Relinquishing Control Associates With Prosociality and Provides Agency and Positive Affect in Adolescents

The goal of the current study was to examine the role of racial attitudes, empathic concern, and prosocial behaviors among emerging adults. Research linking racial attitudes to emerging adults’ moral development and prosocial behaviors is limited, and therefore the current study aimed to assess the interrelations among racial attitudes and empathic concern and links to two forms of prosocial behaviors. The sample included 202 young adults (M age = 20.94 years; 76.5% women; 67.5% reported identifying as racially White) who reported on their racial attitudes, empathic concern, and prosocial behaviors at Time 1 and on their tendency to engage in two forms of prosocial behaviors at Time 2. Results demonstrated links between both racial attitudes and empathic concern predicting specific forms of prosocial behaviors over time. Additionally, racial attitudes and empathic concern interacted to predict changes in selfless helping behaviors. The current study has implications for practitioners such that promoting color-conscious racial attitudes and empathic concern simultaneously is important for shaping selfless helping behaviors.

Social media significantly influences adolescents' prosocial behavior. With smartphones becoming ubiquitous, short videos have emerged as the predominant social media format for adolescents. However, the effects of adolescents' engagement with short videos on their prosocial behavior remain uncertain. This study aims to address the problem of how short videos (content and consequences) affect prosocial behavior in adolescents, and simultaneously explores the differences of this effect among individuals with different social value orientations. The current study conducted two research laboratory experiments using the between-subject study design of two factors. Study 1 (N=148) reveals that viewing prosocial short videos significantly predicts adolescents' prosocial behavior more so than neutral short videos. The interaction between short video content and social value orientation on prosocial behavior illustrates that the encouraging impact of prosocial content is primarily evident in prosocial individuals, rather than in pro-self individuals. In Study 2 (N=152), we introduce new dimensions by assessing adolescents' response to varying consequences of the same prosocial behavior (ie, reward, punishment) within the short video context. Findings indicate that reward consequences significantly bolster adolescents' prosocial behavior, whereas punitive measures tend to adversely affect it. Furthermore, the interaction between the consequences of prosocial short videos and social value orientation suggests that prosocial individuals exhibit no significant behavioral difference between rewards and punishments; instead, the reward/punishment consequences notably influence the prosocial behavior of pro-self individuals. Short videos (content and consequences) and social value orientations interactively influence adolescents' prosocial behaviors. This study underscores the need to recognize individual differences in adolescents' use of short videos and its impact on their prosocial behavior, particularly highlighting the crucial role of their social value orientations. Practically, the research offers valuable insights for parents and professionals seeking to foster adolescents' prosocial behavior.

Power dynamics are implicated in intergroup prosocial behavior (Nadler & Halabi, 2015).This research investigated two factors that influence the effect of intergroup prosocial behavior on views of social equality: amount of direct intergroup contact and type of helping.Students in a social psychology course (N = 93) were randomly assigned to a service-learning group or to a control group.The service-learning group was further subdivided into an autonomy-oriented helping group or a dependency-oriented helping group.After participating in approximately 19 hours of community service over nine weeks, service-learners had more positive views of social equality compared to the control group.This effect was strongest in autonomy-oriented helpers who had high levels of direct intergroup contact.The implications and mechanisms of service-learning as a form of counter-normative intergroup prosocial behavior are discussed.

“Economic Man Assumption” proposed that humans are rational, whose only goal is to pursue their maximum self- interest. However, costly prosoial behaviors, such as helping, comforting, or donation, are commonly seen in daily life. Researchers put forward social value orientation (SVO) to explain why people exhibit such behaviors. SVO refers to a stable preference for outcomes for self versus others in interdependent situation, which further affects prosocial behaviors in social dilemmas. The commonly used measurements of SVO are the Triple-Dominance Scale and the Slider Measure. Based on these measures, SVO is classified into two categories: prosocial value orientation, and proself value orientation. The latter one is further subdivided to individualistic and competitive value orientations. People with prosocial orientation tend to maximize joint interest, people with individualistic orientation tend to maximize absolute outcome, while people with competitive orientation tend to maximize relative outcome. Previous studies have suggested that SVO can express automatically, and stably influence social behaviors. This article reviewed existing researches and mainly discusses its influence on trust behavior, cooperation and fair decisions in social contexts. A growing body of evidence suggests that prosocial individuals show more trust behaviors, cooperation, and fair decisions, which are further reflected on neural activities. Specifically, temporal-parietal junction (TPJ), insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) show stronger activation when prosocials choose to cheat compared to be honest/trustworthy in trust game, while for proselfs there are no significant differences. In social dilemma games, prosocials show more cooperative behavior, accompanied by increased activation in lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior superior temporal sulcus (aSTS) and inferior parietal lobule, which brain regions are relevant to norm compliance, routine moral judgment, and social awareness. While for proselfs, increased activation is found in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is relevant to calculation. Researches have also found prosocials make more rejection to unfair allocation, and the degree of inequity aversion in prosocials is predictable from amygdala activity. In light of existing literature, we summarized four aspects of how SVO affects prosocial behaviors. The first one is that prosocials have a stronger internal cooperation motivation relative to proselfs so that prosocial behaviors are processed automatically for prosocials. Second, prosocials have a higher expectation of others’ prosocial behaviors, this expectation in turn influences himself/herself’s behaviors. The third is that prosocial ones show more social responsibility in social interaction that they tend to maximize joint outcome. Last but not least, individuals with different SVOs show different social learning patterns which affects information collection and decision making during social interaction. Before the end, we propose several research directions. First is the differences in social learning patterns between individuals with different SVOs. Secondly, the interactive effects of SVO and other personality traits, such as empathy and trust, on prosocial behavior need to be investigated. More neural biochemical researches which focus on neurotransmitter as well as gene of different SVOs are also required. At last, in order to better apply research results to real life, ecological validity of research need to be improved.

