Altruism Hypothesis Research Articles

LEXICAL PROFILE OF A TURKISH SADNESS VERB DERTLEN-: A CORPUS DRIVEN ANALYSIS

This Study employs a corpus driven approach to analyze the lexical profile of a Turkish verb that communicates sadness which is considered to be a negative emotion. The study focuses on the data obtained from Turkish National Corpus (TNC) within the framework of Extended Lexical Units offered by (Stubbs, 2005). Depending on the concordance lines of the verb dertlen- its syntactic properties, collocational tendencies, context dependent semantic and pragmatic qualifications were identified to understand the probable semantic value of it in terms of cognitive traits of sadness. It was found that dertlen- refers to a sadness which is derived from others’ troubles rather than self-related issues and this finding was discussed within the framework of empathy- altruism hypothesis (Batson,1991). From this respect, the verb gives some clues about the Turkish culture which is characterized with ‘altruistic’ behavior. The study also shows that dertlen- refers to past/present time negativities more frequently when compared to future related sadness concepts. Underlining the validity of corpus-driven approaches, the corpus data demonstrated that this sadness verb has its own cognitive patterns and this schematic nature of dertlen- dictates a particular linguistic environment which also shapes semantic and pragmatic load of the verb. Finally, thanks to this research, we were able to place dertlen- correctly inside Scherer's (2001) cognitive evaluation patterns for sadness.

Crucial to Me and my society: How collectivist culture influences individual pro-environmental behavior through environmental values

While numerous studies have verified the norm-sustainability relationship, few have delved deeply into this set of relationships. To address this research gap, this study theoretically analyzes the roles of collectivist culture and individual self-construal in the norm-sustainability relationship in the Asian context. Drawing on the value-basis theory and the competitive altruism hypothesis and employing cultural data from an Asian context with hierarchical regression analysis, empirical findings indicate that collectivist culture positively promotes pro-environmental behavior, with altruistic values and biospheric values mediating this positive relationship. At the same time, individual socioeconomic status positively moderates the norm-sustainability relationship. The theoretical contribution of this study lies in theoretically identifying collectivist culture as a deep-seated cultural factor triggering the norm-sustainability relationship in the Asian context. Examining the moderating role of self-construal in the norm-sustainability relationship sheds light on the reasons for the gap between individual pro-environmental behavioral intentions and actions in the Asian context. Lastly, this study provides a new cultural perspective for understanding the formation of biospheric values. Policy implications suggest a focus on the collective atmosphere of collectivism in Asia to stimulate individual environmental responsibility alongside the cultivation of rational environmental perspectives to balance participation across socioeconomic strata in societal and economic development.

Can fiction lead to prosocial behaviour? Exclusion, violence, empathy, and literature in early modernity

ABSTRACT In this short essay, I want to address the relationship between positivity and negativity in affect theories and literary analysis by focusing on the connection between empathy and literature in early modernity, a period when affect theories emerge robustly and are articulated in treatises such as De anima et vita (1538) by Juan Luis Vives (1492–1590) or Nueva Filosofía (1587) by Oliva de Sabuco (1562–1626?). We begin with the proposition that fictional narratives may move us to care for others and help them. Indeed, the idea that fiction can make us more empathetic and, thus, turn us into better human beings is a powerful hypothesis that has been the subject of a great number of discussions and publications. However, as we continue to investigate whether and how fiction may lead to prosocial behaviour via empathic responses and what are the narrative strategies that authors may employ to elicit empathy in readers, we need to acknowledge that: (1) the connection between empathy and prosocial behaviour, known as the empathy–altruism hypothesis, is still a controversial one and more empirical evidence is needed to back it up; and (2) there is no direct correspondence between empathic authorial intention and audience reception, a phenomenon that can be discussed through notions such as failed empathy or empathic inaccuracy.

Effect of Socioeconomic Status on Altruistic Behavior in Chinese Middle School Students: Mediating Role of Empathy.

Previous studies have shown that socioeconomic status is correlated to altruistic behavior. The role of empathy as one of the motivations for altruistic behavior is gradually gaining attention among researchers. This study explores the role of empathy in the mechanisms of socioeconomic status and altruistic behavior in Chinese adolescents. A total of 253 middle school students from Northern China participated in this study, which included the dictator game and Interpersonal Relation Index. Results showed that (1) low-SES students behaved more generously than high-SES students; (2) the students were more generous to the low-SES recipients, as shown when offering them more money in the dictator game; (3) affective rather than cognitive empathy mediates the relationship between socioeconomic status and altruistic behavior. The findings provide evidence for the validation of the empathy-altruism hypothesis in a group of Chinese adolescents. Meanwhile, it reveals the path to improving altruistic behavior through the promotion of empathy, especially for individuals of high socioeconomic status.

