Prosocial Tendencies Research Articles

Gratitude predicts prosocial tendency through psychological resilience-cross-sectional study in Arab cultures.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between gratitude and prosocial tendency and the potential mediating role of psychological resilience in this association. Six hundred and seventy-six Saudi Arabia and Egyptian students completed the Gratitude Scale, Prosocial tendency Scale and Psychological Resilience Scale. The results showed no significant differences in gratitude, prosocial tendency and psychological resilience according to culture or gender in both countries. Moreover, gratitude positively correlated with prosocial tendency and psychological resilience. Furthermore, the results revealed that psychological resilience significantly mediated the association between gratitude and prosocial tendency. We conclude that gratitude predicts prosocial tendency and psychological resilience plays a mediating role in this association among Arab societies.

Being an only child and children’s prosocial behaviors: evidence from rural China and the role of parenting styles

Are only children little emperors and more selfish than children with siblings? Drawing on data from the National Children’s Study of China, this research investigates the causal relationship between being an only child and the performance of prosocial behaviors. Results indicate that only children tend to show more prosocial tendencies than their counterparts with siblings, particularly with respect to trait-related, relational, and altruistic prosocial behaviors. In addition, the results are robust having accounted for potential biases due to endogeneity, sex selection preferences, and educational choices. Smaller children are also more sensitive to the status of being an only child. The investigation into why only children might exhibit more prosocial behavior suggests that only children perceive more positive parenting styles compared to their peers with siblings. The findings are consistent with the quantity–quality trade-off theory and present evidence about the formation of prosocial behaviors before the age of 15, challenging the stereotype that only children are more selfish than those with siblings.

The Effects of Buddhist Religiosity and Aspects on Prosociality

ABSTRACT Religion prosociality hypothesis, which predicts that religion promotes prosocial behaviors, has been verified by previous empirical research. However, the religion in the previous studies investigating Eastern religions has often been examined as a single and unified concept. In the current study, based on a few studies in the context of Western religions, we considered the religiosity as a complex construct and investigated the influence of Buddhist religiosity and primed Buddhist and Christian aspects on prosociality through two studies. In Study 1, participants’ prosocial tendencies were measured by the Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM). In Study 2, we employed a subliminal priming task to investigate the effects of aspects of Buddhist and Christian traditions on prosociality measured by self-reports with explicit requests for donating money amount in nonbelievers. The results of Study 1 revealed that Buddhist believers exhibited more prosocial tendencies than nonbelievers, and female participants exhibited more prosocial tendencies than male participants. Study 2’s results showed that the Buddhist and Christian priming groups exhibited more prosocial intentions than the neutral priming group. Furthermore, for the group primed with the Buddhist words, the aspect of the spiritual activated more prosocial intentions than did the aspect of the agents and institutional. Taken together, these findings suggest that Buddhism, especially the spiritual component of Buddhism, increased prosocial tendencies.

Moral Values as Mediators in the Relationship between Prosocial Behaviour and Social Responsibility among University Students

Universities must confront social challenges and prepare their students to be future socially responsible professionals. This research considers social responsibility in depth and examines how it can be promoted among university students. Specifically, it analyses whether prosocial behaviour and moral values are predictor variables, and to study whether moral values are a mediator variable between prosocial behaviour and university student social responsibility. Non-probabilistic convenience sampling was used in a Spanish university (N = 193; 115 females; Mage = 19). Three scales were applied: the University Student Social Responsibility scale, the Prosocial Tendencies Measures scale and the Importance of Personal and Professional Values scale. The results of the regression models showed that prosocial behaviour and moral values both contributed significantly to the model (F (2,196) = 41.979; p < .001), predicting 30.2% of university student social responsibility. In the mediation model, total effects between the variables were observed, as was an indirect effect of prosocial behaviour on social responsibility mediated by moral values (β = .07; t = 3.80; p < .001). This suggests that university programmes that seek to help the community and enable people to discover values will more effectively be able to develop social responsibility.

