The Effects of Prosocial Video Games on Prosocial Behaviors: International Evidence from Correlational, Longitudinal, and Experimental Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Gentile, Douglas A.; Anderson, Craig A.; Yukawa, Shintaro; Ihori, Nobuko; Saleem, Muniba; Ming, Lim Kam; Shibuya, Akiko; Liau, Albert K.; Khoo, Angeline; Bushman, Brad J.; Huesmann, L. Rowell; Sakamoto, Akira

2009-01-01

Although dozens of studies have documented a relation between violent video games and aggressive behaviors, very little attention has been paid to potential effects of prosocial games. Theoretically, games in which game characters help and support each other in nonviolent ways should increase both short-term and long-term prosocial behaviors. We report three studies conducted in three countries with three age groups to test this hypothesis. In the correlational study, Singaporean middle-school students who played more prosocial games behaved more prosocially. In the two longitudinal samples of Japanese children and adolescents, prosocial game play predicted later increases in prosocial behavior. In the experimental study, U.S. undergraduates randomly assigned to play prosocial games behaved more prosocially toward another student. These similar results across different methodologies, ages, and cultures provide robust evidence a prosocial game content effect, and provide support for the General Learning Model. PMID:19321812

Long-term relations among prosocial-media use, empathy, and prosocial behavior.

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Prot, Sara; Gentile, Douglas A; Anderson, Craig A; Suzuki, Kanae; Swing, Edward; Lim, Kam Ming; Horiuchi, Yukiko; Jelic, Margareta; Krahé, Barbara; Liuqing, Wei; Liau, Albert K; Khoo, Angeline; Petrescu, Poesis Diana; Sakamoto, Akira; Tajima, Sachi; Toma, Roxana Andreea; Warburton, Wayne; Zhang, Xuemin; Lam, Ben Chun Pan

2014-02-01

Despite recent growth of research on the effects of prosocial media, processes underlying these effects are not well understood. Two studies explored theoretically relevant mediators and moderators of the effects of prosocial media on helping. Study 1 examined associations among prosocial- and violent-media use, empathy, and helping in samples from seven countries. Prosocial-media use was positively associated with helping. This effect was mediated by empathy and was similar across cultures. Study 2 explored longitudinal relations among prosocial-video-game use, violent-video-game use, empathy, and helping in a large sample of Singaporean children and adolescents measured three times across 2 years. Path analyses showed significant longitudinal effects of prosocial- and violent-video-game use on prosocial behavior through empathy. Latent-growth-curve modeling for the 2-year period revealed that change in video-game use significantly affected change in helping, and that this relationship was mediated by change in empathy.

Associations between violent video gaming, empathic concern, and prosocial behavior toward strangers, friends, and family members.

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Fraser, Ashley M; Padilla-Walker, Laura M; Coyne, Sarah M; Nelson, Larry J; Stockdale, Laura A

2012-05-01

Exposure to media violence, including violent video gaming, can have a cognitive desensitization effect, lowering empathic concern for others in need. Since emerging adulthood offers increased opportunities to volunteer, strengthen relationships, and initiate new relationships, decreases in empathic concern and prosocial behavior may prove inhibitive to optimal development during this time. For these reasons, the current study investigated associations between violent video gaming, empathic responding, and prosocial behavior enacted toward strangers, friends, and family members. Participants consisted of 780 emerging adults (M age = 19.60, SD = 1.86, range = 18–29, 69% female, 69% Caucasian) from four universities in the United States. Results showed small to moderate effects between playing violent video gaming and lowered empathic concern for both males and females. In addition, lowered empathic concern partially mediated the pathways between violent video gaming and prosocial behavior toward all three targets (at the level of a trend for females), but was most strongly associated with lower prosocial behavior toward strangers. Discussion highlights how violent video gaming is associated with lower levels of prosocial behavior through the mechanism of decreased empathic concern, how this association can affect prosocial behavior differently across target, and finally what implications this might have for development during emerging adulthood.

Beyond good and evil: what motivations underlie children's prosocial behavior?

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Martin, Alia; Olson, Kristina R

2015-03-01

Researchers have proposed different accounts of the development of prosocial behavior in children. Some have argued that behaviors like helping and sharing must be learned and reinforced; others propose that children have an initially indiscriminate prosocial drive that declines and becomes more selective with age; and yet others contend that even children's earliest prosocial behaviors share some strategic motivations with the prosociality of adults (e.g., reputation enhancement, social affiliation). We review empirical and observational research on children's helping and sharing behaviors in the first 5 years of life, focusing on factors that have been found to influence these behaviors and on what these findings suggest about children's prosocial motivations. We use the adult prosociality literature to highlight parallels and gaps in the literature on the development of prosocial behavior. We address how the evidence reviewed bears on central questions in the developmental psychology literature and propose that children's prosocial behaviors may be driven by multiple motivations not easily captured by the idea of intrinsic or extrinsic motivation and may be selective quite early in life. © The Author(s) 2015.

Children’s motives for admitting to prosocial behavior

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Yayoi eWatanabe

2016-02-01

Full Text Available There has been extensive research on children’s moral evaluation of lying in prosocial situations. Current knowledge regarding the concept of lying has been derived from studies showing that cultural differences exist, whereby non-Western children tend to rate lie-telling more positively than Western children do. These findings suggest that there are different views about whether children should publicize their prosocial behaviors and that children have universal motivations when they admit to engaging in prosocial behavior. A gender difference has also been found in relation to prosocial behavior. However, previous studies did not investigate in detail children’s motivation for admission or non-admission to prosocial behavior, and if there is a gender difference. Therefore, this study examined the diversity in and development of motivations for admitting to engaging in prosocial behavior, with the aim of clarifying whether disclosing good deeds to teachers varies as function of children’s grade level in school, and how such motivations differ with age and gender. Questionnaires from 1,345 elementary and junior high school students in Japan were analyzed. Results showed that children’s communication tendency with regard to prosocial behavior reports peaked in the fourth grade of elementary school and gradually decreased thereafter. From the third grade of elementary school onwards, children reported that they refrained from this type of communication because they feared others’ negative evaluation and wanted to comply with modesty norms. Girls were more likely than boys were to believe that it is better to tell the truth about engaging in prosocial behavior, but boys and girls had largely the same motives for not owning up to performing a desirable deed.

Searching for the Prosocial Personality: A Big Five Approach to Linking Personality and Prosocial Behavior.

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Habashi, Meara M; Graziano, William G; Hoover, Ann E

2016-09-01

The search for the prosocial personality has been long and controversial. The current research explores the general patterns underlying prosocial decisions, linking personality, emotion, and overt prosocial behavior. Using a multimethod approach, we explored the links between the Big Five dimensions of personality and prosocial responding. Across three studies, we found that agreeableness was the dimension of personality most closely associated with emotional reactions to victims in need of help, and subsequent decisions to help those individuals. Results suggest that prosocial processes, including emotions, cognitions, and behaviors, may be part of a more general motivational process linked to personality. © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Prosocial Behavior Education in Children

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Mareš Jiří

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction: It is paradoxical that more attention is currently paid to negative features in children’s and adolescents’ behavior (aggressive behavior, bullying than to the positive ones (helping, social support. Purpose: This literature review describes how children’s sensitivity to helping other people develops and how children acquire competences in helping. Methods: The literature search was conducted in databases using keywords “child”, “prosocial development” and “prosocial behavior”. Publications (papers or monographs published in English or Czech between 1989 and 2016 were retrieved. Conclusions: The study identified the following sources of prosocial behavior: use of fairy-tale motifs in the case of babies (e. g. the motif of good deeds and targeted family education with the use of direct and indirect procedures. Targeted education of children in preschool was accomplished by experienced teachers. Education in providing help and social support to schoolmates (including the socalled partnership and peer teaching at elementary school was identified as a special case.

Children's Moral Motivation, Sympathy, and Prosocial Behavior

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Malti, Tina; Gummerum, Michaela; Keller, Monika; Buchmann, Marlis

2009-01-01

Two studies investigated the role of children's moral motivation and sympathy in prosocial behavior. Study 1 measured other-reported prosocial behavior and self- and other-reported sympathy. Moral motivation was assessed by emotion attributions and moral reasoning following hypothetical transgressions in a representative longitudinal sample of…

Siblings and the Development of Prosocial Behavior.