Traditionally, prosocial behaviors are conceptualized and assessed as a unidimensional construct, but recent research suggests they include various distinct forms, reflecting proactive (instrumental, self-benefiting), reactive (in response to an individual in need), and altruistic (beneficial to others without expectation of personal gain) functions. The authors examined these forms of adolescent prosocial behavior and their links to social goals and social adjustment among peers. In Study 1, they examined agentic (status) and communal (closeness) goals in relation to self-reported altruistic, reactive, and proactive prosocial behaviors. In Study 2, they examined peer-reported altruistic and proactive prosocial behaviors in association with likeability, rejection, and popularity among peers. The associations varied meaningfully among the forms of prosocial behavior. For instance, proactive prosocial behaviors were positively related to agentic goals and popularity, whereas altruistic prosocial behaviors were positively related to communal goals and likeability by peers. The findings underscore the importance of examining multiple forms of prosocial behaviors during adolescence.

Suicidal behaviour in adolescents: A network analysis

The goal of the current study was to examine two competing models focusing on the roles of empathy‐related traits in the relation between economic stress and prosocial behaviors. First, we examined the mediating roles of perspective taking and empathic concern in the association between economic stress and adolescents’ prosocial behaviors. Second, we examined the moderating role of perspective taking in the association between economic stress and empathic concern, as well as the links between empathic concern and prosocial behaviors. Participants consisted of 307 (46.2% girls; M age = 15.05) U.S. Latino adolescents (77.5% U.S. Mexicans) and their primary caregivers (87.9% mothers). Primary caregivers reported on family‐level economic stress, and adolescents reported on their own perspective taking, empathic concern, and their tendency to engage in six forms of prosocial behaviors. Results demonstrated support for the moderating role of perspective taking on the link between economic stress and empathic concern, which in turn, was associated with multiple forms of helping behaviors. Economic stress was also directly associated with selfless and selfish helping behaviors. The discussion focuses on the multiple roles of empathic traits in understanding the links between economic stress and prosocial outcomes in U.S. Latino youth.

Background:Prosocial behaviors are considered important moral and social behavior. Various researchers have found that prosocial behavior increases well-being; research is scarce on the effects of prosocial behavior on psychological well-being, positive and negative affect among adults.Aim:The present study investigated the relationship between prosocial behavior, psychological well-being, and positive and negative affect on adults.Materials and Methods:The study included 80 adults (19–25 years) males and females. Snowball and incidental sampling method is used for data collection. The tools used for the study are the Prosocial Personality Battery, Ryff's psychological well-being scale, and the positive and negative affect scale.Results:A positive correlation was found between prosocial behavior and psychological well-being (0.396 which is significant at 0.01 level). A positive correlation was also observed between prosocial behavior and positive affect (0.274 which is significant at 0.01 level). A negative correlation was found between prosocial behavior and negative affect (−0.191 which is significant at 0.05 level).Conclusion:People involved in Prosocial behavior showed a positive correlation with Psychological well-being and positive affect and a negative correlation with negative affects.

ABSTRACTProsociality is a central topic in positive psychology. An important but under-studied distinction can be made between active and reactive expressions. We suggest that the novel construct of social mindfulness represents active rather than reactive prosociality. Across four studies (N = 2,594), including a multi-wave representative sample spanning six years, social mindfulness is found to correlate with personality traits associated with prosocial and/or antisocial behavior. We find positive associations with empathy, social value orientation, and general prosocial behavior, and negative associations with moral disengagement and narcissism. Importantly, social mindfulness emerges as an active rather than a reactive characteristic that is more strongly related to HEXACO honesty-humility (active cooperation) than to HEXACO agreeableness (reactive cooperation). The association between social mindfulness and honesty-humility was found across measures six years apart. Given the well-established link between prosociality and well-being, emphasizing social mindfulness may be a good start to promote the latter.

