Prosocial Reasons Research Articles

Firearm Experiences, Behaviors, and Norms Among Rural Adolescents

Rural adolescents are at high risk for firearm-related injury, yet most existing prevention efforts are informed by research conducted in urban areas. Despite the need to account for rural perspectives, few studies have investigated the unique social ecological context of firearms for rural adolescents or have directly engaged with rural adolescents to understand their views on firearm use. To describe rural adolescents' firearm behaviors and perceptions of firearm-related social norms within their communities, peer groups, and families. This cross-sectional study used a convergent mixed-methods design and involved a community-based participatory research approach. Participants comprised 93 adolescents residing in rural Washington state and enrolled in a county or tribal reservation 4-H youth development program as an intermediate or senior age-level grouping (ie, aged 12-19 years). Adolescents completed a survey and participated in a semistructured focus group or interview between September 1, 2021, and September 30, 2022. Data were analyzed using descriptive and thematic analysis. Individual handgun behavior and peer, family, and community perceptions of firearm-related social norms. The sample included 93 adolescents (mean [SD] age, 15.7 [1.7] years; 49 female participants [52.7%]). Approximately half of participants (52 [55.9%]) had carried a handgun at some point in their lives, with a mean (SD) age at first carry of 10.9 (3.1) years. Primary themes across quantitative and qualitative data focused on social norms (specifically, acceptable and unacceptable ways to engage with firearms, reasons for carrying firearms, and places to carry a firearm). In this cross-sectional study, rural adolescents in 4-H programs generally understood acceptable and unacceptable firearm carrying behaviors, which aligned with state laws. Findings provide context for rural adolescent behaviors such as carrying a firearm predominantly for prosocial reasons (hunting, recreation, and sport) and adult behavior such as carrying for protection of person and personal property. Understanding firearm-related social norms in rural communities holds implications for firearm injury prevention efforts, especially related to enhancing training, developing norms-based prevention approaches, and tailoring efforts to rural settings.

‘I Do It for Others’! Prosocial Reasons for Complying with Anti-COVID Measures and Pro-Environmental Behaviours: The Mediating Role of the Psychological Distance of Climate Change

The present study examined whether prosocial reasons to comply with anti-COVID measures were related to pro-environmental behaviours (PEB), as both have in common that they were/are mostly performed to help others. We investigated two mediating psychological mechanisms: perceived interdependencies between the self and others, and reduced climate change psychological distance. Latent class analyses applied to data from an online study conducted in France, Switzerland, the UK, and Spain (Ntot = 967) revealed five different ‘environmental’ profiles. Path models showed that prosocial reasons for complying with anti-COVID measures were related to the most congruent profiles (the ‘strongly committed’, frequent PEB/strong pro-environmental intentions, and the ‘strongly disengaged’, infrequent PEB/low intentions) through a reduced vs. heightened psychological distance of climate change. Prosocial reasons were not related to the three other profiles. However, a reduced vs. heightened psychological distance between COVID-19 and the self was related to perceived interdependencies, which were then related to the two most incongruent profiles: the ‘well-meaning’ and the ‘committed to private PEB’. We discuss these results to the extent that they inform on (a) the relevance of using a profile-approach, (b) the way to measure the psychological distance of different global crises, and (c) the relevance of pursuing research on perceived interdependencies as predictors of PEB.

Acquiescent, Defensive and Prosocial Reasons for Employee Silence in a Private Healthcare Organization, Bengaluru

