Using nonverbal sensitivity and cognitive style to discriminate between self and others’ prosocial behavior

Using dictator game, we evaluated participants (N = 80 students) social value orientations and found that prosocial orientation was shared by the majority of the participants. The current research provides also evidence for the holier than thou effect: participants tended to underestimate fellow participants’ altruism relative to their own behavior. We underlined the fact that the fairness bias is larger for participants having an individualistic approach and for the estimations of unknown stimuli behavior, in brief exposure situations. We used type of information processing and nonverbal sensitivity to explain participants’ accuracy in estimating stimuli persons’ behavior. The data suggest that subjects who tended to use more their cognitive abilities were significant more accurate in predicting stimuli persons’ social value orientations and they had also higher abilities to decode nonverbal cues.