Young adults’ intergroup prosocial behavior and its associations with social dominance orientation, social identities, prosocial moral obligation, and belongingness

Abstract

In an increasingly diverse world, understanding young adults’ intergroup prosocial behavior toward diverse others may inform ways to reduce intergroup conflict and cultivate an equitable and inclusive society. The college years are often the first time that young adults begin to explore their social identities and intergroup relations independently from their parents. Thus, we focused on college students and examined social dominance orientation, social positions, prosocial obligation, and the sense of belongingness in relation to their intergroup prosocial behavior across four domains (i.e., age, gender, race/ethnicity, and department affiliation). Participants were 1163 young adults aged 18–24 years (63.2% females, 34.5% males, and 2.3% gender diverse; 50.7% White, 19.6% Latino, 25% Asian, 2.3% Black) from a large public Southwestern university . Four profiles of intergroup prosocial behavior (self-serving, altruistic, selfish, and reverse ethnic racial bias) were identified and they were differentially related to the social, cognitive, and contextual correlates we examined. Overall, findings highlighted the need to foster intergroup prosocial behavior and the benefits of intergroup prosocial behavior to young adults’ sense of belongingness.