Abstract Prosocial behaviours are essential for solving global challenges. Often, these behaviours have been measured using economic games or tasks where people decide between helping or not. However, in everyday life current behaviours are interrupted with alternative opportunities. Across three independent samples (two preregistered, total n = 510), people watched a movie whilst encountering opportunities that benefitted another person or themselves. Crucially, participants decided in different poor and rich foraging environments where the average reward values of opportunities changed. We demonstrate a stronger environmental influence on decisions that benefit others: people were more willing to interrupt their behaviour to help others in poor environments, where the average reward value was lower, compared to richer environments where average reward value was higher. Computational modelling revealed that the opportunity costs of the different foraging environments were valued distinctly for others. Factors of utilitarianism, and empathy/emotional motivation, captured variability in opportunity costs for others. We show that when humans decide to engage in prosocial behaviours depends on the quality of opportunities in one’s environment, which is critical as environments change.
Vogel et al. (Mon,) studied this question.