New study finds people cheat for others who belong in the same social circles

This is an automatic summary, original reduced by 65%.

As the old saying goes, birds of a feather flock together, but according to a new study by researchers from Canada and China, birds-or people in this case - also tend to cheat for others in the same social group without any personal gain.

"People lie for a variety of reasons, but not only for themselves. Our study demonstrates that sometimes people cheat to help others with whom they have a connection at the expense of third parties who are more socially distant from the cheater."

The allocators were asked to divide 50 yuan between two students: one from the same university considered to be part of their same social group, and one from the other university who would be an "Outsider".

The allocators who could select any option had the choice of giving either 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 yuan to the student from the same university with the rest going to the recipient from the other university.

Nearly two thirds of this group gave the student attending the same university 30 yuan with the rest of the money going to the student from the other university.

As for the allocators who chose the option based on their dice roll, the researchers found that 60 per cent of the students tended to cheat and choose options that would favour the recipient from the same university despite the number rolled on the dice.

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