up as a volunteer participant using the PCRClab's online registration platform, ORSEE. The ORSEE has over 2,000 members, and the registered members are primarily students. Participation in experiments is compensated with a monetary reward. The laboratory can accommodate up to 20 participants at a time. Each participant is allocated their own desk and computer. To ensure an even number of participants for each experimental session, 21 participants are recruited for each session, with one of the 21 participants acting as a replacement. If all the participants attend the experimental session, the replacement participant will not need to participate and they will receive compensation for their time.

Keruumenetelmä

Laboratory experiment

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Keruuväline tai –ohje

Structured questionnaire

Participant tasks

Datatiedostojen kieli

Aineistopaketti voi sisältää samoja tiedostoja eri kielisinä.

Aineisto sisältää datatiedostoja seuraavilla kielillä: suomi.

Tietoarkisto kääntää kvantitatiivisia datatiedostoja englanniksi. Lisätietoja käännöspyynnön jättämisestä.

Datan versio

1.0

Katso myös

FSD3692 Deliberative Mini-Public on the Satakunta 2050 Regional Plan

Aineiston käytössä huomioitavaa

Variables V28-V55 from the IRI and variables Q1-Q31 from the QCAE were used to create the sum of variables that were the basis of the empathy scale used in the study. Additional information on the variables is available in the Background Information PDF (bgF), and some variable descriptions in the codebook also include additional information (e.g. variables which were reverse-coded for the creation of sum of variables are marked with R).

To prevent identification of participants, the field of education variable [FIELD] was categorised at FSD.

Painokertoimet

There are no weight variables in the data.

Viittausvaatimus

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Malliviittaus

Lappalainen, Olli (University of Turku) & Herne, Kaisa (Tampere University) & Hietanen, Jari (Tampere University) & Palosaari, Esa (Tampere University): Cognitive and Affective Empathy in the Dictator Game 2018-2019 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2022-01-20). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3588

Julkaisusta tiedottaminen

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Varaumat

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Tietoarkiston tiedossa ei ole julkaisuja, joissa aineistoa olisi käytetty.