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Dunn, Judy; Munn, Penny

1986-01-01

Examines the capability and motivation of 18- and 24-month-old infants to share, help, comfort, and cooperate with their older siblings; the frequency of such prosocial behavior by both siblings; and the children's response to sibling distress. The relationship between prosocial and conflict behavior was also studied. (HOD)

Anger and prosocial behavior

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Doorn, Janne; Zeelenberg, Marcel; Breugelmans, Seger M.

2014-01-01

Anger is often primarily portrayed as a negative emotion that motivates antagonistic, aggressive, punitive, or hostile behavior. We propose that this portrayal is too one-sided. A review of the literature on behavioral consequences of anger reveals evidence for the positive and even prosocial

MDMA enhances emotional empathy and prosocial behavior

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Hysek, Cédric M.; Schmid, Yasmin; Simmler, Linda D.; Domes, Gregor; Heinrichs, Markus; Eisenegger, Christoph; Preller, Katrin H.; Quednow, Boris B.

2014-01-01

3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ‘ecstasy’) releases serotonin and norepinephrine. MDMA is reported to produce empathogenic and prosocial feelings. It is unknown whether MDMA in fact alters empathic concern and prosocial behavior. We investigated the acute effects of MDMA using the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET), dynamic Face Emotion Recognition Task (FERT) and Social Value Orientation (SVO) test. We also assessed effects of MDMA on plasma levels of hormones involved in social behavior using a placebo-controlled, double-blind, random-order, cross-over design in 32 healthy volunteers (16 women). MDMA enhanced explicit and implicit emotional empathy in the MET and increased prosocial behavior in the SVO test in men. MDMA did not alter cognitive empathy in the MET but impaired the identification of negative emotions, including fearful, angry and sad faces, in the FERT, particularly in women. MDMA increased plasma levels of cortisol and prolactin, which are markers of serotonergic and noradrenergic activity, and of oxytocin, which has been associated with prosocial behavior. In summary, MDMA sex-specifically altered the recognition of emotions, emotional empathy and prosociality. These effects likely enhance sociability when MDMA is used recreationally and may be useful when MDMA is administered in conjunction with psychotherapy in patients with social dysfunction or post-traumatic stress disorder. PMID:24097374

The Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Sport Scale.

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Kavussanu, Maria; Boardley, Ian D

2009-02-01

This research aimed to (a) develop a measure of prosocial and antisocial behavior in sport, (b) examine its invariance across sex and sport, and (c) provide evidence for its discriminant and concurrent validity. We conducted two studies. In study 1, team sport athletes (N=1,213) recruited from 103 teams completed questionnaires assessing demographics and prosocial and antisocial behaviors in sport. Factor analyses revealed two factors representing prosocial behavior and two factors representing antisocial behavior. The model had a very good fit to the data and showed configural, metric, and scalar invariance across sex and sport. The final scale consisted of 20 items. In Study 2, team-sport athletes (N=106) completed the scale and measures of empathy and goal orientation. Analyses provided support for the discriminant and concurrent validity of the scale. In conclusion, the new scale can be used to measure prosocial and antisocial behaviors in team sport.

Prosocial Behavior and Depression: a Case for Developmental Gender Differences.

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Alarcón, Gabriela; Forbes, Erika E

2017-06-01

Prosocial behavior and depression are related constructs that both increase during adolescence and display gender-specific effects. The current review surveys literature examining the association between depressive symptoms and prosociality, measured with behavioral economic paradigms, across development and proposes a theoretical model explaining a mechanism through which adolescent girls have higher risk for depression than boys. Relative to healthy controls, prosocial behavior is reduced in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) but may be increased in adolescents with MDD. The relationship between non-clinical levels of depressive symptoms and prosocial behavior remains to be studied experimentally; however, self-reported prosocial behavior is negatively associated with depressive symptoms in non-clinical adolescents, which may suggest a shift in the relation of prosocial behavior and depressive symptoms across the non-clinical (i.e., negative) to clinical range (i.e., positive). The effect of gender on these developmental and clinical status shifts has not been studied but could have important implications for understanding the emergence of higher rates of depression in girls than boys during adolescence. We propose that girls are at heightened risk for depression due to higher social-evaluative concern and other-oriented prosocial motivation that emphasize the needs of others over the self, leading to more altruistic prosocial behavior (despite personal cost) and a higher burden that enables depressive symptoms.

Essays on the Determinants of Prosocial Behavior in Singapore

OpenAIRE

Lim, Daniel

2015-01-01

Previous research has sought to explain why people engage in prosocial behavior and undertake activities that are costly to themselves and mostly benefit others, such as volunteering and donating. My dissertation comprises three essays that collectively explore the determinants of prosocial behavior and leverages insights from behavioral economics to design interventions to nudge people to behave more prosocially. The first essay is an observational study that examines how rapid demographic c...

Associations between Prosocial and Problem Behavior from Early to Late Adolescence.

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Padilla-Walker, Laura M; Memmott-Elison, Madison K; Coyne, Sarah M

2018-05-01

Though recent research has highlighted prosocial behavior as negatively associated with problem behavior during adolescence, we know little about how these variables might be associated longitudinally, whether there are bidirectional effects, and whether there might be different patterns of co-occurrence of behaviors for different individuals. Thus, the current study examined relations between prosocial and problem behaviors in three different ways in an attempt to better understand these associations. Participants included 500 adolescents recruited from a Northwestern state in the USA who took part in the study every year from age 12 to 18 (50% female, 67% European American). Growth curve analyses suggested that change in prosocial behavior was negatively associated with change in aggression and delinquency over time. A longitudinal panel model suggested that prosocial behavior and aggression were negatively associated bidirectionally, and that prosocial behavior was negatively associated with delinquency over time. Finally, mixture modeling conducted at ages 12, 15, and 18 revealed heterogeneity in the ways in which prosocial and problem behaviors co-occur. The discussion focuses on the complexity of interrelations between prosocial behavior and problem behavior across adolescence.

MDMA enhances emotional empathy and prosocial behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Hysek, Cédric M; Schmid, Yasmin; Simmler, Linda D; Domes, Gregor; Heinrichs, Markus; Eisenegger, Christoph; Preller, Katrin H; Quednow, Boris B; Liechti, Matthias E

2014-11-01

3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 'ecstasy') releases serotonin and norepinephrine. MDMA is reported to produce empathogenic and prosocial feelings. It is unknown whether MDMA in fact alters empathic concern and prosocial behavior. We investigated the acute effects of MDMA using the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET), dynamic Face Emotion Recognition Task (FERT) and Social Value Orientation (SVO) test. We also assessed effects of MDMA on plasma levels of hormones involved in social behavior using a placebo-controlled, double-blind, random-order, cross-over design in 32 healthy volunteers (16 women). MDMA enhanced explicit and implicit emotional empathy in the MET and increased prosocial behavior in the SVO test in men. MDMA did not alter cognitive empathy in the MET but impaired the identification of negative emotions, including fearful, angry and sad faces, in the FERT, particularly in women. MDMA increased plasma levels of cortisol and prolactin, which are markers of serotonergic and noradrenergic activity, and of oxytocin, which has been associated with prosocial behavior. In summary, MDMA sex-specifically altered the recognition of emotions, emotional empathy and prosociality. These effects likely enhance sociability when MDMA is used recreationally and may be useful when MDMA is administered in conjunction with psychotherapy in patients with social dysfunction or post-traumatic stress disorder. © The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Predictors of Prosocial Behavior among Chinese High School Students in Hong Kong

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Andrew M. H. Siu

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This study examined the correlates and predictors of prosocial behavior among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. A sample of 518 high school students responded to a questionnaire containing measures of antisocial and prosocial behavior, prosocial norms, pragmatic values, moral reasoning, and empathy. Preliminary analyses showed that there were gender differences in some of the measures. While correlation analyses showed that parental education, prosocial norms, pragmatic values, moral reasoning, and empathy were related to prosocial behavior, regression analyses showed that prosocial norms, pragmatic values, and empathy dimensions (personal distress and empathy were key predictors of it. The findings are largely consistent with theoretical predictions and previous research findings, other than the negative relationship between personal distress and prosocial behavior. The study also underscores the importance of values and norms in predicting prosocial behavior, which has been largely neglected in previous studies.

Predictors of Prosocial Behavior among Chinese High School Students in Hong Kong

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Siu, Andrew M. H.; Shek, Daniel T. L.; Lai, Frank H. Y.