Employees are the main pillars of an organization that have individual opinions, ideas and information that helps in workplace and organizational improvement. In modern organizations, employees are not the economic man rather it is essential for them to express emotions, perception, thoughts, experience and attitude regarding their workplace and organization as demanded by the nature of work and its environment. They are the foundation of feedback in dealing with and resolving the complexities. So, with this context the aim of the study was to identify the reasons for employee silence in an organization and impact of the socio-demographic variables on employee silence in a tertiary care hospital. Quantitative data (n=334) were collected from the employees of a tertiary care hospital in Bengaluru, India. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out to find the factors causing employee silence among the employees of the organization and independent sample t-test and One-way ANOVA was performed to find the association between the socio-demographic variables and employee silence. Results from the study have identified four major factors of silence namely; indifference of the management, fear of the management, maintenance of good relationship and prosocial tendency as possible causes of silence. These factors were correlated using Pearson’s correlation to find the association between the identified factors and indifference of the management and fear, maintenance of good relationship and prosocial tendency had a strong positive correlation. Further the study showed there is a relationship between age, education level and work experience with employee silence and it differs with different categories of age, education and years of experience. Since the study is related to healthcare organization more emphasis should be given to the employees as the quality of services delivered would mainly depend on them. The study reveals the need for having a positive interpersonal relationship which gives way for continuous feedback between the management and employees which in turn would lower employee silence in an organization

Motivating the Motivationally Diverse Crowd: Social Value Orientation and Reward Structure in Crowd Idea Generation

ABSTRACT Some people contribute ideas for prosocial reasons in crowdsourcing; others do so for selfish reasons. Extending the theory of motivated information processing, the research posits that prosocial and proself individuals respond differently to reward structures in crowd idea generation. Two online experiments measured participants’ prosocial versus proself orientation and manipulated whether participants received a competitive or cooperative reward structure. Study 2 also manipulated whether participants viewed an original or a common peer idea. Proselfs produced more ideas when receiving competitive rewards; the idea generation of prosocials was not affected by the reward structure. This interaction effect was mediated by task effort and moderated the impact of peer ideas. Proselfs generated the most ideas when viewing an original peer idea and receiving competitive rewards; this effect was not observed for prosocials. The study contributes to crowdsourcing research by demonstrating that participants’ response to reward structures depends on their social value orientation. The implication is that crowdsourcing organizers should design tasks and rewards so they motivate participants with both prosocial and proself orientations.

Prosocial rule breaking, ingroups and social norms: Parental decision-making about COVID-19 rule breaking in the UK.

The British public generally adhered to COVID‐19‐related restrictions, but as the pandemic drew on, it became challenging for some populations. Parents with young children were identified as a vulnerable group. We collected rich, mixed‐methods survey data from 99 UK‐based parents (91 mothers) of children under 12, who described their lockdown transgressions. Household mixing was the most prevalent broken rule. Template analysis found that rule breaking was driven by ‘ingroup‐level’ prosocial motivations to protect the mental and social health of family and loved ones, and that parents were ‘engaged’ decision‐makers who underwent careful deliberation when deciding to break rules, making trade‐offs, bending rules, mitigating risks, reaching consensus, and reacting to perceived rule injustices. Cumulative link models found that the perceived reasonableness of rule violations was predicted by social norms. Rules were broken by parents not for antisocial reasons, but for ‘ingroup‐level’ prosocial reasons, linked to supporting loved ones.

Enhanced Epistemic Trust and the Value-Free Ideal as a Social Indicator of Trust

ABSTRACT Publics trust experts for personal and pro-social reasons. Scientists are among the experts publics trust most, and so, epistemic trust is routinely afforded to them. The call for epistemic trust to be more socially situated in order to account for the impact of science on society and public welfare is at the forefront of enhanced epistemic trust. I argue that the value-free ideal for science challenges establishing enhanced epistemic trust by preventing the inclusion of non-epistemic values throughout the evaluation of evidence and communication of these values. By selectively silencing non-epistemic values, the ideal cannot take into account publics’ social and moral responses to inductive risk, which are instrumental for defining and determining public welfare. Furthermore, by emphasising epistemic values almost exclusively in science education and communication, the value-free ideal is presented to publics in such a way that it becomes a social indicator of trust. I show this through examination of the importance of values in decisions to trust, and conclude that values (and restrictions on them) can be used by lay publics to help decide which experts to trust.

Can attending farmers’ markets lead to unplanned deviant visitor behavior?

