Lost letter measure of variation in altruistic behaviour in 20 neighbourhoods

Altruistic behaviour varies across human populations and this variation is likely to be partly explained by variation in the ecological context of the populations. We hypothesise that area level socio-economic characteristics will determine the levels of altruism found in individuals living in an ar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-08, Vol.7 (8), p.e43294-e43294
Main Authors: Holland, Jo, Silva, Antonio S, Mace, Ruth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affluence
Altruism
Anthropology
Behavior
Biology
Deprivation
Earth Sciences
Economic indicators
Experiments
Female
Human behavior
Human populations
Humans
Impulsivity
Income
London
Male
Odds Ratio
Population density
Populations
Poverty
Probability
Public opinion
Residence Characteristics
Rich people
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Socioeconomic Factors
Surveys and Questionnaires
Variation
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Summary:Altruistic behaviour varies across human populations and this variation is likely to be partly explained by variation in the ecological context of the populations. We hypothesise that area level socio-economic characteristics will determine the levels of altruism found in individuals living in an area and we use a lost letter experiment to measure altruism across 20 neighbourhoods with a wide range of income deprivation scores in London, UK. The results show a strong negative effect of neighbourhood income deprivation on altruistic behaviour, with letters dropped in the poorest neighbourhoods having 91% lower odds of being returned than letters dropped in the wealthiest neighbourhoods. We suggest that measures of altruism are strongly context dependant.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0043294