Iranian community-dwelling older adults' perceptions of prosociality: A qualitative study.

The world population is aging at an accelerating rate, and prosociality aspects increase in people with age. This study aimed to explore Iranian community-dwelling older adults' perspectives of the prosociality concept. This qualitative study was conducted among older adults aged 60 years and older in Qom City, Iran. A purposive sampling method was used to collect data between July and October 2022. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 older adults engaged in various types of prosocial activities. Data were analyzed applying a directed content analysis approach. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using MAXQDA 20 software. Overall, 5 main categories and 19 subcategories emerged from the content data analysis. The two emerged categories were related to the predetermined dimensions of the prosociality concept, namely, "prosocial behaviors" and "prosocial dispositions." The remaining three newly emerged categories included "egocentric motives," "facilitators," and "barriers" to prosocial behaviors. As participants reported, "informal spontaneous helping" was the most prevalent subcategory of prosocial behaviors. "Prosocial norms" and "social reward-seeking" were identified as the most common subcategories of prosocial dispositions and egocentric motives, respectively. Likewise, participants mentioned "religious and metaphysic beliefs" and "social distrust" as important facilitators and barriers, respectively. The results of this qualitative study provide a new understanding of the prosociality concept among older adults in the context of Iran. In conclusion, to improve prosocial behaviors in this population, the interaction between all factors that influence it such as motives, facilitators, and barriers must be considered.

The unique role of meaning in life in the relationships between trait awe, subjective well-being, and prosocial tendency: A network analysis.

Although individuals with higher trait awe (the tendency to experience awe) are known to be happier and more prosocial, there is limited understanding of the mechanisms underlying these complex relationships. This study uses network analysis to explore dimension-level relationships between trait awe, meaning in life, subjective well-being (SWB), and prosocial tendency in a joint network and to explore the bridging role of meaning in life in the network. A total of 538 adults (53.2% females; Mage = 19.86 ± 1.51) completed the survey. The network revealed unique and intricate connections between the dimensions of trait awe, meaning in life (i.e., the presence of and the search for meaning, abbreviated as POM and SFM), subjective happiness and life satisfaction (SWB), and prosocial tendency (i.e., willingness to donate money and volunteer time). Trait awe exhibited direct links to subjective happiness, life satisfaction, and prosocial tendency to donate money. Moreover, through POM and SFM, trait awe also exhibited indirect links to each dimension of SWB and prosocial tendency. Within the global network, POM was further identified as acting as a bridge node with the highest bridge strength and closeness, indicating that POM could efficiently transmit influences within the entire network. These findings highlight the distinct contributions of meaning in life to understanding the relationships between trait awe, SWB, and prosocial tendency, and provide valuable insights for improving SWB and fostering prosocial tendencies.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Factorial Invariance of the Mechanisms of the Moral Disengagement Scale

The objective of this paper was to analyze the factorial structure, psychometric characteristics, and factorial invariance by sex, age, and city of the Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement Scale in young university students. A total of 1,431 young people between the ages of 18 and 30 (M = 20.86, SD = 3.64) from two Colombian cities participated in the study. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test four hypothesized models. The CFA confirmed a first-order factor structure grouping the eight mechanisms of moral disengagement (Model 4), which explained 54.17% of the total variance. The final model obtained a good fit, χ2 = 12.514, RMSEA = .010, TLI = .999, AGFI = .993, CFI = 1.00, ECVI = .044, CMIN/df = 1.138. Factorial invariance by sex, age and city of the final proposed model was confirmed. Moral disengagement mechanisms were negatively correlated with empathy and prosocial tendencies. It is concluded that this scale is valid and reliable to assess moral disengagement in Colombian youth.

