Social Observation Differentially Affects Prosocial Learning of Selfish and Prosocial People

Yuri Kim Kun Il Kim Hackjin Kim ^*

• Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

People often exhibit more socially favorable behavior when observed by others, potentially influencing their cognitive skills and prosocial tendencies. Recent studies have found that individuals with intrinsic prosocial tendencies show non-responsiveness to social observation in various prosocial decision tasks. This study aims to investigate whether individuals with intrinsic prosocial tendencies would also exhibit a lack of changes in cognitive ability under social observation. We used a Prosocial Reinforcement Learning Task (PRLT) to assess the interaction effect of social observation and intrinsic prosocial tendency on one's prosocial learning tendency. A total of 102 participants were randomly assigned to either the observation or the control group while performing a two-armed bandit task for self-and other-reward conditions, and their behavioral outcomes were analyzed through a reinforcement learning computational model. Under social observation, participants who were previously less prosocial exhibited increased prosocial learning. In contrast, those who were already more prosocial showed no significant changes in prosociality, and demonstrated only a numerical -but statistically non-significant-increase in learning for the self. Our findings revealed differential effects of social observation modulating one's prosociality and cognitive ability according to the individual difference in intrinsic prosocial tendency.