How Altruism Drives Risk-Taking

Abstract

Individuals motivated by altruism often put themselves in harm's way in helping others. While this is a well-established phenomenon in the literature, determining the underlying mechanism behind this behavior has been challenging. The present research takes an information processing perspective to theorize about and test two potential explanations for altruistic risk-taking. The first explanation, predicated on risk activation, suggests that altruism decreases risk perception by impeding the activation of self-risk information, leading to reduced risk perception and increased risk-taking. Alternatively, the second explanation implies that altruism may increase risk-discounting, whereby the importance of risk is downplayed when deciding whether to help others. Results of three studies, including two with consequential altruistic risk-taking, provide strong evidence for the risk-activation account and establish substantive boundaries for this effect. This manuscript contributes to the study of motivation, altruism, and risk-taking by exploring how altruism affects risk information activation, risk perception, and behavior.

Keywords: altruism, risk, risk perception, risk activation, motivation, risk-discounting