Relationship Valuation Sensitivity for Family and Friends: A Test of Welfare Tradeoff Ratio Variables and General Social Discounting

ABSTRACT Decisions about how much we help others have been quantified recently as general social discounting functions or as individual‐specific welfare tradeoff ratios (WTRs). The WTR model integrates kinship (based on kin‐selected altruism), which should be relatively inflexible as a contributor to overall WTR value, whereas more general social discounting functions minimize kinship as a distinct factor. Using monetary forced‐choice measures of social discounting, this research compared valuations of close kin versus friends and distant kin versus friends when that individual exhibits extreme disrespect of the participant. Participants (143 undergraduates in Experiment 1; 210 in Experiment 2) significantly devalued distant versus close relationships and post‐ versus pre‐disrespect scenarios. In Experiment 2, there was also a significantly lower valuation of friends relative to kin. The WTR prediction of an interaction between kin/friends and pre‐/post‐disrespect, however, did not emerge. This indicates instead a more general social discounting process. There are possible adjustments to the present methodology, which further research may explore, or to the WTR model, which might account for the present results.