2012-01-01

This study examined the correlates and predictors of prosocial behavior among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. A sample of 518 high school students responded to a questionnaire containing measures of antisocial and prosocial behavior, prosocial norms, pragmatic values, moral reasoning, and empathy. Preliminary analyses showed that there were gender differences in some of the measures. While correlation analyses showed that parental education, prosocial norms, pragmatic values, moral reasoning, and empathy were related to prosocial behavior, regression analyses showed that prosocial norms, pragmatic values, and empathy dimensions (personal distress and empathy) were key predictors of it. The findings are largely consistent with theoretical predictions and previous research findings, other than the negative relationship between personal distress and prosocial behavior. The study also underscores the importance of values and norms in predicting prosocial behavior, which has been largely neglected in previous studies. PMID:22919326

Predicting Sympathy and Prosocial Behavior from Young Children’s Dispositional Sadness

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Edwards, Alison; Eisenberg, Nancy; Spinrad, Tracy L.; Reiser, Mark; Eggum-Wilkens, Natalie D.; Liew, Jeffrey

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine whether dispositional sadness predicted children's prosocial behavior and if sympathy mediated this relation. Constructs were measured when children (N = 256 at Time 1) were 18-, 30-, and 42-months old. Mothers and non-parental caregivers rated children’s sadness; mothers, caregivers, and fathers rated children’s prosocial behavior; sympathy (concern and hypothesis testing) and prosocial behavior (indirect and direct, as well as verbal at older ages) were assessed with a task in which the experimenter feigned injury. In a panel path analysis, 30-month dispositional sadness predicted marginally higher 42-month sympathy; in addition, 30-month sympathy predicted 42-month sadness. Moreover, when controlling for prior levels of prosocial behavior, 30-month sympathy significantly predicted reported and observed prosocial behavior at 42 months. Sympathy did not mediate the relation between sadness and prosocial behavior (either reported or observed). PMID:25663753

Aggressive and prosocial behavior: community violence, cognitive, and behavioral predictors among urban African American youth.

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McMahon, Susan D; Todd, Nathan R; Martinez, Andrew; Coker, Crystal; Sheu, Ching-Fan; Washburn, Jason; Shah, Seema

2013-06-01

We use longitudinal multilevel modeling to test how exposure to community violence and cognitive and behavioral factors contribute to the development of aggressive and prosocial behaviors. Specifically, we examine predictors of self-, peer-, and teacher-reported aggressive and prosocial behavior among 266 urban, African American early adolescents. We examine lagged, within-person, between-person, and protective effects across 2 years. In general, results suggest that higher levels of violence exposure and aggressive beliefs are associated with more aggressive and less prosocial peer-reported behavior, whereas greater self-efficacy to resolve conflict peacefully is associated with less aggression across reporters and more teacher-reported prosocial behavior. Greater knowledge and violence prevention skills are associated with fewer aggressive and more prosocial teacher-reported behaviors. Results also suggest that greater self-efficacy and lower impulsivity have protective effects for youth reporting higher levels of exposure to community violence, in terms of teacher-reported aggressive behavior and peer-reported prosocial behavior. Differences among reporters and models are discussed, as well as implications for intervention.

Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior.

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Piff, Paul K; Dietze, Pia; Feinberg, Matthew; Stancato, Daniel M; Keltner, Dacher

2015-06-01

Awe is an emotional response to perceptually vast stimuli that transcend current frames of reference. Guided by conceptual analyses of awe as a collective emotion, across 5 studies (N = 2,078) we tested the hypothesis that awe can result in a diminishment of the individual self and its concerns, and increase prosocial behavior. In a representative national sample (Study 1), dispositional tendencies to experience awe predicted greater generosity in an economic game above and beyond other prosocial emotions (e.g., compassion). In follow-up experiments, inductions of awe (relative to various control states) increased ethical decision-making (Study 2), generosity (Study 3), and prosocial values (Study 4). Finally, a naturalistic induction of awe in which participants stood in a grove of towering trees enhanced prosocial helping behavior and decreased entitlement compared to participants in a control condition (Study 5). Mediational data demonstrate that the effects of awe on prosociality are explained, in part, by feelings of a small self. These findings indicate that awe may help situate individuals within broader social contexts and enhance collective concern. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescent prosocial behavior: the role of self-processes and contextual cues.

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Wentzel, Kathryn R; Filisetti, Laurence; Looney, Lisa

2007-01-01

Peer- and teacher-reported prosocial behavior of 339 6th-grade (11-12 years) and 8th-grade (13-14 years) students was examined in relation to prosocial goals, self-processes (reasons for behavior, empathy, perspective taking, depressive affect, perceived competence), and contextual cues (expectations of peers and teachers). Goal pursuit significantly predicted prosocial behavior, and goal pursuit provided a pathway by which reasons for behavior were related to behavior. Reasons reflected external, other-focused, self-focused, and internal justifications for behavior; each reason was related to a unique set of self-processes and contextual cues. Associations between prosocial outcomes and sex and race (Caucasian and African American) were mediated in part by self-processes and contextual cues. The implications of studying prosocial behavior from a motivational perspective are discussed.

Precedents and consequences of prosocial behaviors of voice and silence

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Alicia Omar

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Prosocial behavior is that which that encourages solidarity and harmony in interpersonal relationships, and produce personal or collective benefits. Although early research on job prosociality was focused on the study of conventional behaviors such as help, courtesy and sportsmanship, the identification and operationalization of new dimensions is rapidly expanding this nomological network. Such is the case of prosocial voice and prosocial silence, recently introduced in the scientific literature. The aim of this study is to explore possible relationships between employee’s voice and employee’s silence, and their personality structure; and examine the role of interpersonal justice perceptions on such relationships. We worked with a sample of 316 employees- aged 37 years and holding a 4.2-year signority working at public and private companies in southern and central Rosario (Argentina. The subjects completed Colquitt’ Justice Organizational Scale, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and Van Dyne’s Prosocial Voice and Prosocial Silence Scales. Extraversion and neuroticism emerged as the strongest predictors of prosocial voice and prosocial silence, respectively. Interpersonal justice perceptions emerged as moderators of the ‘natural’ tendency of extraverted workers to engage in prosocial voice, and emotionally controlled workers to engage in prosocial silence. Such findings would indicate that the promotion of high levels of interpersonal justice on job contexts could help workers to engage in more prosocial behavior with positive effects for the organization. 

A construct divided: prosocial behavior as helping, sharing, and comforting subtypes

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Dunfield, Kristen A.

2014-01-01

The development and maintenance of prosocial, other-oriented behaviors has been of considerable recent interest. Though it is clear that prosocial behaviors emerge early and play a uniquely important role in the social lives of humans, there is less consensus regarding the mechanisms that underlie and maintain these fundamental acts. The goal of this paper is to clarify inconsistencies in our understanding of the early emergence and development of prosocial behavior by proposing a taxonomy of prosocial behavior anchored in the social-cognitive constraints that underlie the ability to act on behalf of others. I will argue that within the general domain of prosocial behavior, other-oriented actions can be categorized into three distinct types (helping, sharing, and comforting) that reflect responses to three distinct negative states (instrumental need, unmet material desire, and emotional distress). In support of this proposal, I will demonstrate that the three varieties of prosocial behavior show unique ages of onset, uncorrelated patterns of production, and distinct patterns of individual differences. Importantly, by differentiating specific varieties of prosocial behavior within the general category, we can begin to explain inconsistencies in the past literature and provide a framework for directing future research into the ontogenetic origins of these essential social behaviors. PMID:25228893

Social class and prosocial behavior: current evidence, caveats, and questions.

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Piff, Paul K; Robinson, Angela R

2017-12-01

This review synthesizes research on social class and prosocial behavior. Individuals of lower social class display increased attention to others and greater sensitivity to others' welfare compared to individuals of higher social class, who exhibit more self-oriented patterns of social cognition. As a result, lower-class individuals are more likely to engage in other-beneficial prosocial behavior, whereas higher-class individuals are more prone to engage in self-beneficial behavior. Although the extant evidence indicates that higher social class standing may tend to undermine prosocial impulses, we propose that the effects of social class on prosocial behavior may also depend on three crucial factors: motivation, identity, and inequality. We discuss how and why these factors may moderate class differences in prosociality and offer promising lines of inquiry for future research. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Individual and Social Predictors of Prosocial Behavior among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

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Lai, Frank H. Y.; Siu, Andrew M. H.; Shek, Daniel T. L.

