giving it all away: altruism and answers to the wason selection task
DESCRIPTION
Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task. P RESENTED B Y : Ngoc Tran & Laura Crandall. Outline. Cognitive Modules Background Wason Selection Task Purpose Puzzles vs Social Contract problems Fiddick & Erlich’s Paper Introduction Methods Results - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Giving it all Away:Altruism and Answers to the Wason
Selection Task
PRESENTED BY:Ngoc Tran & Laura Crandall
![Page 2: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Outline Cognitive Modules
› Background
Wason Selection Task› Purpose› Puzzles vs Social Contract problems
Fiddick & Erlich’s Paper› Introduction› Methods› Results› Discussion
![Page 3: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Cognitive Modules Our minds consist
primarily of “a constellation of specialized mechanisms that have domain-specific procedures, operate over domain-specific representations, or both” - Cosmides and Tooby (1994), p. 94
![Page 4: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Wason Selection Task People struggle to identify what information is
necessary in order to test the truth of a logical-reasoning problem. › Wason Selection Task is used to examine this issue.
Typical experiment: presents a rule and asks subjects how to find out if the rule is violated.› Abstract problems: difficult to answer correctly› Social contract problems: more likely to be answered
correctly
![Page 5: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Abstract Problem If a card has a D on one side, it has a 3 on the other side.
What card(s) should you flip over to determine if the rule is true?
Correct answer: D and 7. Seeing reverse of 3 can confirm rule but won’t disprove it.
![Page 6: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Social Contract Problem If you borrow my car, you must fill up the gas tank.
What card(s) should you flip over to determine if the rule is true?
Correct answer: borrowed car and empty gas tank. People reason correctly when confronted with social
contract problem.
![Page 7: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
(Laurence Fiddick & Nicole Erlich, 2010)
Giving it all Away:Altruism and Answers to the Wason
Selection Task
![Page 8: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Introduction Cosmides’ study showed elevated levels of
performance on cheater detection tasks (1989)
› Suggests humans have cheater-detector mechanisms
Detecting altruism ≠ tracking cooperation› Cooperator accepts benefit and pays cost› Altruist pays cost without accepting benefits› Cheater accepts benefits without paying cost
![Page 9: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Detecting Altruists vs. Cheaters
Different ways of maintaining cooperation with cheaters and cooperators depending on if rewards or punishment used› Punishing lack of cooperation more
effective› Generous behavior usually unrewarded› Supports idea that mechanisms to
detect cheaters will be more useful in maintaining cooperation
![Page 10: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Detecting Altruists vs. Cheaters
Studies seem to support that people are better at detecting cheaters
Some researchers challenge idea that people are better at cheater-detection; believe people should also have mechanisms to detect altruists too.
Other studies have shown people have ability to detect altruists (Brown & Moore, 2000).› Enhanced altruism detection may be a way
to detect people who are “fake” altruists.
![Page 11: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Confounds in Altruism-detection
Altruism-detection tasks in multiple studies contain embedded answers.› Ex. “You suspect that Big Kiku will be
altruistic and give food even if the man does not get a tattoo. (Evans & Chang, 1998)
![Page 12: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Oda et al., 2006 Interested in whether enhanced
altruism detection is a way to detect “fake” altruists.› If true, altruism detection would be govern
by same mechanism as cheater detection. › Compared altruist-detection to cheater-
detection tasks to see if there was an association.
Subjects performed better on altruist-detection tasks despite absence embedded answers.
Cheater-detection task confounded with embedded answers.
Wording of cheater-detection scenarios may have affected subjects’ answers.
![Page 13: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Current study Wanted to address confounds of
previous studies › Are embedded cues why subjects
performance better on some altruist-detection task?
Questioned existence of altruist-detection mechanism.
![Page 14: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
The Three Experiments Experiment #1: Answers embedded in questions
presented potential confound› Used (non-)embedded answers to test whether
embedded answers were a confound, which would undermine support for cognitive modules for cheater detection
Experiment #2: revised published altruist-detection problems to remove embedded answers› Results indicated embedded answers are a confound
for altruism detection
![Page 15: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
The Three Experiments Experiment #3: based on findings by Oda et al.
› Tested whether altruism detection is a form of cheater detection or independent of cheating module
› Methodological issues present possible confounds May not be a special altruism detection module
![Page 16: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Experiment 1: embedded selection task answers
Participants Materials
› Booklet with 4 selection tasks Weather, Hare Mantra, abstract, social contract
› 2 versions: embedded & non-embedded answer Procedure
![Page 17: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Experiment 1: Results
![Page 18: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
“The results suggest that embedding the answer within the selection task scenario can
significantly alter performance on the task, at least when the scenario does not involve cheater
detection.”
Embedding answer improves performance on tasks that do not try to detect cheaters
![Page 19: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Experiment 2: embedded altruism detection task answers
Researchers removed embedded text to see effect on altruism detection ability
Participants Materials
› Booklet with 3 altruism detection tasks Blood donation, altruist cassava root, generous uncle
Procedure
![Page 20: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Experiment 2: ResultsNSS NSS SS
![Page 21: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
“As predicted, removing the embedded solutions from these altruist-detection problems did have
a significant influence on performance.”
Fiddick & Erlich argue that removing embedded solutions prevented subjects from identifying altruists
Did removing embedded solutions prevent altruist detection? Results were statistically significant after pooling data
![Page 22: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Experiment 3: Revisiting Oda et al.
Results of Oda et al.› Tested whether altruism detection is a form of
cheater detection or independent of cheater-detection module
› Argued for separate cheater/altruist detection mechanisms
Fiddick & Erlich: attempted to replicate results with a non-confounded cheater-detection scenario
![Page 23: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Experiment 3: Materials and procedure
Cheater-detection booklet› Sticker task
Altruist-detection booklet› Volunteer task
Two groups of participants; one received cheater-detection booklet first and the other received the altruist-detection booklet first
![Page 24: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Experiment 3: Results Participants performed significantly better on
the cheater-detection task (58.5% correct) than on the altruist-detection task (20.0% correct)› No correlation between performance (r = -0.047)› When cheater detection task was first, r = +0.472› When altruist detection task was first, r = -0.472
Why should cheater detection prime altruist detection?
![Page 25: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Discussion Embedded solutions do confound
results (Exp 1 & 2). Elimination of confounds in exp 2 did
not completely reduce altruist-detection levels.› Non-standard instructions may affect
subject performance.› Categorization task (altruist-detection)
vs. rule violations (cheater-detection)
![Page 26: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Discussion Exp 3 also suggests that altruist-
detection may prime cheater-detection› Challenges findings of Oda et al. study› Rule-following methodology of Oda et
al. study may reduce performance on cheater-detection tasks.
![Page 27: Giving it all Away: Altruism and Answers to the Wason Selection Task](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022081507/5681635b550346895dd41d4d/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Conclusion Conclude lack of evidence
supporting existence of an altruist detection mechanism.
Many social contract theory (SCT) studies confounded by having embedded answers.