Farmers’ markets can enhance local food tourism experiences, as well as benefit regions and businesses that operate within these markets. With the impact of COVID-19 reducing international travel, domestic and local tourism is predicted to increase due to a desire to support local economies. While it has been established that visitors who shop at farmers’ markets do so for pro-social reasons, the current study examines the unintended consequences of these pro-social behaviors. We apply ‘moral licensing’ and regulatory focus theory to explain how a person’s pro-social behavior gives a temporary boost to their positive self-image which subsequently gives them a ‘licence’ to act in a deviant manner. We examine the effect of licensing and consider individual differences in promotion focus to test whether some visitors are more prone to deviant behavior than others. This research assists in identifying the unintended outcomes for the local food tourism sector through licensing and provides suggestions on how to diminish this behavior.

Registered report: The effects of incentivized lies on memory

AbstractIn the current experiment, we examined the effects of self‐generated deceptive behavior on memory. Participants (n = 230) were randomly assigned to a “strong‐incentive to cheat” or “weak‐incentive to cheat” condition and played the adapted Sequential Dyadic Die‐Rolling paradigm. Participants in the “strong‐incentive to cheat” condition were incentivized to lie to avoid a financial penalty (i.e., punishment). Participants in the “weak‐incentive to cheat” could also choose to lie but the outcome was a prosocial one (i.e., benefit for unknown co‐participant). Two‐days later, memory for the die‐rolling event was assessed. A similar number of participants lied to avoid punishment as for prosocial reasons. Interestingly, we did not find evidence for unethical amnesia. However, participants who engaged in deceptive behavior, irrespective of their motives, produced more memory errors than honest participants. Although our results suggest that engaging in deceptive behavior does not lead to motivated forgetting, it can lead to memory errors.

Immune moral models? Pro-social rule breaking as a moral enhancement approach for ethical AI

We are moving towards a future where Artificial Intelligence (AI) based agents make many decisions on behalf of humans. From healthcare decision-making to social media censoring, these agents face problems, and make decisions with ethical and societal implications. Ethical behaviour is a critical characteristic that we would like in a human-centric AI. A common observation in human-centric industries, like the service industry and healthcare, is that their professionals tend to break rules, if necessary, for pro-social reasons. This behaviour among humans is defined as pro-social rule breaking. To make AI agents more human-centric, we argue that there is a need for a mechanism that helps AI agents identify when to break rules set by their designers. To understand when AI agents need to break rules, we examine the conditions under which humans break rules for pro-social reasons. In this paper, we present a study that introduces a ‘vaccination strategy dilemma’ to human participants and analyzes their response. In this dilemma, one needs to decide whether they would distribute COVID-19 vaccines only to members of a high-risk group (follow the enforced rule) or, in selected cases, administer the vaccine to a few social influencers (break the rule), which might yield an overall greater benefit to society. The results of the empirical study suggest a relationship between stakeholder utilities and pro-social rule breaking (PSRB), which neither deontological nor utilitarian ethics completely explain. Finally, the paper discusses the design characteristics of an ethical agent capable of PSRB and the future research directions on PSRB in the AI realm. We hope that this will inform the design of future AI agents, and their decision-making behaviour.

The changing vaccine landscape: rates of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in young adults during vaccine rollout.

Development and rollout of vaccines offers the best opportunity for population protection against the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus. However, hesitancy towards the vaccines might impede successful uptake in the United Kingdom, particularly in young adults who demonstrate the highest rates of hesitancy. This prospective study explored COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in young adults and whether the reasons behind these attitudes changed during the initial stages of the United Kingdom's vaccine rollout. Data on vaccination intention were collected from a British university student cohort at three time points: October 2020, February 2021, and March 2021. This online survey included items on intention to receive a vaccine and a free-text response for the reasons behind this intention. Cochran's Q tests examined changes in rates of hesitancy and acceptance over time and free-text responses were analysed thematically. At baseline, 893 students provided data, with 476 participants completing all three time points. Hesitancy declined over time, with 29.4% of participants expressing hesitancy at baseline, reducing to 9.1% at wave 2 and 5.9% at wave 3. The most commonly endorsed themes for those willing to accept a vaccine were self-protection against COVID-19 and pro-social reasons, including protecting the population or unspecific others, and ending the pandemic/returning to normal life. The most commonly endorsed hesitancy themes related to 'confidence' in the vaccines and potential personal risk, including insufficient testing/scientific evidence, concern about side effects, and long-term effects. These reasons remained the most commonly endorsed at both waves 2 and 3. While a decline in hesitancy was observed over time, the key reasons behind both vaccine acceptance and hesitancy remained consistent. Reasons behind hesitancy aligned with those of the general public, providing support for the use of generalist interventions. Pro-social reasons frequently underpinned vaccine acceptance, so cohort-specific interventions targeting those factors may be of benefit.