2015-01-01

Based on the human ecological model, this study hypothesized that individual competence in empathy, prosocial moral reasoning, and social influence from parents, peers, and school are the key determinants of prosocial behavior among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. We recruited a sample of high school students who engaged in volunteering activities regularly (N = 580). They completed a self-administrated questionnaire designed to measure prosocial behavior and its hypothesized predictors using a number of standardized instruments. The results of multiple regression show that social influence factors, including peer, school, and parent influence, are strong predictors of helping intention and prosocial behavior, while individual competence factors like empathy and prosocial moral reasoning are not. Male participants had higher empathy scores and helping intention than females, perceived their parents as more helpful, and their schools as more supportive of prosocial behavior. However, the significant predictors of prosocial behavior and helping intention were similar across gender. The findings indicate that social influence is strongly linked to prosocial behavior. This implies that socialization and social support for prosocial norms and behavior can exert a powerful influence on the behavior of young people in a Chinese population. PMID:26029684

Prosocial behavior and self-concept of Spanish students of Compulsory Secondary Education

OpenAIRE

Inglés, Cándido J.; Martínez-González, Agustín Ernesto; García-Fernández, José Manuel; Torregrosa, María S.; Ruiz Esteban, Cecilia

2012-01-01

This study analyzed the relationship between prosocial behavior and self-concept dimensions in a sample of 2022 Spanish students (51.1% males) of Compulsory Secondary Education. The prosocial behavior was measured with the Prosocial Behavior scale of the Teenage Inventory of Social Skills (TISS) and the self-concept was measured with the Self-Description Questionnaire-II (SDQ-II). Logistic regression analyses revealed that prosocial behavior is a positive and significant statistically predict...

A Meta-Analysis of Prosocial Media on Prosocial Behavior, Aggression, and Empathic Concern: A Multidimensional Approach

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Coyne, Sarah M.; Padilla-Walker, Laura M.; Holmgren, Hailey G.; Davis, Emilie J.; Collier, Kevin M.; Memmott-Elison, Madison K.; Hawkins, Alan J.

2018-01-01

Studies examining the effects of exposure to prosocial media on positive outcomes are increasing in number and strength. However, existing meta-analyses use a broad definition of prosocial media that does not recognize the multidimensionality of prosocial behavior. The aim of the current study is to conduct a meta-analysis on the effects of…

Cooperative coparenting moderates the association between parenting practices and children's prosocial behavior.

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Scrimgeour, Meghan B; Blandon, Alysia Y; Stifter, Cynthia A; Buss, Kristin A

2013-06-01

This study examined how aspects of the parenting and coparenting relationships relate to children's prosocial behavior in early childhood. Fifty-eight 2-parent families from a larger ongoing longitudinal study participated in this study. Mothers completed questionnaires that measured their use of inductive reasoning, as well as their children's prosocial behavior. Furthermore, parents and their children participated in 3 triadic interaction tasks that were coded to assess cooperative coparenting behavior. Results revealed that cooperative coparenting was positively associated with children's prosocial behavior. A significant interaction also emerged between maternal inductive reasoning and cooperative coparenting behavior. These findings underscore the important role of a cooperative coparenting subsystem in influencing children's emerging prosocial behavior, as well as highlight the association between positive parenting practices and children's prosocial development within the context of cooperative coparenting behaviors. This study demonstrates the utility of understanding family-level processes that contribute to children's prosocial development during early childhood. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Effects of Advance Organizer Instruction on Preschool Children's Prosocial Behavior.

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Lawton, Joseph T.; Burk, Jill

This study investigated the effects of advanced organizer instruction on 3- to 5-year-old preschoolers' learning of general prosocial skill concepts, rules for using prosocial skills, and spontaneous prosocial behavior. The six prosocial skills considered included cooperation, sharing, taking turns, helping, demonstration of awareness of another's…

Effects of heroin on rat prosocial behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Tomek, Seven E; Stegmann, Gabriela M; Olive, M Foster

2018-05-04

Opioid use disorders are characterized in part by impairments in social functioning. Previous research indicates that laboratory rats, which are frequently used as animal models of addiction-related behaviors, are capable of prosocial behavior. For example, under normal conditions, when a 'free' rat is placed in the vicinity of rat trapped in a plastic restrainer, the rat will release or 'rescue' the other rat from confinement. The present study was conducted to determine the effects of heroin on prosocial behavior in rats. For 2 weeks, rats were given the opportunity to rescue their cagemate from confinement, and the occurrence of and latency to free the confined rat was recorded. After baseline rescuing behavior was established, rats were randomly selected to self-administer heroin (0.06 mg/kg/infusion i.v.) or sucrose pellets (orally) for 14 days. Next, rats were retested for rescuing behavior once daily for 3 days, during which they were provided with a choice between freeing the trapped cagemate and continuing to self-administer their respective reinforcer. Our results indicate that rats self-administering sucrose continued to rescue their cagemate, whereas heroin rats chose to self-administer heroin and not rescue their cagemate. These findings suggest that rats with a history of heroin self-administration show deficits in prosocial behavior, consistent with specific diagnostic criteria for opioid use disorder. Behavioral paradigms providing a choice between engaging in prosocial behavior and continuing drug use may be useful in modeling and investigating the neural basis of social functioning deficits in opioid addiction. © 2018 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Integrating simultaneous prosocial and antisocial behavior into theories of collective action.

Science.gov (United States)

Basurto, Xavier; Blanco, Esther; Nenadovic, Mateja; Vollan, Björn

2016-03-01

Trust and cooperation constitute cornerstones of common-pool resource theory, showing that "prosocial" strategies among resource users can overcome collective action problems and lead to sustainable resource governance. Yet, antisocial behavior and especially the coexistence of prosocial and antisocial behaviors have received less attention. We broaden the analysis to include the effects of both "prosocial" and "antisocial" interactions. We do so in the context of marine protected areas (MPAs), the most prominent form of biodiversity conservation intervention worldwide. Our multimethod approach relied on lab-in-the-field economic experiments (n = 127) in two MPA and two non-MPA communities in Baja California, Mexico. In addition, we deployed a standardized fishers' survey (n = 544) to verify the external validity of our findings and expert informant interviews (n = 77) to develop potential explanatory mechanisms. In MPA sites, prosocial and antisocial behavior is significantly higher, and the presence of antisocial behavior does not seem to have a negative effect on prosocial behavior. We suggest that market integration, economic diversification, and strengthened group identity in MPAs are the main potential mechanisms for the simultaneity of prosocial and antisocial behavior we observed. This study constitutes a first step in better understanding the interaction between prosociality and antisociality as related to natural resources governance and conservation science, integrating literatures from social psychology, evolutionary anthropology, behavioral economics, and ecology.

Prosocial behavior and gender

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Espinosa, M. P.; Kovářík, Jaromír

2015-01-01

Roč. 9, April/Article Number 88 (2015), s. 1-9 ISSN 1662-5153 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA14-22044S Institutional support: RVO:67985998 Keywords : gender * prosocial behavior * treatment effects Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 3.392, year: 2015

Attachment, caring and prosocial behavior

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Erez, Ayelet

2007-01-01

The thesis focuses on 5 studies examining the role of adult attachment in volunteering by defining volunteerism as a form of caregiving. By that we suggest an effect of one behavioral system, attachment, on another, caring or prosocial behaviors in individual or group settings. Studies 1 and 2

Prosocial Behavior and Public Service Motivation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Esteve, Marc; Urbig, Diemo; van Witteloostuijn, Arjen; Boyne, George

2016-01-01

Although research on public service motivation (PSM) is vast, there is little evidence regarding the effects of PSM on observable behavior. This article contributes to the understanding of the behavioral implications of PSM by investigating whether PSM is associated with prosocial behavior.

Prosocial behavior and public service motivation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Esteve, M.; Urbig, D.; van Witteloostuijn, Arjen; Boyne, George

Although research on public service motivation (PSM) is vast, there is little evidence regarding the effects of PSM on observable behavior. This article contributes to our understanding of the behavioral implications of PSM by investigating whether PSM is associated with prosocial behavior.

