Who Cares?
Who Cares?
Other-Regarding Concerns—Decisions with Feeling
The abilities to feel distress at the suffering of others and to share in their joy are indicative of positive other-regarding concerns. The value to social decision making is intuitive: helping others feels good, harming them feels bad. Less intuitive are negative other-regarding concerns, taking satisfaction in the misfortunes of others and feeling sad at their successes and joys. Yet these sentiments also play a role in the choices humans make when interacting with others. This chapter explores other-regarding concerns and how they influence social decisions. The nature of other-regarding concerns is discussed, with an emphasis on the role of emotions in guiding human other-regarding preferences. Possible origins of the emotional cornerstone of human sociality are suggested based on animal research, particularly nonhuman primates, and studies on children.
Keywords: Strüngmann Forum Reports, decision making, empathy, competition, emotions, symhedonia, ultrasociality
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