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> To reach this conclusion, researchers asked the participants to make donations before they were asked to undertake a stressful task; they were asked to donate
by srcreigh 5y ago
> To reach this conclusion, researchers asked the participants to make donations before they were asked to undertake a stressful task; they were asked to donate things again after the task was over. While people who were found to have high empathy donated more than the others did before undergoing the stressful task, their charitability declined sharply afterward.
Isn’t asking for 2 unexpected donations in short succession a major confounding factor?
- PragmaticPulp 5y agoAgree. The study asked for 2 things from one group and 1 thing from another group and is trying to suggest that we should ignore the first ask. The authors are also abusing cortisol measurements to imply cortisol is something specific for bad stress when it’s not really that. Cortisol isn’t really a “bad” hormone like a lot of people believe. If you have too little cortisol you’ll feel terrible. Even fun activities will raise cortisol levels. Taking synthetic cortisol analogs often makes people feel good (for a very short while, chronic use will quickly downregulate this effect and requires slow tapering, don’t do it unless medically necessary). This study seems like junk science.
- xcyu 5y agoDepends on if the study tried to control for this by also testing 2 more groups with single donation before/after the stressful task. Can't access the original paper to confirm though.