{"id":{"repo_id":"aachen","oai_identifier":"oai:publications.rwth-aachen.de:50044"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/aachen/oai:publications.rwth-aachen.de:50044","repository":{"repo_id":"aachen","name":"RWTH Aachen University","base_url":"https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/oai2d"},"display":{"title":"Rational Choice und Altruismus, Hilfsbereitschaft am Beispiel der Teilnahme an wissenschaftlichen Interviews","abstract":"This present works deal with a special form of altruism, namely assistance in the form of preparedness to participate in a scientific interview. Altruism involves both the ways of acting of individuals whose objective is the well-being of the other. In order to be able to deal at all with the phenomenon of altruism, first of all an attempt was made in the theoretical part of the work to define the term of altruism more exactly an to differantiate it from other forms of behaviour, such as cooperation, nepotism and reciprocal altruism. In addition, helpfulness as one of the many forms of expression of altruism was examined from different theoretical directions, whereby the main emphasis was placed on the explanation in the sense of the rational choice theory. The central task of the work was the attempt to explain assistance as the action of a rationally acting individual. The decision for or against participation in an interview, from which no kind of material gain or also no kind of negative sanctions are to be expected, is a decision on assistance. Assistance can be variously motivated and the main motives for every action, namely the striving for physical well-being and social recognition represent just a part of the possible motivation. Apart from the egocentric motives, which are also influenced by costbenefid considerations, there is also empathy which also positevely influence the decision to assist. The interplay of empathy and decisions in accordance with the cost-benefit principle, which are determined by rebuffing feelings of guilt, standard of helpfulness, time spent helping and the transgression of personal space by recipients of help, represented the subject matter of the experimental study within the framework of this work, whereby its results were able to confirm the main thesis of the work that, even when taking decisions an assistance, people act in accordance with the principle written requests to persons selected at random with the request to participate in a scientific interview. Letters were sent to the test subjects with differing linguistic wording with the objective of inducing differing feelings in them, whereby this type of stimuli was classified in the field of so-called „weak“ stimuli. This group included both the attempt to generate empathy and the feeling of guilt and also the attempt to generate empathy and the feeling of guilt and also the appeal to comply with the standard of helpfulness. The field of „hard“ stimuli involved two conditions which were designated as being high and low costs. The condition of high costs naturally entailed a greater effort of assistance by the test subjects than the condition of low costs which was limited to completing and returning the completed questionnaires on a relatively neutral topic. By means of this field experiment, the thesis postulated by the rational choice theory that people endeavour to take their decisions in accordance with a maximisation of cost-benefit was confirmed, and the fact that its validity can be expanded into the field of altruistic actions. It was not possible to confirm the thesis of the special role of empathy as a strongly motivating force in decision process for/against assistance. The central conclusion to be drawn from the work is: Research into altruism or helpfulness is not only possible within the framwork of the rational choice theory, but also leads to findings on human motivation.","abstract_html":"This present works deal with a special form of altruism, namely assistance in the form of preparedness to participate in a scientific interview. Altruism involves both the ways of acting of individuals whose objective is the well-being of the other. In order to be able to deal at all with the phenomenon of altruism, first of all an attempt was made in the theoretical part of the work to define the term of altruism more exactly an to differantiate it from other forms of behaviour, such as cooperation, nepotism and reciprocal altruism. In addition, helpfulness as one of the many forms of expression of altruism was examined from different theoretical directions, whereby the main emphasis was placed on the explanation in the sense of the rational choice theory. The central task of the work was the attempt to explain assistance as the action of a rationally acting individual. The decision for or against participation in an interview, from which no kind of material gain or also no kind of negative sanctions are to be expected, is a decision on assistance. Assistance can be variously motivated and the main motives for every action, namely the striving for physical well-being and social recognition represent just a part of the possible motivation. Apart from the egocentric motives, which are also influenced by costbenefid considerations, there is also empathy which also positevely influence the decision to assist. The interplay of empathy and decisions in accordance with the cost-benefit principle, which are determined by rebuffing feelings of guilt, standard of helpfulness, time spent helping and the transgression of personal space by recipients of help, represented the subject matter of the experimental study within the framework of this work, whereby its results were able to confirm the main thesis of the work that, even when taking decisions an assistance, people act in accordance with the principle written requests to persons selected at random with the request to participate in a scientific