Positive Parenting and Children’s Prosocial Behavior in Eight Countries

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

Background Research supports the beneficial role of prosocial behaviors on children’s adjustment and successful youth development. Empirical studies point to reciprocal relations between negative parenting and children’s maladjustment, but reciprocal relations between positive parenting and children’s prosocial behavior are understudied. In the present study reciprocal relations between two different dimensions of positive parenting (quality of the mother-child relationship and the use of balanced positive discipline) and children’s prosocial behavior were examined in Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. Method Mother-child dyads (N = 1105) provided data over 2 years in 2 waves (Mage of child in wave 1 = 9.31 years, SD = .73; 50% female). Results A model of reciprocal relations between parenting dimensions, but not among parenting and children’s prosocial behavior, emerged. In particular, children with higher levels of prosocial behavior at age 9 elicited higher levels of mother-child relationship quality in the following year. Conclusions Findings yielded similar relations across countries, evidencing that being prosocial in late childhood contributes to some degree to the enhancement of a nurturing and involved mother-child relationship in countries that vary widely on sociodemographic profiles and psychological characteristics. Policy and intervention implications of this study are discussed. PMID:26511201

Longitudinal Bidirectional Relations between Adolescents' Sympathy and Prosocial Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Carlo, Gustavo; Padilla-Walker, Laura M.; Nielson, Matthew G.

2015-01-01

Despite the importance of understanding sympathy and prosocial behaviors, research on the development of these tendencies in adolescence remains relatively sparse. In the present study, we examined age trends and bidirectional longitudinal relations in sympathy and prosocial behaviors across early to middle adolescents. Participants were 500…

Gender-specific effects of depression and suicidal ideation in prosocial behaviors.

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Ricardo Cáceda

Full Text Available Prosocial behaviors are essential to the ability to relate to others. Women typically display greater prosocial behavior than men. The impact of depression on prosocial behaviors and how gender interacts with those effects are not fully understood. We explored the role of gender in the potential effects of depression on prosocial behavior.We examined prosocial behaviors using a modified version of the Trust Game in a clinical population and community controls. Study participants were characterized on the severity of depression and anxiety, presence of suicidal ideation, history of childhood trauma, recent stressful life events, and impulsivity. We correlated behavioral outcomes with gender and clinical variables using analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis.The 89 participants comprised four study groups: depressed women, depressed men, healthy women and healthy men (n = 16-36. Depressed men exhibited reciprocity more frequently than healthy men. Depression induced an inversion of the gender-specific pattern of self-centered behavior. Suicidal ideation was associated with increased reciprocity behavior in both genders, and enhancement of the effect of depression on gender-specific self-centered behavior.Depression, particularly suicidal ideation, is associated with reversal of gender-specific patterns of prosocial behavior, suggesting abnormalities in sexual hormones regulation. This explanation is supported by known abnormalities in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axes found in depression.

Failure to demonstrate that playing violent video games diminishes prosocial behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Tear, Morgan J; Nielsen, Mark

2013-01-01

Past research has found that playing a classic prosocial video game resulted in heightened prosocial behavior when compared to a control group, whereas playing a classic violent video game had no effect. Given purported links between violent video games and poor social behavior, this result is surprising. Here our aim was to assess whether this finding may be due to the specific games used. That is, modern games are experienced differently from classic games (more immersion in virtual environments, more connection with characters, etc.) and it may be that playing violent video games impacts prosocial behavior only when contemporary versions are used. Experiments 1 and 2 explored the effects of playing contemporary violent, non-violent, and prosocial video games on prosocial behavior, as measured by the pen-drop task. We found that slight contextual changes in the delivery of the pen-drop task led to different rates of helping but that the type of game played had little effect. Experiment 3 explored this further by using classic games. Again, we found no effect. We failed to find evidence that playing video games affects prosocial behavior. Research on the effects of video game play is of significant public interest. It is therefore important that speculation be rigorously tested and findings replicated. Here we fail to substantiate conjecture that playing contemporary violent video games will lead to diminished prosocial behavior.

Positive affect: phenotypic and etiologic associations with prosocial behaviors and internalizing problems in toddlers

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Manjie; Saudino, Kimberly J.

2015-01-01

Despite evidence for the associations of positive affect to prosocial behaviors and internalizing problems, relatively little is known about the underlying etiology. The sample comprised over 300 twin pairs at age 3. Positive affect, prosocial behaviors, and internalizing problems were assessed using the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire (Goldsmith, 1996), the Revised Rutter Parent Scale for Preschool Children (Hogg et al., 1997), and the Child Behavior Checklist for ages 1.5–5 (Achenbach, 1991), respectively. Positive affect correlated positively with prosocial behaviors, and negatively with internalizing problems. Prosocial behaviors were negatively associated with internalizing problems. The relations of positive affect to prosocial behaviors and internalizing problems were due to environmental effects (shared and non-shared). In contrast, the link between prosocial behaviors and internalizing problems was entirely explained by genetic effects. The current study has moved beyond prior emphasis on negative affect and elucidated the less understood etiology underlying the associations between positive affect, prosocial behaviors, and internalizing problems. This study could guide the development of programs for promoting prosocial behaviors and alleviating internalizing problems in children. PMID:25914668

Positive Affect: Phenotypic and Etiologic Associations with Prosocial Behaviors and Internalizing Problems in Toddlers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manjie eWang

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Despite evidence for the associations of positive affect to prosocial behaviors and internalizing problems, relatively little is known about the underlying etiology. The sample comprised over 300 twin pairs at age 3. Positive affect, prosocial behaviors, and internalizing problems were assessed using the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire (Goldsmith, 1996, the Revised Rutter Parent Scale for Preschool Children (Hogg, Rutter, & Richman, 1997, and the Child Behavior Checklist for ages 1.5-5 (Achenbach, 1991, respectively. Positive affect correlated positively with prosocial behaviors, and negatively with internalizing problems. Prosocial behaviors were negatively associated with internalizing problems. The relations of positive affect to prosocial behaviors and internalizing problems were due to environmental effects (shared and nonshared. In contrast, the link between prosocial behaviors and internalizing problems was entirely explained by genetic effects. The current study has moved beyond prior emphasis on negative affect and elucidated the less understood etiology underlying the associations between positive affect, prosocial behaviors, and internalizing problems. This study could guide the development of programs for promoting prosocial behaviors and alleviating internalizing problems in children.

Predictors of Prosocial Behavior: Differences in Middle Aged and Older Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Wenner, Jennifer R; Randall, Brandy A

2016-10-01

Generativity, contributing to the next generation, is important for well-being throughout middle and late life. Therefore, it is crucial to understand what contributes to generativity during these life stages. Parenting and work are common, but not the only, ways people engage generatively; prosocial behavior is another. A community connection may encourage generative contributions in adults. However, older adults may face obstacles to being generative, and may need an additional drive to engage in these behaviors. Given this, it was expected that community cohesion would predict prosocial behavior despite age, and that grit would provide motivation for older adults, so the current study examined whether age moderated the relation between grit and prosocial behavior. Data were used from 188 upper-Midwest adults (aged 37-89). Multiple regression analyses showed that age moderated the relation between grit and prosocial behavior such that grit predicted prosocial behavior in older adults but not middle age adults. A sense of community cohesion was predictive of prosocial behavior despite age. While grit may promote generative acts in different ways depending on age, a sense of community cohesion may foster community contributions despite age. The discussion focuses on future directions and ways to promote generativity using this research.

The influence of prosocial norms and online network structure on prosocial behavior : An analysis of Movember’s twitter campaign in 24 countries

OpenAIRE

Broek, T.A. van den; Need, A.; Ehrenhard, M.L.; Hiemstra, D.; Priante, A.

2015-01-01

Sociological research points at norms and social networks as antecedents of prosocial behavior. To date, the literature remains undecided on how these factors jointly influence prosocial behavior. Furthermore, the use of social media by campaign organizations may change the need for formal networks to organize large-scale collective action. Hence, in this paper we examine the interplay of prosocial norms and the structure of online social networks on offline prosocial behavior. For this purpo...