Remittances in Russia and Caucasus and Central Asia: The gravity model

AbstractRemittances are an important source of external financing in low‐ and middle‐income countries. This paper uses the gravity model to analyze remittance flows in Russia and Caucasus and Central Asia countries. Standard gravity determinants, such as gross domestic product in sending and receiving countries, bilateral distance, existence of common borders and common official language, and fit remittance, flow well. Remittances also react to inflation and exchange rate movements in recipient countries to sustain their purchasing power. In line with the altruism hypothesis, remittances flow to countries with higher age dependency ratio. Remittances are countercyclical and help stabilize outputs in recipient countries. However, global shocks resulting in sharp output losses of sending countries would lead to large volatility and decline in remittance inflows in recipient countries.

What social issues do people invest in? An examination based on the empathy–altruism hypothesis of prosocial crowdfunding platforms

This study aims to elucidate the effects of a prosocial orientation on investments in entrepreneurial businesses through crowdfunding platforms. By drawing on the theory of empathy in social psychology, we focused on social issues that campaigns address, rather than the rhetoric and narratives used in campaigns. We applied a topic modeling method to identify types of social issues expressed in campaign documents. Furthermore, we conducted a questionnaire survey to measure the degree of empathic feeling about social issues. The results revealed that high levels of empathy to social issues do not directly lead to supporting behavior, and in particular, high levels of emotional empathy suppress the effects of cognitive empathy. Instead, backers are more likely to invest in campaigns that address social issues that evoke cognitive empathy and that are perceived to be a viable business.

Gossip and competitive altruism support cooperation in a Public Good game.

When there is an opportunity to gain a positive reputation, individuals are more willing to sacrifice their immediate self-interest. Partner choice creates opportunities for competitive altruism, i.e. individuals compete to be regarded as more generous and to be chosen for future partnerships. Tests of the competitive altruism hypothesis have focused so far on reputation based on direct observation, whereas the role of gossip has not been theoretically and empirically addressed. Partner choice can create an incentive to cooperate and to send truthful messages, but it can also work in the opposite direction. In order to understand the consequences of partner choice on cooperation and gossip, we designed an experimental study in which participants played a sequence of Public Goods games and gossip rounds. In our two treatments, we observed that cooperation increased when there was an opportunity to be selected, but also that cooperators sent more honest messages than defectors, and that this strategy was prevalent in the treatment in which inter-group competition was implemented. We also found evidence that participants detached themselves from the information more often when lying. Taken together, our study fills a theoretical and empirical gap by showing that partner choice increases both cooperation and honesty of gossip.This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

The evolution of altruism through war is highly sensitive to population structure and to civilian and fighter mortality

The importance of warfare in the evolution of human social behavior remains highly debated. One hypothesis is that intense warfare between groups favored altruism within groups, a hypothesis given some support by computational modeling and, in particular, the work of Choi and Bowles [J.-K. Choi, S. Bowles, Science 318, 636-640 (2007)]. The results of computational models are, however, sensitive to chosen parameter values and a deeper assessment of the plausibility of the parochial altruism hypothesis requires exploring this model in more detail. Here, I use a recently developed method to reexamine Choi and Bowles' model under a much broader range of conditions to those used in the original paper. Although the evolution of altruism is robust to perturbations in most of the default parameters, it is highly sensitive to group size and migration and to the lethality of war. The results show that the degree of genetic differentiation between groups (FST ) produced by Choi and Bowles' original model is much greater than empirical estimates of FST between hunter-gatherer groups. When FST in the model is close to empirically observed values, altruism does not evolve. These results cast doubt on the importance of war in the evolution of human sociality.

Calamities, Common Interests, Shared Identity: What Shapes Altruism and Reciprocity?

We conduct a large-scale survey experiment in nine European countries to study how priming a major crisis (COVID-19), common economic interests, and a shared identity influences altruism, reciprocity and trust of EU citizens. We find that priming the COVID-19 pandemic increases altruism and reciprocity towards compatriots, citizens of other EU countries, and non-EU citizens. Priming common European values also boosts altruism and reciprocity but only towards compatriots and fellow Europeans. Priming common economic interests has no tangible impact on behaviour. Trust in others is not affected by any treatment. Our results are consistent with the parochial altruism hypothesis, which asserts that because altruism arises out of inter-group conflict, humans show a tendency to favor members of their own groups.

Calamities, Common Interests, Shared Identity: What Shapes Altruism and Reciprocity?

