Most people would rather profit by harming themselves instead of others

People are willing to sacrifice twice as much money to spare a stranger from pain than to avoid pain themselves. That's despite their decision being secret. The study, conducted by researchers from UCL and Oxford University and funded by the Wellcome Trust, is the first to experimentally compare how much pain people were willing to anonymously inflict on themselves or strangers in exchange for money. The results showed that people would sacrifice an average of 20p per shock to prevent shocks to themselves and 40p per shock to prevent shocks to others. Similarly, people would need an average 30p incentive per shock to increase shocks to themselves and 50p per shock to increase shocks to others. The findings provide a surprisingly optimistic view of human nature, in stark contrast with previous economic studies claiming people fundamentally care about their own interests over those of other people. Understanding how people balance financial gains against the suffering of others could help to explain how policymakers and business leaders make spending decisions, for example on policies to improve the welfare of citizens or employees.