The instrumental role of employee voice in achieving promotability: social influence perspective

PurposeDrawing upon social influence theory, this study examines employee voice as one potential form of social influence that enables employees to receive positive performance evaluations from their supervisors, further increasing their chances of being promoted to a higher positional level. Importantly, organizational politics as experienced by employees is an important boundary condition that may affect the success of voice in achieving promotability.Design/methodology/approachThis study obtained data from 218 independent matched subordinate-supervisor dyads from a manufacturing company in Japan. This study utilized the PROCESS macro developed by Hayes (2013) to test moderated mediation hypotheses.FindingsEmployee voice positively predicts employee promotability through supervisors' evaluations of employee task performance, and organizational politics operates as a boundary condition at both the first and second stages of moderation.Practical implicationsBy speaking up at work, employees may instill an impression as a highly performing and competent individual in the eyes of their supervisors, thereby increasing their chances of being promoted within their organization. However, it is important to carefully consider the degree of workplace politics before expressing one's voice. For organizations, it is important to ensure that the policies and procedures used to demine promotion decisions are objective.Originality/valueThis study departs from the traditional perspective that voice is primarily used for prosocial reasons by suggesting that voice can also be used for the purpose of promoting personal career objectives.

Attitudes of Yoga Practitioners Toward COVID-19 Virus Vaccination: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Germany.

To avoid severe courses of COVID-19 infections and reduce death rates, vaccination against the SARS-CoV-1 virus was considered an essential strategy in fighting the pandemic. However, some yoga practitioners reject such vaccinations and assume that their yoga practices protect them. We therefore aimed to analyze how many yoga practitioners were vaccinated, their reasons for being vaccinated, and the influence of the ethical principles of yoga (yamas/niyamas) on these decisions. In a cross-sectional survey in summer 2021, we enrolled 1,545 yoga practitioners (86% women; mean age 51.1 ± 10.9 y). The majority of participants were already vaccinated (66%), and their percentage corresponded to that of the general population. Those who were not willing to get vaccinated scored significantly higher on the yama/niyama factors Contentment/Self-Reflection/Devotion and Surrender and Non-Possessiveness. Depending on the centrality of the yamas/niyamas in their lives, yoga participants differed on their vaccination decisions, but they did not relevantly differ on their pro-social reasons (protection of groups at risk, protection of family) when they were already vaccinated. This assumed protection against severe courses of the COVID-19 infection was higher in the nonvaccinated compared to the vaccinated individuals (Cohen's d = 0.99). This conviction was related to the niyama factor Contentment/Self-Reflection/Devotion and Surrender. Thus, in the yoga schools and other places of yoga practice the relevance of vaccination to also protect others should be discussed, and the consequences of following the yamas and niyamas for the sake of others should be clarified.

Do it for others! The role of family and national group social belongingness in engaging with COVID-19 preventive health behaviors

COVID-19 is an unprecedented threat and an effective response requires a collective effort: engagement in preventive health behaviors, even from people at low risk. Previous research demonstrates that belongingness to social groups can promote prosocial, preventive health behaviors. The current research tests the effects of belongingness to two types of groups, intimate (family) and social category (nation), on intentions to comply with preventive health behaviors and reasons for these behaviors. We conducted three studies using French participants at low risk of grave effects from COVID-19 (total N = 875). In Study 1, across three time periods, belongingness was correlated with greater intentions to comply with preventive behaviors when these behaviors were not enforced by law. In Study 2, we experimentally manipulated threat to belongingness (vs. no threat). When belongingness was threatened, participants were less concerned with protecting vulnerable people. Closeness to family predicted preventive behavior intentions and both self-centered and prosocial reasons for these behaviors, regardless of condition. National identification buffered the negative effects of the threat to belongingness condition on preventive behavior intentions. In Study 3, we experimentally primed thoughts of belongingness to family vs. nation vs. control condition. We found greater intentions to engage in preventive behaviors and greater concern with protecting oneself and close relatives in the family condition. In summary, belongingness to one's family promotes preventive behavior intentions and the reasons given are to protect both oneself and others. Self-reported (but not primed) national identification can be related to prevention behavior intentions under certain conditions.