Positive emotions co-experienced with strangers and acquaintances predict COVID-19 vaccination intentions through prosocial tendencies

BackgroundThe efficacy of vaccination depends on its widespread adoption, making vaccine uptake not just a personal health behavior but also a prosocial one. Previous research has shown that everyday moments of co-experienced positive emotions (positivity resonance) are associated with higher prosocial tendencies, and these moments, in turn, prospectively predict people's pandemic hygiene behaviors. Yet, limited research has explored how moments of positivity resonance may have predicted greater COVID-19 vaccine intentions during the early months of the pandemic. MethodsWe longitudinally surveyed a national U.S. sample across four weeks during the fall of 2020. We tested the hypothesis that positivity resonance with strangers and acquaintances indirectly predicts COVID-19 vaccine intentions, as statistically mediated by prosocial tendencies. We also aimed to replicate the indirect effects of positivity resonance on hygiene behaviors (such as mask wearing and hand washing), effects that have been demonstrated in previous research. ResultsIn a pre-registered structural equation model, we found that perceived positivity resonance experienced with strangers and acquaintances prospectively predicted prosocial tendencies, which in turn amplified people's COVID-19 vaccine intentions (β = 0.053) and hygiene behaviors – i.e., social distancing (β = 0.032), mask wearing (β = 0.027), hand washing (β = 0.049). ConclusionsUnderstanding the effects of high-quality social interactions with strangers and acquaintances on vaccine intentions and hygiene behaviors is critical, particularly given the likelihood of emerging pandemics and novel vaccines. We discuss theoretical and practical implications related to perceived positivity resonance, prosocial tendencies, and vaccination uptake for novel vaccines.

Are prosocial tendencies relevant for developmental psychopathology? The relations of prosocial behavior and empathy-related responding to externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and autism spectrum disorder.

The field of developmental psychopathology tends to focus on the negative aspects of functioning. However, prosocial behavior and empathy-related responding - positive aspects of functioning- might relate to some aspects of psychopathology in meaningful ways. In this article, we review research on the relations of three types of developmental psychopathology- externalizing problems (EPs), internalizing problems (IPs), and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) - to empathy-related responding (e.g., affective and cognitive empathy, sympathy, personal distress) and prosocial behavior. Empathy-related responding and prosocial behavior generally have been inversely related to EPs, although findings are sometimes reversed for young children and, for empathy, weak for reactive aggression. Some research indicates that children's empathy (often measured as emotional contagion) and personal distress are positively related to IPs, suggesting that strong sensitivity to others' emotions is harmful to some children. In contrast, prosocial behaviors are more consistently negatively related to IPs, although findings likely vary depending on the motivation for prosocial behavior and the recipient. Children with ASD are capable of prosocially and empathy-related responding, although parents report somewhat lower levels of these characteristics for ASD children compared to neurotypical peers. Issues in regard to measurement, motivation for prosociality, causal relations, and moderating and mediating factors are discussed.

Changes and predictors of mental health of Chinese university students after the COVID-19 pandemic: A two-year study

BackgroundPsychological repurcussions of COVID-19 pandemic has received wide attention, but there's limited attention paid to psychological recovery afterwards. This study focuses on the changes and predictive factors of mental health of Chinese university students post-pandemic. MethodsThis study included 1175 Chinese undergraduate students sampled in May 2022 and May–June 2023, right before and after peaks of infections following the end of lockdown policy in China. The participants completed a survey of demographic variables, and three questionnaires: 12-item General Health Questionnaire, Positive Psychological Capital Questionnaire, and Prosocial Tendencies Measure. ResultsThe participants sampled in 2023 have significant lower GHQ scores and higher PPQ scores than those sampled in 2022, while there is no significant difference in PTM scores between them. The proportion of participants with GHQ-12 scores exceeding 12 in 2023 showed slightly decrease compared to that in 2022. The infection of significant others, the sense of hope, and PPQ self-efficiency, hope and optimism subscale scores were significantly associated with GHQ-12 scores in 2023, but actual infection or quarantine experience were not. ConclusionsThe mental health and psychological capital of the university students have been significantly improved within a year. It is worthy to pay attention to the infection of significant others, the sense of hope, and psychological capital in a pandemic to improve the mental health of university students. LimitationsCompared to a cross-sectional study, longitudinal research is the better choice for a two-year comparison.