Evidence for the relationship between social and environmental concerns is mixed. However, these constructs have commonly been measured by diverse methods that do not readily facilitate a direct comparison of results. We employ a consistent incentivized method to assess subjects’ social value orientations (SVO) and also their motivations for the environment and humanitarian aid. Subjects made resource allocation choices with real consequences while the experimental design ensured comparability of subjects’ preferences (i.e., their willingness to make tradeoffs for different environmental and social causes). We found that social and environmental value orientations are intertwined, and the results clearly show that people are generally willing to pay more for the benefit of people in need, compared to abstract environmental causes. We conclude that interventions to nudge people towards environmentally-friendly behavior may have a greater impact if the human suffering as resulting from global warming is made salient.

Think it through before making a choice? Processing mode does not influence social mindfulness

The authors examined the altruism born of suffering model in a culturally diverse sample of young adults. They hypothesized that major life events would interact with perspective taking to predict empathic concern, which would predict multiple types of prosocial behaviors among young adults. The sample included 202 young adults (M age = 20.94 years; 76.5% girls; 36.5% White, 50.5% Latino) who reported on their exposure to major life events, perspective taking and empathic responding, and tendency to engage in six forms of prosocial behaviors. Life events indirectly, positively predicted prosocial behaviors via empathic concern. Empathic concern and perspective taking also interacted to predict empathic responding. The results demonstrated links that support the altruism born of suffering model, suggesting that life stressors might not always be negative and might promote resilience and social connection among young adults under specific conditions.

Increasing competition by nonprofit organizations provides blood donors with many options to engage themselves prosocially (e.g., by donating money or time). While most previous studies focused only on one form of donation, only a few studies analyzed two or more forms. This research gap is remarkable, as prior research has shown that a substantial portion of donors engage in more than one form of donation. In addition, studies have shown that donors' main reason for lapsing is switching to another donation form. This study relies on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. In total, 5640 (non)blood donors are analyzed over a period of 5 years, alongside their engagement in four forms of prosocial behavior: money donations, taking care of persons in need, volunteer work, and citizens' initiatives. We control for sociodemographic, psychographic, and health-related factors and rely on propensity score matching to reduce selection effects often observed in the blood donation context. There are significant differences between blood donors and nondonors in their engagement in prosocial behaviors. Blood donors (vs. nondonors) are more likely to engage in other prosocial behavior forms, namely, donating money, volunteering, and participating in citizens' initiatives. If people start donating blood, they also are more likely to act in other prosocial ways, namely, donating money and volunteering. If people stop donating blood, they also are more likely to stop other forms of prosocial behavior, namely, volunteering and participating in citizens' initiatives. This study provides new insights into blood donors' prosocial behavior. While most previous studies neglected blood donors' engagement in other prosocial behaviors, this study highlights the fact that blood banks need to be aware of blood donor switching behavior between all prosocial behavior forms. As most blood banks also are providing other types of donations forms, they can use this knowledge and cross-recruit blood donors to engage in other forms of prosocial behavior.

Positive affect and hope contribute to individuals’ psychological adjustment and positive youth development. The purpose of the study was to examine growth in positive and negative affect as well as state hope in Chinese adolescents in a juvenile correctional institution. We also investigated whether distinct trajectories of affect and hope predicted mental health and externalizing, internalizing, and prosocial behavior. The study included 198 male adolescents in a Chinese juvenile correctional institution and comprised nine measurement points (T1-T9) which were one week apart, respectively. Positive and negative affect and state hope were assessed from T1 to T8, and mental health and internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behavior were measured at T9. Analyses of latent growth curve and latent class growth models were estimated. It was found that positive and negative affect, as well as state hope, decreased over time. Youth in classes characterized by higher state hope and lower negative affect reported better mental health than youth in classes characterized by lower levels of these constructs. Because of the beneficial effects of lower negative affect and higher state hope on mental health and internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behavior, interventions strengthening hope and reducing negative affect may promote positive youth development in juvenile correctional institutions.

PurposeGuided by the affect theory of social exchange, this study aims to examine the affective process underlying the impact of customer cooperation on hotel frontline employees’ prosocial service behavior. Job autonomy was tested as a boundary condition.Design/methodology/approachA mix-mode quantitative survey collected data from 818 frontline employees in 14 upscale hotels across China. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the research hypotheses.FindingsResults suggest that customer cooperation influences employees’ prosocial service behavior directly and indirectly via employees’ positive affect. Contrary to expectations, job autonomy weakened the relationships among customer cooperation, positive affect and employees’ extra-role customer service but did not moderate the impacts of customer cooperation and positive affect on employees’ role-prescribed customer service.Originality/valueAs an initial attempt to investigate the effects of customer cooperation on two types of frontline employees’ prosocial behavior, this study broadens the application of the affect theory of social exchange and contributes to an understanding of the theory’s boundary conditions by testing a framework under the contextual condition of job autonomy.