"The illusion of altruism: hidden selfish motives in charitable giving with risky choices", 沈强教授, 上海外国语大学国际工商管理学院

标题：The illusion of altruism: hidden selfish motives in charitable giving with risky choices
主讲人：沈强教授，上海外国语大学，国际工商管理学院
日期：2025年5月3日（星期五）
时间：14:00 - 15:00
地点：T7-106-R1

摘要:

The degree of altruism toward others is central to decision-making in economics, management, and psychology. Recent studies suggest that individuals may use uncertainty in decision-making as an excuse to reduce prosocial behavior. However, the temporal dynamics by which individuals conceal selfish motives in risky choices remain underexplored. To address this, we conducted three studies—a behavioral experiment, a mouse-tracking experiment, and an eye-tracking experiment—coupled with computational modeling using the Drift Diffusion Model (DDM) to uncover the underlying mechanisms. Participants evaluated risky versus safe options for themselves or for a charity, under conditions both with and without interpersonal trade-offs. Behavioral results show that prosocial individuals maintain largely consistent responses across conditions, whereas selfish individuals systematically shift their risk attitudes in a self-serving manner, exhibiting a prominent excuse-driven pattern. Drift diffusion modeling reveals parallel shifts in both decision weights and starting points in the trade-off condition, with this effect being particularly pronounced in the selfish group. Mouse-tracking data show that trajectory-derived latency differences between safe and risky choices primarily reflect decision weights, while the area under the curve (AUC), associated with initial bias, captures decisional conflict and outperforms response time in predicting choice. Complementarily, eye-tracking data reveal that fixation duration reflects decision weighting, while pupil dilation indicates the exertion of cognitive effort during choice selection for both self and others. These individual-specific heterogeneities in intra-choice dynamics, captured by DDM parameters and decision process measures from both mouse and eye tracking, not only uncover the mechanisms of excuse-driven behavior but also provide a predictive framework for understanding how altruistic and selfish tendencies unfold in uncertain decision contexts.

主讲人:

上海外国语大学国际工商管理学院教授、博士生导师，上海外国语大学脑机协同信息行为教育部与上海市重点实验室、磁共振成像研究中心骨干成员，计算神经科学研究所所长。入选首批上海市东方青年英才，上海外国语大学卓越志远学者。研究领域为消费行为、消费者神经科学，决策神经科学；重点关注将人工智能（机器学习、深度学习）与神经科学的研究工具相结合，利用实验与计算建模的研究方法在消费行为、行为决策领域开展跨学科的学术研究。Google Scholar总被引1800余次，作为第一或通讯作者，在《Management Science》、《Journal of Economic Theory》、《Psychological Medicine》、《Neuropsychologia》、《Cerebral Cortex》等期刊发表研究论文10余篇，作为合作作者在《Nature》、《Decision Support System》、《Behavior Research Methods》、《Journal of Behavioral Decision Making》、《科学通报》等期刊发表论文多篇。主持包括国家自然科学基金面上项目(2项)、青年项目、教育部人文社会科学基金青年项目、浙江省自然科学基金和浙江省哲学社会科学基金等多项国家、省部级项目，参与科技创新2030--“脑科学与类脑研究”重大项目与国家自然科学基金重点专项各1项, 主持教育部产学合作协同育人项目与浙江省产学合作协同育人各1项。曾获教育部第七届高等学校科学研究优秀成果奖、全国博弈论与实验经济学研究会学术年会优秀论文奖、中国行为与实验经济学论坛优秀论文奖、中国信息经济学会创新成果等荣誉。管理科学与工程学会神经管理与神经工程分会委员、中国技术经济学会神经管理与经济专业委员会副秘书长，计算决策神经科学（CDN）暑期学校暨决策神经科学研讨会发起人。