Differences In Prosociality Research Articles

Who volunteers in psychology experiments? An empirical review of prosocial motivation in volunteering

The central purpose of the present research is to provide a review of social value orientation (i.e., prosocial, individualistic, and competitive orientation), a construct measured with methods rooted in game theory (i.e., decomposed games). Also, we examine its ability to predict volunteering in psychology experiments. Consistent with hypotheses, Study 1 revealed that prosocials are more likely to volunteer in psychological experiments than do individualists and competitors. Study 2 replicated these findings, and revealed also that social value orientation was strongly linked to the academic study they chose. In particular, among psychology students, prosocials (57%) was the largest group, followed by individualists (37%), and only a few competitors (6%); in contrast, among economics students, individualists appeared largest (47%), followed by prosocials (36%), and still a fairly sizeable percentage of competitors (17%). It is concluded that psychologists and economists tend to rely on samples (from their participant pools) that may systematically differ in terms of motivation and beliefs that are associated with differences in prosociality, selfishness, and competition.

The role of language skills in perceived prosocialityin kindergarten boys and girls

The main goal of this study is to clarify the role of language in perceived prosociality according to the gender of the child by using a sample of 209 French-speaking children (93 girls and 116 boys) attending kindergarten (M = 66.8 months, SD = 3.7). In keeping with many studies on this subject, our results showed significant gender differences with respect to the prosociality of kindergarten children as perceived by their teachers. In parallel with gender differences in prosociality, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the relation between language skills and assessments of prosociality by kindergarten teachers varies according to the gender of the child: language has an explanatory role in perceived prosociality for boys, but not for girls. Implications of these findings concerning the social role of sexes in education and avenues for future research are presented.