We conduct a large-scale survey experiment in nine European countries to study how priming a major crisis (COVID-19), common economic interests, and a shared identity influences altruism, reciprocity and trust of EU citizens. We find that priming the COVID-19 pandemic increases altruism and reciprocity towards compatriots, citizens of other EU countries, and non-EU citizens. Priming common European values also boosts altruism and reciprocity but only towards compatriots and fellow Europeans. Priming common economic interests has no tangible impact on behaviour. Trust in others is not affected by any treatment. Our results are consistent with the parochial altruism hypothesis, which asserts that because altruism arises out of inter-group conflict, humans show a tendency to favor members of their own groups.

Calamities, Common Interests, Shared Identity: What Shapes Altruism and Reciprocity?

We conduct a large-scale survey experiment in nine European countries to study how priming a major crisis (COVID-19), common economic interests, and a shared identity influences altruism, reciprocity and trust of EU citizens. We find that priming the COVID-19 pandemic increases altruism and reciprocity towards compatriots, citizens of other EU countries, and non-EU citizens. Priming common European values also boosts altruism and reciprocity but only towards compatriots and fellow Europeans. Priming common economic interests has no tangible impact on behaviour. Trust in others is not affected by any treatment. Our results are consistent with the parochial altruism hypothesis, which asserts that because altruism arises out of inter-group conflict, humans show a tendency to favor members of their own groups.

Resource depletion and conflict: Experimental evidence

Understanding how resource scarcity affects violent conflict over resources has been one of the central topics in economics and other social sciences for decades. Yet, we know surprisingly little about how resource scarcity affects individual behaviour that can spur inter-group conflict. To address this gap, we propose the common-pool experiment with renewable resources to study how incentives to engage in conflict change with resource depletion. Moreover, we examine how the possibility of conflict affects extraction. Each round, after harvesting, the players vote on whether to engage in conflict with the opponent group, in which they can annex a part of the opponent group's resource. The probability of winning varies between treatments. In the “50:50” treatment, to which we refer to as a baseline, the probability of winning is exogenous and equal for each party. In the “conflict-by-greed” treatment, the probability is proportional to the difference in resources between groups. Finally, in the “resource wars” treatment, the likelihood of winning depends on the number of tokens invested by each group in conflict. Experimental results show that “conflict-by-greed” promotes resource conservation. Subjects extract less resources compared to the baseline so as to increase chances of winning in war, which supports the parochial altruism hypothesis. Here, resource depletion is conducive to conflict, which distinguishes “conflict-by-greed” from other treatments. In addition, we find that “resource wars” are extremely destructive. Not only is conflict expenditure above the equilibrium, but also investing in conflict makes group members increase their extraction. As a result, the probability of resource exhaustion in the “resource wars” treatment is twice as high as in the baseline. We discuss how differences in uncertainty and the incentive structure between treatments explain these findings.

Κίνητρα φιλοκοινωνικής συμπεριφοράς: Αγνός αλτρουισμός ή ψυχολογικός εξαναγκασμός;

Having as a starting point the dispute between the Empathy – Altruism Hypothesis and the Aversive Arousal Reduction Hypothesis, the present research focus on the study of the motives underlying prosocial behavior. Thus, an experimental process was designed in which male and female adults took part (N = 128). Participants first completed the Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM, Carlo & Randal, 2002) and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ, Spreng et al., 2009). Then, based on their answers, participants were assigned to eight groups and exposed to different experimental conditions (2 known – unknown x 2 in need of help – without need of help x 2 compel to receive help – absence of compel to receive help). Findings indicate that the level of empathy experiencing by the “benefactor” plays an important role in the performance of prosocial behavior. Nevertheless, the variable of familiarity with the person in need was found to be crucial in the performance of prosocial behavior as well as the need for help. Furthermore, findings suggest that the performance of prosocial behavior is a consequence of psychological pressure to the “benefactor” who, in turn, seems to use the performance of such a behavior as a means of psychological escape from a condition in which the request of help is salient.

Remittances in Russia and Caucasus and Central Asia

Remitances are an important source of external financing in low- and middle-income countries. This paper uses the gravity model to analyze remittance flows in Russia and Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) countries. Standard gravity determinants, such as GDP in sending and recieiving countries, bilateral distance, existence of common borders and common official language, fit remittance flows well. Remittances also react to inflation and exchange rate movements in recipient countries to sustain their purchasing power. In line with the altruism hypothesis, remittances flow to countries with higher age dependency ratio. Remittances are countercyclical and help stabilize outputs in recipient countries. However, global shocks resulting in sharp output losses of sending countries would lead to large volatility and decline of remittance inflows in recipient countries. The results of the analysis can be used to assess the impact of the COVID-19 shock on projected remittance flows into CCA.