A replication and extension of the prosocial effect of online social interactions among Chinese and American emerging adults

ABSTRACT The recent global crisis has had a profound and widespread impact on humanity, eliciting a heightened appreciation for the importance of prosociality. In response, interdisciplinary scholars have called for further research to investigate strategies for cultivating kindness, generosity, and cooperation. To answer this call, we conducted a study examining the potential prosocial impact of online social interactions (OSIs) in two distinct cultures. Through a survey of 644 emerging adults from China and the United States, we found that OSIs positively led to prosocial tendencies in both samples, with social connectedness and trust serving as significant mediating factors. Nevertheless, among the American sample, trust can serve as the sole mediator linking OSIs and prosocial tendencies. Conversely, among the Chinese sample, the development of prosociality stemming from OSIs requires the intervening facilitation of social connectedness. This divergence may speak to cultural research regarding the essential role of interpersonal relationships in fostering trust and prosociality in collectivist societies. This study contributes to prosociality scholarship by highlighting the role of OSIs as a crucial enhancer across two distinct cultures, clarifying the underlying mechanisms, and identifying cultural differences in the process of prosocial development. The results have implications for both prosocial theory and practice.

Identifying the Prosocial Orientations That Influence Choice of University Studies in the Social Field for Sustainable Educational Integration

For sustainable educational integration, universities are tasked with the aim of educating specialists who are chosen based on particular criteria in order to promote sustainable development. In the domain of social work, it is crucial to take into account young individuals who express a desire to pursue studies in this field and who have prosocial orientations and tendencies. This research was based on the application of a Prosocial Orientation Questionnaire on a group of 238 students (M—2.4 years, 89.5% female) using questions with a purpose, but also a scale for measuring prosocial tendencies (PTM). The findings regarding the prosocial guidelines highlighted the role of the family in the multidimensional development of prosocial behaviour (PSB), but also the involvement in voluntary activities. The results revealed a high association with the six scales of PTM, with higher values being obtained for three dimensions (Compliant, Dire, Emotional) that show a stronger development. Assessing prosocial orientations and tendencies can help select a career and pursue university courses in the social field. The use of these instruments provides evidence of the effectiveness of PTM in assessing prosocial tendencies and supports the idea that PSB is multidimensional. This is demonstrated by the correlations observed in young individuals pursuing a social career.

The role of neural reward sensitivity in the longitudinal relations between parents’ familism values and Latinx American youth’s prosocial behaviors

Past research suggests that parents’ familism values play a positive role in Latinx American youth’s prosocial tendencies. However, little is known about how individual differences in youth’s neural development may contribute to this developmental process. Therefore, using two-wave longitudinal data of 1916 early adolescents (mean age = 9.90 years; 50% girls) and their parents (mean age = 38.43 years; 90% mothers) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, this pre-registered study took a biopsychosocial approach to examine the moderating role of youth’s neural reward sensitivity in the link between parents’ familism values and youth’s prosocial behaviors. Results showed that parents’ familism values were associated with increased prosocial behaviors among youth two years later, controlling for baseline prosocial behaviors and demographic covariates. Notably, parents’ familism values played a larger role in promoting youth’s prosocial behaviors among youth who showed lower ventral striatum activation during reward anticipation. Moreover, such association between parents’ familism values and youth’s later prosocial behaviors was stronger among youth who showed lower levels of prosocial behaviors initially. Taken together, the findings highlight individual differences in neurobiological development and baseline prosocial behaviors as markers of sensitivity to cultural environments with regard to Latinx American youth’s prosocial development.