Failure to demonstrate that playing violent video games diminishes prosocial behavior.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Morgan J Tear

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Past research has found that playing a classic prosocial video game resulted in heightened prosocial behavior when compared to a control group, whereas playing a classic violent video game had no effect. Given purported links between violent video games and poor social behavior, this result is surprising. Here our aim was to assess whether this finding may be due to the specific games used. That is, modern games are experienced differently from classic games (more immersion in virtual environments, more connection with characters, etc. and it may be that playing violent video games impacts prosocial behavior only when contemporary versions are used. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Experiments 1 and 2 explored the effects of playing contemporary violent, non-violent, and prosocial video games on prosocial behavior, as measured by the pen-drop task. We found that slight contextual changes in the delivery of the pen-drop task led to different rates of helping but that the type of game played had little effect. Experiment 3 explored this further by using classic games. Again, we found no effect. CONCLUSIONS: We failed to find evidence that playing video games affects prosocial behavior. Research on the effects of video game play is of significant public interest. It is therefore important that speculation be rigorously tested and findings replicated. Here we fail to substantiate conjecture that playing contemporary violent video games will lead to diminished prosocial behavior.

Failure to Demonstrate That Playing Violent Video Games Diminishes Prosocial Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Tear, Morgan J.; Nielsen, Mark

2013-01-01

Background Past research has found that playing a classic prosocial video game resulted in heightened prosocial behavior when compared to a control group, whereas playing a classic violent video game had no effect. Given purported links between violent video games and poor social behavior, this result is surprising. Here our aim was to assess whether this finding may be due to the specific games used. That is, modern games are experienced differently from classic games (more immersion in virtual environments, more connection with characters, etc.) and it may be that playing violent video games impacts prosocial behavior only when contemporary versions are used. Methods and Findings Experiments 1 and 2 explored the effects of playing contemporary violent, non-violent, and prosocial video games on prosocial behavior, as measured by the pen-drop task. We found that slight contextual changes in the delivery of the pen-drop task led to different rates of helping but that the type of game played had little effect. Experiment 3 explored this further by using classic games. Again, we found no effect. Conclusions We failed to find evidence that playing video games affects prosocial behavior. Research on the effects of video game play is of significant public interest. It is therefore important that speculation be rigorously tested and findings replicated. Here we fail to substantiate conjecture that playing contemporary violent video games will lead to diminished prosocial behavior. PMID:23844191

Prosocial Behavior Mitigates the Negative Effects of Stress in Everyday Life.

Science.gov (United States)

Raposa, Elizabeth B; Laws, Holly B; Ansell, Emily B

2016-07-01

Recent theories of stress reactivity posit that, when stressed, individuals tend to seek out opportunities to affiliate with and nurture others in order to prevent or mitigate the negative effects of stress. However, few studies have tested empirically the role of prosocial behavior in reducing negative emotional responses to stress. The current analyses used daily diary data to investigate whether engaging in prosocial behavior buffered the negative effects of naturally-occurring stressors on emotional well-being. Results showed that on a given day, prosocial behavior moderated the effects of stress on positive affect, negative affect, and overall mental health. Findings suggest that affiliative behavior may be an important component of coping with stress, and indicate that engaging in prosocial behavior might be an effective strategy for reducing the impact of stress on emotional functioning.

Cooperative Coparenting Moderates the Association between Parenting Practices and Children’s Prosocial Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Scrimgeour, Meghan B.; Blandon, Alysia Y.; Stifter, Cynthia A.; Buss, Kristin A.

2013-01-01

The current study examined how aspects of the parenting and coparenting relationships relate to children’s prosocial behavior in early childhood. Fifty-eight two-parent families from a larger ongoing longitudinal study participated in this study. Mothers completed questionnaires that measured their use of inductive reasoning, as well as their children’s prosocial behavior. Furthermore, parents and their children participated in three triadic interaction tasks that were coded to assess cooperative coparenting behavior. Results revealed that cooperative coparenting was positively associated with children’s prosocial behavior. A significant interaction also emerged between maternal inductive reasoning and cooperative coparenting behavior. These findings underscore the important role of a cooperative coparenting subsystem in influencing children’s emerging prosocial behavior, as well as highlight the association between positive parenting practices and children’s prosocial development within the context of cooperative coparenting behaviors. This study demonstrates the utility of understanding family-level processes that contribute to children’s prosocial development during early childhood. PMID:23750531

Contemporaneous and 1-year longitudinal prediction of children's prosocial behavior from sympathy and moral motivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Malti, Tina; Gummerum, Michaela; Buchmann, Marlis

2007-09-01

The authors investigated the contemporaneous and longitudinal relations of children's (M age = 6.4 years) prosocial behavior to sympathy and moral motivation. Mothers and kindergarten teachers rated children's prosocial behavior. The authors measured sympathy via self- and adult reports. Moral motivation was assessed by children's attribution of emotions to hypothetical victimizers and self-as-victimizers and by moral reasoning after rule violations. Mother-rated prosocial behavior was contemporaneously and longitudinally related to sympathy. Moral motivation moderated the relation of sympathy to mother-rated prosocial behavior. Furthermore, boys' level of mother-rated prosocial behavior increased with level of moral motivation, whereas girls were high in mother-rated prosocial behavior, regardless of their level of moral motivation. Sympathy contemporaneously predicted kindergarten teacher-rated prosocial behavior.

Do marmosets care to share? Oxytocin treatment reduces prosocial behavior toward strangers.

Science.gov (United States)

Mustoe, Aaryn C; Cavanaugh, Jon; Harnisch, April M; Thompson, Breanna E; French, Jeffrey A

2015-05-01

Cooperatively-breeding and socially-monogamous primates, like marmosets and humans, exhibit high levels of social tolerance and prosociality toward others. Oxytocin (OXT) generally facilitates prosocial behavior, but there is growing recognition that OXT modulation of prosocial behavior is shaped by the context of social interactions and by other motivational states such as arousal or anxiety. To determine whether prosociality varies based on social context, we evaluated whether marmoset donors (Callithrix penicillata) preferentially rewarded pairmates versus opposite-sex strangers in a prosocial food-sharing task. To examine potential links among OXT, stress systems, and prosociality, we evaluated whether pretrial cortisol levels in marmosets altered the impact of OXT on prosocial responses. Marmosets exhibited spontaneous prosociality toward others, but they did so preferentially toward strangers compared to their pairmates. When donor marmosets were treated with marmoset-specific Pro(8)-OXT, they exhibited reduced prosociality toward strangers compared to marmosets treated with saline or consensus-mammalian Leu(8)-OXT. When pretrial cortisol levels were lower, marmosets exhibited higher prosociality toward strangers. These findings demonstrate that while marmosets show spontaneous prosocial responses toward others, they do so preferentially toward opposite-sex strangers. Cooperative breeding may be associated with the expression of prosociality, but the existence of a pair-bond between marmoset partners appears to be neither necessary nor sufficient for the expression of spontaneous prosocial responses. Furthermore, high prosociality toward strangers is significantly reduced in marmosets treated with Pro(8)-OXT, suggesting that OXT does not universally enhance prosociality, but, rather OXT modulation of prosocial behavior varies depending on social context. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of Religious Priming Concepts on Prosocial Behavior Towards Ingroup and Outgroup.

Science.gov (United States)

Batara, Jame Bryan L; Franco, Pamela S; Quiachon, Mequia Angelo M; Sembrero, Dianelle Rose M

2016-11-01

Several studies show that there is a connection between religion and prosociality (e.g., Saroglou, 2013). To investigate whether there is a causal relationship between these two variables, a growing number of scholars employed priming religious concepts and measure its influence on prosocial behavior (e.g., Pichon, Boccato, & Saroglou, 2007). In the recent development of religious priming, Ritter and Preston (2013) argued that different primes (agent prime, spiritual/abstract prime, and institutional prime) may also have varying influence on prosocial behavior specifically helping an ingroup or an outgroup target. With this in mind, a 2 (social categorization of the target of help) by 3 (agent prime, institutional prime, spiritual prime) experiment was conducted to directly investigate this hypothesis. Results suggest that priming religious concepts especially the spiritual prime can increase prosocial behaviors. However, no significant effect was found on the social categorization which implies that Filipino participants elicit prosocial behavior regardless of the social categorization (be it ingroup or outgroup) of the target of help. The present study's findings contribute to further the literature on religious priming and its influence on prosocial behavior.

Promoting Adolescents' Prosocial Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Kidron, Yael; Fleischman, Steve

2006-01-01

Saying a kind word to a classmate, acknowledging other students' feelings, sharing books and advice, defending a victim of bullying--these are just a few of the prosocial behaviors that can enhance students' social and academic lives at school. Because children do not develop social values in a vacuum, educators, policymakers, and researchers are…

Predictors of Prosocial Behavior among Chinese High School Students in Hong Kong

OpenAIRE

Andrew M. H. Siu; Daniel T. L. Shek; Frank H. Y. Lai

2012-01-01

This study examined the correlates and predictors of prosocial behavior among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. A sample of 518 high school students responded to a questionnaire containing measures of antisocial and prosocial behavior, prosocial norms, pragmatic values, moral reasoning, and empathy. Preliminary analyses showed that there were gender differences in some of the measures. While correlation analyses showed that parental education, prosocial norms, pragmatic values, moral reasonin...

