Deliberation is staunchest ally of selfishness  Over the last
two years, Yale psychologist David Rand and colleagues have
investigated what makes people willing to help each other. Their
latest research shows that while initial reactions are shaped by
daily experience, deliberation consistently favors selfishness.
In a new paper published online April 22 in the journal Nature
Communications, Rand and collaborators at Yale and Harvard
universities gave subjects money and asked them to choose how
much to keep and how much to contribute to benefit their group.
Half of the subjects were forced to respond quickly. Half were
asked to think carefully before deciding.  “In the early
studies, participants contributed much more when we made them
rely on their intuitions,” said Rand. “But as they gained more
exposure to these kind of experiments, things changed.”  Over
time, participants’ intuitions became increasingly selfish.
Decisions made after careful thought, however, stayed relatively
selfish over the whole two-