interview. Letters were sent to the test subjects with differing linguistic wording with the objective of inducing differing feelings in them, whereby this type of stimuli was classified in the field of so-called „weak“ stimuli. This group included both the attempt to generate empathy and the feeling of guilt and also the attempt to generate empathy and the feeling of guilt and also the appeal to comply with the standard of helpfulness. The field of „hard“ stimuli involved two conditions which were designated as being high and low costs. The condition of high costs naturally entailed a greater effort of assistance by the test subjects than the condition of low costs which was limited to completing and returning the completed questionnaires on a relatively neutral topic. By means of this field experiment, the thesis postulated by the rational choice theory that people endeavour to take their decisions in accordance with a maximisation of cost-benefit was confirmed, and the fact that its validity can be expanded into the field of altruistic actions. It was not possible to confirm the thesis of the special role of empathy as a strongly motivating force in decision process for/against assistance. The central conclusion to be drawn from the work is: Research into altruism or helpfulness is not only possible within the framwork of the rational choice theory, but also leads to findings on human motivation.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Huth, Radoslaw Miroslaw"],"institution":"Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Hill, Paul B."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2008,"date_issued":"2008","date_published":"2008","updated_at":"2026-07-30T19:40:16Z","subjects":["info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/300","Rational Choice","Altruismus <Motiv>","Hilfsbereitschaft","Feldexperiment","Einfühlung","Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Anthropologie","Kosten-Nutzen Prinzip","Gefühle","Rational choice theory","altruism","helpfulness","field experiment","empathy","cost-benefit principle","feelings"],"languages":["ger"],"rights":["info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/search?p=id:%22RWTH-CONV-112608%22"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/search?p=id:%22RWTH-CONV-112608%22","href":"https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/search?p=id:%22RWTH-CONV-112608%22","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/50044","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"source_record":{"url":"https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/oai2d?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&identifier=oai%3Apublications.rwth-aachen.de%3A50044","prefix":"oai_dc"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Hill, Paul B."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Huth, Radoslaw Miroslaw"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:coverage","label":"Dc Coverage","values":["DE"]},{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2008"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/urn/urn:nbn:de:hbz:82-opus-22069"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis","info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/300","Rational Choice","Altruismus <Motiv>","Hilfsbereitschaft","Feldexperiment","Einfühlung","Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Anthropologie","Kosten-Nutzen Prinzip","Gefühle","Rational choice theory","altruism","helpfulness","field experiment","empathy","cost-benefit principle","feelings"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["ger"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/50044","https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/search?p=id:%22RWTH-CONV-112608%22"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["This present works deal with a special form of altruism, namely assistance in the form of preparedness to participate in a scientific interview. Altruism involves both the ways of acting of individuals whose objective is the well-being of the other. In order to be able to deal at all with the phenomenon of altruism, first of all an attempt was made in the theoretical part of the work to define the term of altruism more exactly an to differantiate it from other forms of behaviour, such as cooperation, nepotism and reciprocal altruism. In addition, helpfulness as one of the many forms of expression of altruism was examined from different theoretical directions, whereby the main emphasis was placed on the explanation in the sense of the rational choice theory. The central task of the work was the attempt to explain assistance as the action of a rationally acting individual. The decision for or against participation in an interview, from which no kind of material gain or also no kind of negative sanctions are to be expected, is a decision on assistance. Assistance can be variously motivated and the main motives for every action, namely the striving for physical well-being and social recognition represent just a part of the possible motivation. Apart from the egocentric motives, which are also influenced by costbenefid considerations, there is also empathy which also positevely influence the decision to assist. The interplay of empathy and decisions in accordance with the cost-benefit principle, which are determined by rebuffing feelings of guilt, standard of helpfulness, time spent helping and the transgression of personal space by recipients of help, represented the subject matter of the experimental study within the framework of this work, whereby its results were able to confirm the main thesis of the work that, even when taking decisions an assistance, people act in accordance with the principle written requests to persons selected at random with the request to participate in a scientific interview. Letters were sent to the test subjects with differing linguistic wording with