Longitudinal relations between adolescents' materialism and prosocial behavior toward family, friends, and strangers.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Zhixu; Fu, Xinyuan; Yu, Xiaoxia; Lv, Yichen

2018-01-01

The present study examines the short-term changes and longitudinal relations between adolescents' materialism and prosocial behavior toward family, friends, and strangers over a year. A total of 434 Chinese adolescents (mean age at Time 1 = 11.27; 54% girls) participated in the two time points. From 6 th grade to 7 th grade, boys' and girls' materialism increased, whereas their prosocial behavior toward family, friends, and strangers declined, despite the stable trend in boys' prosocial behavior toward strangers. Furthermore, a cross-lagged model was conducted and the results showed that, adolescent materialism was associated longitudinally with decreased prosocial behavior toward friends and strangers, but not toward family. However, earlier prosocial behavior toward family, friends, and strangers were not associated with subsequent adolescent materialism. The findings point toward an understanding of materialism as a precursor rather than an outcome or byproduct to prosocial behavior. Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Children's trust and the development of prosocial behavior

OpenAIRE

Malti T.; Averdijk M.; Zuffiano A.; Ribeaud D.; Betts L. R.; Rotenberg K. J.; Eisner M.

2016-01-01

This study examined the role of children’s trust beliefs and trustworthiness in the development of prosocial behavior using data from four waves of a longitudinal study in a large, ethnically diverse sample of children in Switzerland (mean age = 8.11 years at Time 1, N = 1,028). Prosocial behavior directed towards peers was measured at all assessment points by teacher reports. Children’s trust beliefs and their trustworthiness with peers were assessed and calculated by a social relations anal...

Integrating simultaneous prosocial and antisocial behavior into theories of collective action

OpenAIRE

Basurto, Xavier; Blanco, Esther; Nenadovic, Mateja; Vollan, Bj?rn

2016-01-01

Trust and cooperation constitute cornerstones of common-pool resource theory, showing that ?prosocial? strategies among resource users can overcome collective action problems and lead to sustainable resource governance. Yet, antisocial behavior and especially the coexistence of prosocial and antisocial behaviors have received less attention. We broaden the analysis to include the effects of both ?prosocial? and ?antisocial? interactions. We do so in the context of marine protected areas (MPAs...

Motivation, Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviors of Juveniles in Compare to Wellbehaved Peers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hubert Kupiec

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The article contain results of research which participants were 104 juvenile delinquent and 294 adolescents from public schools. The statistic analyses show that juveniles have similar level of prosocial motivation as their well behaving peers from schools. However, gender is significant differentiation factor because girls have higher prosocial motivation and more frequently behave prosocially than boys in both compared groups. Juveniles exhibit less prosocial behavior than antisocial to relatives and friends, compared to their peers from schools, also. This paper include discussion of results and practical recommendations how we can develope motivation and prosocial behavior among juvenile delinquents.

Effects of Religious Priming Concepts on Prosocial Behavior Towards Ingroup and Outgroup

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jame Bryan L. Batara

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Several studies show that there is a connection between religion and prosociality (e.g., Saroglou, 2013. To investigate whether there is a causal relationship between these two variables, a growing number of scholars employed priming religious concepts and measure its influence on prosocial behavior (e.g., Pichon, Boccato, & Saroglou, 2007. In the recent development of religious priming, Ritter and Preston (2013 argued that different primes (agent prime, spiritual/abstract prime, and institutional prime may also have varying influence on prosocial behavior specifically helping an ingroup or an outgroup target. With this in mind, a 2 (social categorization of the target of help by 3 (agent prime, institutional prime, spiritual prime experiment was conducted to directly investigate this hypothesis. Results suggest that priming religious concepts especially the spiritual prime can increase prosocial behaviors. However, no significant effect was found on the social categorization which implies that Filipino participants elicit prosocial behavior regardless of the social categorization (be it ingroup or outgroup of the target of help. The present study’s findings contribute to further the literature on religious priming and its influence on prosocial behavior.

Materialism Moderates the Effect of Accounting for Time on Prosocial Behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jibo; Chen, Yingying; Huang, Xiting

2015-01-01

Accounting for time is defined as putting a price on time. Researchers have demonstrated that accounting for time reduces the time individuals spend on others; however, its association with monetary donations has not been examined. We hypothesized that accounting for time will activate a utility mindset that would affect one's allocation of time and money. In Study 1, the mediating effect of utility mindsets on the relationship between accounting for time and prosocial behavior was examined. In Study 2, we examined the effect of accounting for time on time spent helping and donating money, and the moderating role of material values on the relationship between accounting for time and prosocial behavior. Results showed that accounting for time activated a mindset of utility maximization that, in turn, reduced participants' prosocial behavior; moreover, materialism moderated the effect of accounting for time on prosocial behavior.

Prosocial Choice in Rats Depends on Food-Seeking Behavior Displayed by Recipients.

Science.gov (United States)

Márquez, Cristina; Rennie, Scott M; Costa, Diana F; Moita, Marta A

2015-06-29

Animals often are prosocial, displaying behaviors that result in a benefit to one another [1-15] even in the absence of self-benefit [16-21] (but see [22-25]). Several factors have been proposed to modulate these behaviors, namely familiarity [6, 13, 18, 20] or display of seeking behavior [16, 21]. Rats have been recently shown to be prosocial under distress [17, 18] (but see [26-29]); however, what drives prosociality in these animals remains unclear. To address this issue, we developed a two-choice task in which prosocial behavior did not yield a benefit or a cost to the focal rat. We used a double T-maze in which only the focal rat controlled access to the food-baited arms of its own and the recipient rat's maze. In this task, the focal rat could choose between one side of the maze, which yielded food only to itself (selfish choice), and the opposite side, which yielded food to itself and the recipient rat (prosocial choice). Rats showed a high proportion of prosocial choices. By manipulating reward delivery to the recipient and its ability to display a preference for the baited arm, we found that the display of food-seeking behavior leading to reward was necessary to drive prosocial choices. In addition, we found that there was more social investigation between rats in selfish trials than in prosocial trials, which may have influenced the focals' choices. This study shows that rats provide access to food to others in the absence of added direct self-benefit, bringing new insights into the factors that drive prosociality. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Identity, prosocial behavior, and generative concern in German and Cameroonian Nso adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Busch, Holger; Hofer, Jan

2011-08-01

Little is known about whether ego identity statuses have the same developmental concomitants in different cultural contexts. Thus, 159 German and 158 Cameroonian Nso adolescents aged 15-18 were recruited to test if associations between identity and generativity (i.e. the desire to create a positive legacy) and prosocial behavior (i.e. helpful and supportive behavior), respectively, are comparable. In both cultural samples, only identity achievement was positively linked with generative concern and prosocial tendencies. Integrating these and previous findings on the association between prosocial behavior and generativity, a partial mediation of the relation between identity achievement and generative concern through prosocial tendencies was hypothesized and confirmed for both cultural groups. Thus, there is an equivalent association between identity achievement, prosocial behavior, and generative concern in adolescents with widely different cultural background. Copyright © 2010 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Longitudinal relations between adolescents' self-esteem and prosocial behavior toward strangers, friends and family.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Xinyuan; Padilla-Walker, Laura M; Brown, Michael N

2017-06-01

The present study examined age-trends and longitudinal bidirectional relations in self-esteem and prosocial behavior toward strangers, friends, and family over a four-year time period (age 11 to 14). A total of 681 adolescents were recruited in the United States (51% girls, 28% single parent families). A longitudinal panel model was conducted and the results showed that adolescent self-esteem was associated longitudinally with subsequent prosocial behavior toward strangers, and earlier prosocial behavior toward strangers promoted subsequent self-esteem. There were no such bidirectional relations between self-esteem and prosocial behavior toward friends and family. Findings also highlight the complexity of adolescent development of selfesteem and the multidimensional nature of prosocial behavior. Discussion focuses on understanding the dynamic interplay between adolescent selfesteem and prosocial behavior. Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Brand’s CSR Influence on Consumers’ Prosocial Behavior in Unrelated Domains

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Angela Negrão

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This study proposes that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR activity may positively influence consumers’ prosocial behavior. However, this effect is moderated by the consumer-brand social distance. In two experiments, we show that consumers close to the brand become more prosocial in situations unrelated to the cause supported by the company when they are exposed to the brand’s prosocial communication, compared to those who are distant from the brand. This paper contributes to furthering CSR theory by showing the positive effects of brand CSR initiatives on secondary social outcomes, such as consumers’ volunteering and donating money to a social cause not closely related to the one promoted by the company. Besides, this paper also contributes theoretically by showing the moderation role played by consumer-brand social distance. Important implications for the role of CSR are useful for companies and society in general, since the paper demonstrates that brand’s prosocial behavior can influence consumers’ prosocial behavior beyond the brand context only.

