Social Status Alters the Transmission of Selfish, but not Altruistic, Behavior in Sex-specific Ways

Abstract This article examines how altruistic and selfish behaviors are transmitted based on model status. Investigating how the status of behavioral models influences copying of prosocial and antisocial actions by observers is vital to expanding our understanding of the cultural transmission of socially desirable and undesirable behaviors. In our study, 462 participants partook in a resource allocation game in which they observed a prestigious, dominant, or neutral status digitally simulated player make an altruistic, selfish or fair decision regarding how much money to take from a collective pot. Following this, they decided how much to take for themselves. We found evidence of transmission effects, observing altruistic behavior reduced participant resource-taking by roughly 10 percentage points, while observing selfish behavior increased it by about 13. For male participants, selfish behavior was amplified if the selfish simulated player was dominant or prestigious. Conversely, for females, copying of selfishness was less pronounced if the simulated player was prestigious. The transmission of altruistic behaviour did not interact with model status. These findings reveal that both altruistic and selfish behaviour are readily copied, that model status amplifies the copying of selfishness among men, but prestige does not appear to increase the copying of altruistic acts.