Cargando…

Moral psychology from the lab to the wild: Relief registries as a paradigm for studying real-world altruism

Experimental psychology’s recent shift toward low-effort, high-volume methods (e.g., self-reports, online studies) and away from the more effortful study of naturalistic behavior raises concerns about the ecological validity of findings from these fields, concerns that have become particularly appar...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bo O’Connor, Brendan, Lee, Karen, Campbell, Dylan, Young, Liane
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9191725/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35696389
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269469
_version_ 1784726079394545664
author Bo O’Connor, Brendan
Lee, Karen
Campbell, Dylan
Young, Liane
author_facet Bo O’Connor, Brendan
Lee, Karen
Campbell, Dylan
Young, Liane
author_sort Bo O’Connor, Brendan
collection PubMed
description Experimental psychology’s recent shift toward low-effort, high-volume methods (e.g., self-reports, online studies) and away from the more effortful study of naturalistic behavior raises concerns about the ecological validity of findings from these fields, concerns that have become particularly apparent in the field of moral psychology. To help address these concerns, we introduce a method allowing researchers to investigate an important, widespread form of altruistic behavior–charitable donations–in a manner balancing competing concerns about internal validity, ecological validity, and ease of implementation: relief registries, which leverage existing online gift registry platforms to allow research subjects to choose among highly needed donation items to ship directly to charitable organizations. Here, we demonstrate the use of relief registries in two experiments exploring the ecological validity of the finding from our own research that people are more willing to help others after having imagined themselves doing so. In this way, we sought to provide a blueprint for researchers seeking to enhance the ecological validity of their own research in a narrow sense (i.e., by using the relief registry method we introduce) and in broader terms by adapting methods that take advantage of modern technology to directly impact others’ lives outside the lab.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9191725
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-91917252022-06-14 Moral psychology from the lab to the wild: Relief registries as a paradigm for studying real-world altruism Bo O’Connor, Brendan Lee, Karen Campbell, Dylan Young, Liane PLoS One Research Article Experimental psychology’s recent shift toward low-effort, high-volume methods (e.g., self-reports, online studies) and away from the more effortful study of naturalistic behavior raises concerns about the ecological validity of findings from these fields, concerns that have become particularly apparent in the field of moral psychology. To help address these concerns, we introduce a method allowing researchers to investigate an important, widespread form of altruistic behavior–charitable donations–in a manner balancing competing concerns about internal validity, ecological validity, and ease of implementation: relief registries, which leverage existing online gift registry platforms to allow research subjects to choose among highly needed donation items to ship directly to charitable organizations. Here, we demonstrate the use of relief registries in two experiments exploring the ecological validity of the finding from our own research that people are more willing to help others after having imagined themselves doing so. In this way, we sought to provide a blueprint for researchers seeking to enhance the ecological validity of their own research in a narrow sense (i.e., by using the relief registry method we introduce) and in broader terms by adapting methods that take advantage of modern technology to directly impact others’ lives outside the lab. Public Library of Science 2022-06-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9191725/ /pubmed/35696389 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269469 Text en © 2022 Bo O’Connor et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bo O’Connor, Brendan
Lee, Karen
Campbell, Dylan
Young, Liane
Moral psychology from the lab to the wild: Relief registries as a paradigm for studying real-world altruism
title Moral psychology from the lab to the wild: Relief registries as a paradigm for studying real-world altruism
title_full Moral psychology from the lab to the wild: Relief registries as a paradigm for studying real-world altruism
title_fullStr Moral psychology from the lab to the wild: Relief registries as a paradigm for studying real-world altruism
title_full_unstemmed Moral psychology from the lab to the wild: Relief registries as a paradigm for studying real-world altruism
title_short Moral psychology from the lab to the wild: Relief registries as a paradigm for studying real-world altruism
title_sort moral psychology from the lab to the wild: relief registries as a paradigm for studying real-world altruism
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9191725/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35696389
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269469
work_keys_str_mv AT booconnorbrendan moralpsychologyfromthelabtothewildreliefregistriesasaparadigmforstudyingrealworldaltruism
AT leekaren moralpsychologyfromthelabtothewildreliefregistriesasaparadigmforstudyingrealworldaltruism
AT campbelldylan moralpsychologyfromthelabtothewildreliefregistriesasaparadigmforstudyingrealworldaltruism
AT youngliane moralpsychologyfromthelabtothewildreliefregistriesasaparadigmforstudyingrealworldaltruism