the objective of inducing differing feelings in them, whereby this type of stimuli was classified in the field of so-called „weak“ stimuli. This group included both the attempt to generate empathy and the feeling of guilt and also the attempt to generate empathy and the feeling of guilt and also the appeal to comply with the standard of helpfulness. The field of „hard“ stimuli involved two conditions which were designated as being high and low costs. The condition of high costs naturally entailed a greater effort of assistance by the test subjects than the condition of low costs which was limited to completing and returning the completed questionnaires on a relatively neutral topic. By means of this field experiment, the thesis postulated by the rational choice theory that people endeavour to take their decisions in accordance with a maximisation of cost-benefit was confirmed, and the fact that its validity can be expanded into the field of altruistic actions. It was not possible to confirm the thesis of the special role of empathy as a strongly motivating force in decision process for/against assistance. The central conclusion to be drawn from the work is: Research into altruism or helpfulness is not only possible within the framwork of the rational choice theory, but also leads to findings on human motivation."]},{"key":"dc:source","label":"Dc Source","values":["Aachen : Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University 370 S. (2008). = Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2008"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Rational Choice und Altruismus, Hilfsbereitschaft am Beispiel der Teilnahme an wissenschaftlichen Interviews"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Hill, Paul B."],"dc:coverage":["DE"],"dc:creator":["Huth, Radoslaw Miroslaw"],"dc:date":["2008"],"dc:description":["This present works deal with a special form of altruism, namely assistance in the form of preparedness to participate in a scientific interview. Altruism involves both the ways of acting of individuals whose objective is the well-being of the other. In order to be able to deal at all with the phenomenon of altruism, first of all an attempt was made in the theoretical part of the work to define the term of altruism more exactly an to differantiate it from other forms of behaviour, such as cooperation, nepotism and reciprocal altruism. In addition, helpfulness as one of the many forms of expression of altruism was examined from different theoretical directions, whereby the main emphasis was placed on the explanation in the sense of the rational choice theory. The central task of the work was the attempt to explain assistance as the action of a rationally acting individual. The decision for or against participation in an interview, from which no kind of material gain or also no kind of negative sanctions are to be expected, is a decision on assistance. Assistance can be variously motivated and the main motives for every action, namely the striving for physical well-being and social recognition represent just a part of the possible motivation. Apart from the egocentric motives, which are also influenced by costbenefid considerations, there is also empathy which also positevely influence the decision to assist. The interplay of empathy and decisions in accordance with the cost-benefit principle, which are determined by rebuffing feelings of guilt, standard of helpfulness, time spent helping and the transgression of personal space by recipients of help, represented the subject matter of the experimental study within the framework of this work, whereby its results were able to confirm the main thesis of the work that, even when taking decisions an assistance, people act in accordance with the principle written requests to persons selected at random with the request to participate in a scientific interview. Letters were sent to the test subjects with differing linguistic wording with the objective of inducing differing feelings in them, whereby this type of stimuli was classified in the field of so-called „weak“ stimuli. This group included both the attempt to generate empathy and the feeling of guilt and also the attempt to generate empathy and the feeling of guilt and also the appeal to comply with the standard of helpfulness. The field of „hard“ stimuli involved two conditions which were designated as being high and low costs. The condition of high costs naturally entailed a greater effort of assistance by the test subjects than the condition of low costs which was limited to completing and returning the completed questionnaires on a relatively neutral topic. By means of this field experiment, the thesis postulated by the rational choice theory that people endeavour to take their decisions in accordance with a maximisation of cost-benefit was confirmed, and the fact that its validity can be expanded into the field of altruistic actions. It was not possible to confirm the thesis of the special role of empathy as a strongly motivating force in decision process for/against assistance. The central conclusion to be drawn from the work is: Research into altruism or helpfulness is not only possible within the framwork of the rational choice theory, but also leads to findings on human motivation."],"dc:identifier":["https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/50044","https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/search?p=id:%22RWTH-CONV-112608%22"],"dc:language":["ger"],"dc:publisher":["Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University"],"dc:relation":["info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/urn/urn:nbn:de:hbz:82-opus-22069"],"dc:rights":["info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess"],"dc:source":["Aachen : Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University 370 S. (2008). = Aachen, Techn. 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