Study: People expect others to mirror their own selfishness, generosity

A person's own behavior is the primary driver of how they treat others during brief, zero-sum-game competitions, researchers report. Generous people tend to reward generous behavior and selfish individuals often punish generosity and reward selfishness -- even when it costs them personally. The study found that an individual's own generous or selfish deeds carry more weight than their desire to conform to the attitudes and behaviors of others.