Promoting prosociality toward future generations in antibiotic intake
Abstract
Understanding individuals’ preferences for antibiotics can help mitigate the acceleration of antibiotic resistance. Similar to the climate crisis, individuals “today” need to appropriately use antibiotics to reduce the negative consequences of antibiotic resistance for individuals “tomorrow.” We use an established—yet novel in this research field—behavioral game approach to investigate individuals’ preferences for antibiotics in the face of a between-generations conflict. In an online study, we investigated whether a between-generations (vs within-generations) conflict in antibiotic intake leads to larger overuse and how to promote appropriate use of antibiotics. Results indicate that overuse in the face of a between-generations (vs within-generations) conflict increased. Eliciting empathy toward future generations in the case of a between-generations conflict decreased overuse. Findings suggest that different representations of this social dilemma can influence people’s preferences for antibiotics, and that empathy-based interventions might promote appropriate antibiotic use.
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Data availability statement
The current article is accompanied by the relevant raw data generated during and/or analysed during the study, including files detailing the analyses and either the complete database or other relevant raw data. These files are available in the Figshare repository and accessible as Supplemental Material via the Sage Journals platform. Ethics approval, participant permissions, and all other relevant approvals were granted for this data sharing. The data files from the current study are also available in the OSF repository at https://osf.io/tmxbn/?view_only=8e011ae6e5984d98916aab45e368e7e
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Published In
Article first published online: January 31, 2023
Issue published: September 2023
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Data availability statement
Data is available for this article. View more information
PubMed: 36721947
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All authors contributed to the study’s conceptualization, investigation, and methodology. APS was also responsible for data collection, formal analysis, and writing the original draft.
CB and RB also contributed with funding acquisition. All authors revised, edited, and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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