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Category: Data

Description: How does cost and uncertainty shape an ordinary person’s action towards a stranger’s wellbeing? During the Covid19 pandemic, individuals were asked to perform costly actions to reduce harm to strangers, even while the general population, including authorities and experts, grappled with the uncertainty surrounding the novel virus. Many researches have examined health decision-making by experts, but the study of lay, non-expert, individuals decision-making on a stranger’s health has been left to the wayside, as ordinary citizens are usually not tasked with such decisions. We sought to capture a snapshot of this specific choice behavior by administering two surveys to the general population in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. We presented respondents with hypothetical diseases of variable severity affecting either oneself, a beloved person or a stranger. Participants had to choose between treatments who could either lead to a certain mild improvement (sure option) or cure entirely the effected person at a given probability (risky option). Respondents preferred risky options overall, but their risk-seeking attitude decreased progressively the higher the expected severity of the disease. This pattern was observed regardless of the identity of recipient. Instead, distinctions between targets emerged when decisions were conditioned on treatment cost, with participants preferring cheaper options for strangers. Overall, these findings provide a descriptive model of individual risky decision-making for others; and inform on the limits of what can be asked of an individual in service to a stranger. Loued-Khenissi, L., & Corradi-Dell'Acqua, C. (2020). Gambling on Others’ Health: Risky Pro-social Decision-Making in the Era of Covid19. PsyArXiv, doi: 110.31234/osf.io/qrbza