Perception of helper's autonomous motivation increases recipient's prosocial behaviour intentions via feelings of gratitude

AbstractFour studies investigated the impact of a recipient's perception of a helper's motivation (autonomous vs. controlled) on the recipient's subsequent prosocial intentions, alongside testing a mediational mechanism. Study 1 employed a questionnaire method to assess the relationships between participants’ lay theories of helper's prosocial motivations (i.e., the degree of autonomy), their dispositional gratitude and their prosocial tendencies. Studies 2–4 manipulated a helper's autonomous versus controlled motivation within hypothetical scenarios (Studies 2 and 3) and within recalled events (Study 4), testing the effect of the helper's motivation on the recipient's prosocial intentions towards the helper (Studies 2–4), a bystander (Study 3) and others in general (Study 4) as well as the mediating role of gratitude. The findings consistently demonstrated that perceiving helpers as having autonomous motivation led to heightened intentions among recipients to engage in prosocial behaviour, which was mediated by increased feelings of gratitude. These effects remained robust after controlling for relevant factors including participants’ demographic information, social desirability bias and perceptions of egoism within helpers. Our findings highlight the role of perceived helper's autonomous motivation on recipient's prosocial behaviours, which enhances the knowledge regarding reciprocity and pay‐it‐forward behaviour.

Acute stress reduces effortful prosocial behaviour.

Acute stress can change our cognition and emotions, but what specific consequences this has for human prosocial behaviour is unclear. Previous studies have mainly investigated prosociality with financial transfers in economic games and produced conflicting results. Yet a core feature of many types of prosocial behaviour is that they are effortful. We therefore examined how acute stress changes our willingness to exert effort that benefits others. Healthy male participants - half of whom were put under acute stress - made decisions whether to exert physical effort to gain money for themselves or another person. With this design, we could independently assess the effects of acute stress on prosocial, compared to self-benefitting, effortful behaviour. Compared to controls (n = 45), participants in the stress group (n = 46) chose to exert effort more often for self- than for other-benefitting rewards at a low level of effort. Additionally, the adverse effects of stress on prosocial effort were particularly pronounced in more selfish participants. Neuroimaging combined with computational modelling revealed a putative neural mechanism underlying these effects: more stressed participants showed increased activation to subjective value in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula when they themselves could benefit from their exerted effort relative to when someone else could. By using an effort-based task that better approximates real-life prosocial behaviour and incorporating trait differences in prosocial tendencies, our study provides important insights into how acute stress affects prosociality and its associated neural mechanisms.

Acute stress reduces effortful prosocial behaviour

Acute stress can change our cognition and emotions, but what specific consequences this has for human prosocial behaviour is unclear. Previous studies have mainly investigated prosociality with financial transfers in economic games and produced conflicting results. Yet a core feature of many types of prosocial behaviour is that they are effortful. We therefore examined how acute stress changes our willingness to exert effort that benefits others. Healthy male participants – half of whom were put under acute stress – made decisions whether to exert physical effort to gain money for themselves or another person. With this design, we could independently assess the effects of acute stress on prosocial, compared to self-benefitting, effortful behaviour. Compared to controls (n = 45), participants in the stress group (n = 46) chose to exert effort more often for self- than for other-benefitting rewards at a low level of effort. Additionally, the adverse effects of stress on prosocial effort were particularly pronounced in more selfish participants. Neuroimaging combined with computational modelling revealed a putative neural mechanism underlying these effects: more stressed participants showed increased activation to subjective value in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula when they themselves could benefit from their exerted effort relative to when someone else could. By using an effort-based task that better approximates real-life prosocial behaviour and incorporating trait differences in prosocial tendencies, our study provides important insights into how acute stress affects prosociality and its associated neural mechanisms.

