No
THE SOCIAL VALUE ORIENTATION TEST
10
Am I generous?
40
WHAT IT’S ABOUT According to the ‘Rational Choice Theory’ all of our actions are motivated by self-interest. The theory converges with the model of the ‘Homo oeconomicus’, whose actions are geared only towards profit maximisation. However, a series of tests indicate that humans also behave differently and, in part, selflessly. THE TEST A test person is confronted with eight alternatives of how to divide up money between himself and an unknown person. Somebody who keeps 100 dollars and gives the other person 50 dollars is ‘individualistic’. Somebody who divides it up so that each person gets 75 dollars is ‘prosocial’ – at least according to the Social Value Orientation Scale developed by the psychologists Don Griesinger and Jim Livingston in 1973, which differentiates between eight different orientations.
THE EVALUATION Competitive: You regard the other person’s loss as your gain. You think: win-lose. Individualistic: You are primarily interested in your own profit, less in the loss of the other person. You think: win. Prosocial: Your goal is for everybody to profit from your decision. You think: win-win. Altruistic: You want to help others. You think lose-win and experience this as a personal satisfaction. These four ‘common’ orientations have four pathological counterparts: Sadism (extreme competitiveness, whereby you enjoy it when other people lose), sadomasochism (your goal is that neither you nor the other person wins), masochism (you want to lose), and martyrdom (you lose, so that others win).
GOOD TO KNOW ‘Giving a gift means giving another person something that you would actually like to keep for yourself.’ Selma Lagerlöf
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Select which way you would divide up the money and mark with a cross. Then find out where you stand in the model below.
A
B
C
D
E
F
Money for me $
50
85
Money for others $ 100
85
G
H
100
85
50
15
0
15
50
15
0
15
50
85
41
A 100
altruistic H
B self-sacrificing
prosocial
Money for others $
75
masochistic
G
50
individualistic
C
25 sadomasochistic F
competitive D
sadistic
0
E
0
25
50
75
100
Money for me $
This is only an approximation of your actual profile. The researchers Ryan O. Murphy and his colleagues at ETH Zurich offer a great test on their website http://vlab.ethz.ch (SVO Slider Measure), which gives you a more precise result.
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