Abstract
A link between perceptual processing styles and (pro)social behavior has gathered supporting empirical evidence to show that people raised or trained in traditions of collectiveness, compassion, and prosocial beliefs are biased to the global level in perceptual processing. In this research, we studied the reciprocal link – whether contextually broadening perceptual scope of attention via global processing could make people more prosocial. We hypothesized that global processing linked previously to an interdependent compassionate self-orientation would make people more prosocial, compared to local processing. Four experiments manipulated perceptual scope through a Global-Local task using hierarchical stimuli. It was found that participants who performed a global processing perceptual task volunteered to donate more money across different donation frames, compared to those who performed a local processing task. While previous research showed prosocial mindsets lead to perceptual broadening, the current results suggest that perceptual broadening also leads to more prosociality, thus establishing a reciprocal link between perceptual broadening (attentional scope), and acting prosocially. It is proposed that perceptual scope of attention is one of the generic cognitive processes that underlie prosocial decisions. Explanations based on scope of attention can potentially be used as a framework that enables researchers to link the effects of different contextual cues on prosocial decisions.
Highlights
People engage in prosocial behaviors/judgments relating to actions which are helpful to others
In Experiment 1, we manipulated the perceptual scope after the goal was set whereas the follow up experiment manipulated attentional scope before asking for donations to test whether the global-local effect on donations is replicable even when there is no previous goal set
We observed that across all three experiments, after global processing, donations were more compared to local processing
Summary
People engage in prosocial behaviors/judgments relating to actions which are helpful to others. We are encouraged by non-profit organizations and governments to help those in need by donating money or volunteering time using multiple contextual cues. They are often intended to promote compassion, empathy, and social connectedness. Given its importance in real life, prosocial decision making has become an active domain of interdisciplinary research spanning psychology, economics, neuroscience, sociology, philosophy, and political science (Oppenheimer and Olivola, 2010). Many prosocial behaviors are complex decisions where explicit gains for the giver may not exist. Multiple factors modulate donation decisions, fundamental cognitive processes, or mechanisms involved in such decisions have not been investigated extensively
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