Similarities and differences of motivations of giving time and money: Giving to individuals versus humanitarian organizations in an emerging market

This paper provides the first empirically based study of the formal and informal money and time giving motivations together in an emerging market (Turkey) context. Drawing on empathy–altruism hypothesis and social exchange theory, this study aims to examine relationships between internal charitable motivations and the donation of money and time giving to individuals and humanitarian organizations in the context of a Turkish sample. Empathy and altruism, religious values, social impact, materialism, and conspicuous giving motivations are examined in this study. The results indicate that giving motivations change by giving type. Empathy and altruism motivations effect on all types of giving. Persons tend to be more motivated to give money and time interpersonally than through organizations. Furthermore, money and time given to individuals explained by more motivation in the context of a Turkish sample. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are considered, and future research opportunities are discussed.

Implicit aggression following exposure to people with physical disabilities: The costs of inhibiting self-protective processes

Previous studies indicate that death reminders elicit prosocial behavior, but also an urge to distance from physical disabilities. Here, we examine whether mortality salience will increase implicit aggression when one is explicitly requested to help a person with physical disability. This implicit negative response may address the need for self-protection when no other means are available. Participants were randomly assigned to a mortality salience or pain condition, were exposed to a veteran with a physical or emotional disability, and were requested or not to help him. Then, they performed a lexical decision task tapping accessibility of aggression-related cognitions. Mortality-salience participants who were exposed to a veteran with physical disability and were compelled to help showed higher accessibility of aggression-related thoughts than participants in other conditions. Findings support the Self-Protective Altruism hypothesis (Hirschberger in Soc Pers Psychol Compass 7:128–140, 2013), implying that sometimes prosocial behavior can involve implicit antisocial thoughts.

Peer supporters' experiences on an Australian perinatal mental health helpline.

Perinatal mental health is an important public health issue, and peer support is a potentially important strategy for emotional well-being in the perinatal period. PANDA Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia provides support to individuals impacted by perinatal mental health issues via the National Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Helpline. Callers receive peer support from volunteers and counselling from paid professional staff. The views and experiences of PANDA peer support volunteers have not previously been studied. We conducted two focus groups and an online survey to explore the experiences of women providing volunteer peer support on the Helpline. Data collection took place in October and November 2013. Two social theories were used in framing and addressing the study aims and in interpreting our findings: the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis, and the Helper Therapy Principle. All PANDA volunteers were invited to participate (n = 40). Eight volunteers attended a focus group, and 11 survey responses were received. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse quantitative data. All survey respondents 'strongly agreed' that they felt positive about being part of PANDA. Thematic analysis of data from focus groups and open-ended survey responses identified the following themes: motivated to help others, supported to support callers, helping to make a difference and emotional impacts for volunteers. Respondents described a strong desire to support others experiencing emotional distress as a motivator to volunteer. Although perinatal peer support services are designed to benefit those who receive support, this study suggests volunteers may also experience personal benefits from the role.

Supplemental Material for Digital Altruists: Resolving Key Questions About the Empathy–Altruism Hypothesis in an Internet Sample

Supplemental Material for Digital Altruists: Resolving Key Questions About the Empathy–Altruism Hypothesis in an Internet Sample

Empathy leads to increased online charitable behaviour when time is the currency

AbstractThis study shows how the empathy–altruism hypothesis can affect helping behaviour where time spent is the currency, through the novel use of a real world charity. Using an online charity task (www.freerice.com), we show that inducing empathy and also anger cause participants to spend more time donating rice to the United Nations World Food Programme. These findings therefore support the empathy–altruism hypothesis and add to previous research that have mainly used artificial and/or hypothetical scenarios by further showing that its effects can be applied to real world scenarios where helping behaviours are beneficial.

Intuitive Participation in Aggressive Intergroup Conflict: Evidence of Weak Versus Strong Parochial Altruism.

Humans are unusually cooperative and prosocial, sharing resources with kin and non-kin others. At the same time, they engage in violent intergroup conflict and discriminate against members of other groups. How can we explain this apparent inconsistency? Building on Darwin (1871), it has been proposed that self-sacrificing prosociality toward the in-group and hostility toward the out-group may have co-evolved (Choi and Bowles, 2007; Garcia and van den Bergh, 2011). Research on so-called parochial altruism, i.e., the motivation to benefit in-group members at personal cost, while not benefitting or even harming out-group members, recently received much attention in psychology and beyond (for reviews see, De Dreu et al., 2014; Rusch, 2014; Yamagishi and Mifune, 2016). Empirical studies aiming to support the parochial altruism hypothesis yielded mixed results, though. For instance, whereas some studies provided support for the parochial altruism hypothesis (e.g., Bernhard et al., 2006; Abbink et al., 2012), others failed to show a relationship between individual-level prosociality and intergroup discrimination (e.g., Corr et al., 2015). And yet others found that prosocial individuals are less likely to discriminate against out-group members (e.g., Thielmann and Bohm, in press).