Older Adolescents Who Did or Did Not Experience COVID-19 Symptoms: Associations with Mental Health, Risk Perception and Social Connection.

After a decrease in detected cases in the summer, Europe faced the emergence of a second wave of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). Few studies have investigated adolescents, who may constitute a target group with possible lower compliance to public health measures, particularly the social distancing measures. A total sample of 492 participants was included in the study, and the ages of the participants ranged from 18–24 years. According to the hypothesis of our study, the sample was divided into two groups: those who experienced COVID-19 symptoms and those who did not experience COVID-19 symptoms. Demographic characteristics, knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors related to COVID-19 were investigated with ad hoc items; in addition, mood disorders, self-efficacy, and social connectedness were explored. Our results showed significant differences in the variables of risk perception, self-efficacy, and measures of belongingness among older adolescents who did or did not experience COVID-19 symptoms. In this period, adolescents experienced unprecedented disruptions in their daily lives, leading them to isolation and loneliness. Compliance with restrictive measures is considered both a proactive behavior and a social responsibility, especially if supported by prosocial reasons to prevent others from getting sick; therefore, this must be the focus of raising awareness of anti-COVID-19 compliance among adolescents.

Students, social network technology and learning in higher education: Visions of collaborative knowledge construction vs. the reality of knowledge sharing

Despite visions of social network technology (SNT) for collaborative knowledge construction, recent research in secondary schools suggest that students use these tools mainly for knowledge sharing of study-related artifacts. We extend these findings to higher education settings and report on two survey studies that map characteristics of students' self-directed use of SNTs for study purposes, in undergraduate university programs (N = 264) and teacher training colleges (N = 449). The combined findings confirm that students use SNTs extensively for uploading, linking and downloading study-related artifacts in peer-directed SNT groups. They regard these practices positively and believe they improve academic achievements. Sharing was predicted by positive attitudes toward sharing and collectivist value orientations, motivated overall by prosocial reasons and less frequent in competitive study programs. Use of shared materials was associated with performance-avoidance achievement goals and lower GPA. Findings, directions for future research and implications are discussed in the context of learning theories, as well the knowledge sharing literature.

Are coworkers getting into the act? An examination of emotion regulation in coworker exchanges.

Research on emotional labor-the process through which employees enact emotion regulation (i.e., surface and deep acting) to alter their emotional displays-has predominately focused on service-based exchanges between employees and customers where emotions are commoditized for wage. Yet, recent research has begun to focus on the outcomes of employees engaging in emotion regulation, and surface acting in particular, with coworkers. Given that coworker interactions are qualitatively distinct from those with customers, we build on the emotional labor and emotion regulation literatures to understand why such acts of emotion regulation occur in coworker-based exchanges, and whether there are well-being and social capital costs and/or benefits for doing so. Across 3 complementary studies spanning over 2,500 full-time employees, we adopt a person-centered approach and demonstrate that four distinct profiles of emotion regulation emerge in coworker exchanges: deep actors, nonactors, low actors, and regulators. Further, our results suggest that certain employees are driven to regulate their emotions with coworkers for prosocial reasons (deep actors), whereas others are more driven by impression management motives (regulators). Our results also suggest that while nonactors and deep actors similarly incur well-being benefits (i.e., lower emotional exhaustion and felt inauthenticity), deep actors alone experience social capital gains in the form of higher receipt of help from coworkers, as well as increased goal progress and trust in their coworkers. Combined, our research delineates the motives that drive emotion regulation with coworkers and identifies when such regulatory efforts yield social capital gains for employees. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Young children's moral evaluations of inclusion and exclusion in play in ethnic and aggressive stereotypic peer contexts