Prosociality predicts changes in leisure activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several studies suggest that leisure activities enhance well-being. In line with this perspective, a recent study indicates that augmenting indoor leisure activities to compensate for diminished outdoor pursuits could sustain or enhance well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study was designed to identify personality traits that predict such behavioral shifts in indoor versus outdoor leisure activities during the pandemic. The present study included 657 participants (Mage = 41.08) and measured 12 personality traits that a previous study reported were associated with health-protective behaviors during COVID-19. Our findings indicate that the rise in indoor leisure activities correlated with prosocial tendencies toward family and friends/acquaintances (but not strangers), self-centered interest, resilience, and Big Five personality traits. Conversely, the decline in outdoor activities was linked solely to prosociality toward family and friends/acquaintances. Further interaction analysis uncovered that prosocial tendencies toward close relations predicted increased indoor activities as an alternative to outdoor engagements. We concluded that prosociality promoted behavioral changes that significantly prevented infections in intimate others, and it could maintain personal well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic by facilitating behavior change.

Susceptibility to positive versus negative emotional contagion: First evidence on their distinction using a balanced self-report measure.

Susceptibility to emotional contagion is defined as the disposition of how susceptible someone is to catch others' emotions and it has long been studied in research on mental health, well-being, and social interaction. Given that existing self-report measures of susceptibility to emotional contagion have focused almost exclusively on negative emotions, we developed a self-report measure to assess the susceptibility to emotional contagion of both positive and negative emotions (2 scales). In two studies, we examined their factor structure, validity, and reliability using exploratory factor analysis (Study 1, N = 257), confirmatory factor analysis (Study 2, N = 247) and correlations. Our results confirmed the two-factor structure and demonstrated good internal consistencies. Regarding external validity, our scales showed diverging correlational patterns: While susceptibility to negative emotional contagion was linked to mental health problems and negative emotions, susceptibility to positive emotional contagion was linked to interpersonal functioning and prosocial tendencies. In conclusion, our scales appear to be internally/externally valid and a promising tool for future research.

Face coverings increase apparent honesty and cooperativeness

People readily make inferences about trait-like characteristics of another person’s face. Since the recent global COVID-19 pandemic, the widespread use of hygienic face masks has led to large proportions of the face being covered. We investigated the effect of face masks on the inference of prosocially relevant characteristics, namely cooperativeness and honesty. Portraits of participants of previous studies from which we knew their “true” prosocial tendencies served as stimuli. These facial stimuli were presented once with and once without a hygienic face mask to 60 naïve participants who rated the faces for cooperativeness and honesty. Results revealed that wearing face masks made people generally appear more cooperative and more honest than without a mask, but that these ratings were unrelated to the true prosocial tendencies of these people. Together, these findings have important implications for social interactions, particularly in contexts where nonverbal communication is essential, such as in healthcare settings, job interviews, and social gatherings.

Aesthetic Motivation Impacts Judgments of Others' Prosociality and Mental Life.

The ability to infer others' prosocial vs. antisocial behavioral tendencies from minimal information is core to social reasoning. Aesthetic motivation (the value or appreciation of aesthetic beauty) is linked with prosocial tendencies, raising the question of whether this factor is used in interpersonal reasoning and in the attribution of mental capacities. We propose and test a model of this reasoning, predicting that evidence of others' aesthetic motivations should impact judgments of others' prosocial (and antisocial) tendencies by signaling a heightened capacity for emotional experience. In a series of four pre-registered experiments (total N = 1440), participants saw pairs of characters (as photos/vignettes), and judged which in each pair showed more of a mental capacity of interest. Distractor items prevented participants from guessing the hypothesis. For one critical pair of characters, both characters performed the same activity (music listening, painting, cooking, exercising, being in nature, doing math), but one was motivated by the activities' aesthetic value, and the other by its functional value. Across all activities, participants robustly chose aesthetically-motivated characters as more likely to behave compassionately (Exp. 1; 3), less likely to behave selfishly/manipulatively (Exp. 1; 3), and as more emotionally sensitive, but not more intelligent (Exp. 2; 3; 4). Emotional sensitivity best predicted compassionate behavior judgements (Exp. 3). Aesthetically-motivated characters were not reliably chosen as more helpful; intelligence best predicted helpfulness judgements (Exp. 4). Evidence of aesthetic motivation conveys important social information about others, impacting fundamental interpersonal judgments about others' mental life and social behavior.