ABSTRACT Previous research has emphasised the importance of active citizenship in the early years for the development of tolerant and cohesive societies. This paper reports data from 174 children, aged 6–7 years, who were interviewed in the first year of a longitudinal study. Children were presented with two scenarios about inclusion of others in play. One scenario focussed on a peer from a different ethnic background and the other scenario was about a peer who was aggressive to others. Children were asked about their reasons to include or exclude the other child. Children were more likely to include the peer from a different ethnic background than the aggressive peer and cited moral or prosocial reasons. Children were also asked if they would still include or exclude, if friends or teachers disagreed with their decision. Most children maintained their original judgement in the face of contrary views by their peers but were more likely to change their opinion if a teacher disagreed. The implications of these findings for teachers in early childhood education are discussed with a focus on understanding contextual influences on children’s moral judgements and how children come to value diverse perspectives.

Punishment under threat: The role of personality in costly punishment

It is often assumed that people engage in costly punishment of third parties for prosocial reasons. In this study, we examined to what extent people engage in costly punishment of third parties in response to a perceived punishment threat rather than due to prosocial reasons. Using a modified public goods game with a punishment stage, we show that personality plays an important role in determining which of these processes drive costly punishment. We found that Honesty-Humility, which is related to prosociality, facilitates costly punishment independent of expected punishment to oneself, while Emotionality, which is related to fearfulness, facilitates punishment that is mediated by expected punishment. Agreeableness, which is related to anger and displaced aggression, had no effect on costly punishment.

Broad consent for health care-embedded biobanking: understanding and reasons to donate in a large patient sample.

PurposeTo facilitate ethically acceptable and practically successful health care-embedded biobanking, the attitudes and understanding of patients and their motivation to participate need to be explored.MethodsA questionnaire study was conducted among 760 outpatients of a northern German university hospital to assess their awareness of, and motivation for giving broad consent to health care-embedded biobanking, also addressing the issue of feedback on individual-level research findings.ResultsThe overall willingness to give broad consent was high (86.9%) in our study, even though the subjective and objective understanding of patients was found to be only modest. Most participants who consented did so for prosocial reasons (altruism, solidarity, reciprocity, gratitude), whereas self-interest or worries about disadvantages played only a marginal role. Better objective understanding was associated with both a greater demand for feedback on individual research findings and a higher willingness to consent. Intermittent modification of the information material provided by the hospital led to significantly improved objective understanding.ConclusionPatient willingness to give broad consent to health care-embedded biobanking is high, with prosocial reasons driving decision making more than factual knowledge and approval or disapproval of specific consent elements. Future efforts to improve the information material used in health care-embedded biobanking should therefore emphasize prosocial reasons to consent.

Quantitative assessment of prosocial behaviour and trends of transfusion transmitted infections among voluntary blood donors: a cross sectional study

Background: Every country faces an ongoing challenge to collect blood from safe donors. Chronic blood shortages are common in developing countries. According to WHO Voluntary blood donation practices are encouraged to collect safe blood units. In India for donating the blood often they say prosocial reasons. The objectives of the present study was quantitative assessment of prosocial behaviour as well as trends of transfusion transmitted infections among (voluntary blood donors) VBD. Methods: Cross-sectional study carried out between 1st January 2016 to 31st august 2016, at the field practice area of Institute of preventive medicine (IPM), Narayanaguda, Telangana state, India. The total sample size estimated was 41,356 (by Census survey method). Among which 25,641(62%) were current donors and 15,715 (38%) lapsed donors likewise 35,980 males and 5,376 females were enrolled. Results: Among the participants majority (87%) were males compare to females (13%). out of 41,352 donors majority were current donors (62%) compare to lapsed donors (38%). Among current donors all the mean scores of prosocial behaviour components were high and The trends of All TTIs infection prevalence rates were declined progressively. Conclusions: Sustainable motivational levels may increase the frequency of blood donation and by encouraging VBDs one can reduce the TTIs.