Neural Reactivity to Emotional Faces Mediates the Relationship Between Childhood Empathy and Adolescent Prosocial Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Flournoy, John C.; Pfeifer, Jennifer H.; Moore, William E.; Tackman, Allison; Masten, Carrie L.; Mazziotta, John C.; Iacoboni, Marco; Dapretto, Mirella

2017-01-01

Reactivity to others' emotions can result in empathic concern (EC), an important motivator of prosocial behavior, but can also result in personal distress (PD), which may hinder prosocial behavior. Examining neural substrates of emotional reactivity may elucidate how EC and PD differentially influence prosocial behavior. Participants (N=57) provided measures of EC, PD, prosocial behavior, and neural responses to emotional expressions at age 10 and 13. Initial EC predicted subsequent prosocial behavior. Initial EC and PD predicted subsequent reactivity to emotions in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and inferior parietal lobule, respectively. Activity in the IFG, a region linked to mirror neuron processes, as well as cognitive control and language, mediated the relation between initial EC and subsequent prosocial behavior. PMID:28262939

Greater Emotional Empathy and Prosocial Behavior in Late Life

OpenAIRE

Sze, Jocelyn A.; Gyurak, Anett; Goodkind, Madeleine S.; Levenson, Robert W.

2011-01-01

Emotional empathy and prosocial behavior were assessed in older, middle-aged, and young adults. Participants watched two films depicting individuals in need, one uplifting and the other distressing. Physiological responses were monitored during the films and participants rated their levels of emotional empathy following each film. As a measure of prosocial behavior, participants were given an additional payment they could contribute to charities supporting the individuals in the films. Age-re...

Drunk, Powerful, and in the Dark: How General Processes of Disinhibition Produce Both Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Hirsh, Jacob B; Galinsky, Adam D; Zhong, Chen-Bo

2011-09-01

Social power, alcohol intoxication, and anonymity all have strong influences on human cognition and behavior. However, the social consequences of each of these conditions can be diverse, sometimes producing prosocial outcomes and other times enabling antisocial behavior. We present a general model of disinhibition to explain how these seemingly contradictory effects emerge from a single underlying mechanism: The decreased salience of competing response options prevents activation of the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS). As a result, the most salient response in any given situation is expressed, regardless of whether it has prosocial or antisocial consequences. We review three distinct routes through which power, alcohol intoxication, and anonymity reduce the salience of competing response options, namely, through Behavioral Approach System (BAS) activation, cognitive depletion, and reduced social desirability concerns. We further discuss how these states can both reveal and shape the person. Overall, our approach allows for multiple domain-specific models to be unified within a common conceptual framework that explains how both situational and dispositional factors can influence the expression of disinhibited behavior, producing both prosocial and antisocial outcomes. © Association for Psychological Science 2011.

The reciprocity of prosocial behavior and positive affect in daily life

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Snippe, Evelien; Jeronimus, Bertus F; Aan Het Rot, Marije; Bos, Elisabeth H; de Jonge, Peter; Wichers, Marieke

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether prosocial behaviors help sustain a positive mood, we tested the dynamic reciprocal associations between prosocial behavior and positive affect (PA) in daily life. A second aim was to examine whether the personality traits neuroticism and extraversion moderate these

Prosocial behavior as a protective factor for children's peer victimization.

Science.gov (United States)

Griese, Emily R; Buhs, Eric S

2014-07-01

A majority of peer victimization research focuses on its associations with negative outcomes, yet efforts to understand possible protective factors that may mitigate these negative outcomes also require attention. The present study was an investigation of the potential moderating effect of prosocial behaviors on loneliness for youth who are peer victimized. Participants were fourth and fifth grade students (511 total; 49 % boys) who were primarily European American (43.4 %) and Hispanic (48.2 %). Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the interaction of prosocial behavior and peer victimization (relational and overt forms) on loneliness 1 year later. The results indicated that prosocial behavior significantly moderated the relationship between peer victimization (for the relational form only) and loneliness while controlling for levels of perceived peer support. A multi-group comparison by gender further indicated the moderation was significant for boys only. Potential implications for intervention/prevention efforts focused on developing children's prosocial skills as a possible protective factor for relationally victimized youth are discussed.

Dimensions of Peer Influences and Their Relationship to Adolescents' Aggression, Other Problem Behaviors and Prosocial Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Farrell, Albert D; Thompson, Erin L; Mehari, Krista R

2017-06-01

Although peers are a major influence during adolescence, the relative importance of specific mechanisms of peer influence on the development of problem behavior is not well understood. This study investigated five domains of peer influence and their relationships to adolescents' problem and prosocial behaviors. Self-report and teacher ratings were obtained for 1787 (53 % female) urban middle school students. Peer pressure for fighting and friends' delinquent behavior were uniquely associated with aggression, drug use and delinquent behavior. Friends' prosocial behavior was uniquely associated with prosocial behavior. Friends' support for fighting and friends' support for nonviolence were not as clearly related to behavior. Findings were generally consistent across gender. This study highlights the importance of studying multiple aspects of peer influences on adolescents' behavior.

Helping yourself helps others: Linking children's emotion regulation to prosocial behavior through sympathy and trust.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Ju-Hyun; Colasante, Tyler; Malti, Tina

2018-06-01

Although emotionally well-regulated children are more likely to behave prosocially, the psychological processes that connect their emotion regulation abilities and prosocial behavior are less clear. We tested if other-oriented sympathy and trust mediated the links between emotion regulation capacities (i.e., resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA], negative emotional intensity, and sadness regulation) and prosocial behavior in an ethnically diverse sample of 4- and 8-year-olds (N = 131; 49% girls). Resting RSA was calculated from children's electrocardiogram data in response to a nondescript video. Sympathy was child and caregiver reported, whereas negative emotional intensity, sadness regulation, trust, and prosocial behavior were caregiver reported. Regardless of age, higher resting RSA was linked to higher sympathy, which was associated with higher prosocial behavior. The positive link between sadness regulation and prosocial behavior was mediated by higher sympathy and trust. Children's other-oriented psychological processes may play important roles in translating certain emotion regulation capacities into prosocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Intelligence and Prosocial Behavior

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Han, Ru; Shi, Jiannong; Yong, W.

2012-01-01

Results of prev ious studies of the relationship between prosocial behav ior and intelligence hav e been inconsistent. This study attempts to distinguish the dif f erences between sev eral prosocial tasks, and explores the way s in which cognitiv e ability inf luences prosocial behav ior. In Study...... One and Two, we reexamined the relationship between prosocial behav ior and intelligence by employ ing a costly signaling theory with f our games. The results rev ealed that the prosocial lev el of smarter children is higher than that of other children in more complicated tasks but not so in simple...... tasks. In Study Three, we tested the moderation ef f ect of the av erage intelligence across classes, and the results did not show any group intelligence ef f ect on the relationship between intelligence and prosocial behav ior....

Predictors of antisocial and prosocial behavior in an adolescent sports context

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rutten, E.A.; Schuengel, C.; Dirks, E.; Stams, G.J.J.M.; Biesta, G.J.J.; Hoeksma, J.B.

2011-01-01

This study examined antisocial and prosocial behavior of N = 439 adolescent athletes between 14 and 17 years of age (67 teams). Multi-level analyses showed that team membership explained 20 and 13 percent of the variance in antisocial and prosocial behavior in the sports context, respectively. The

Better to give and to compete? Prosocial and competitive motives as interactive predictors of citizenship behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardador, M Teresa; Wrzesniewski, Amy

2015-01-01

Research has returned mixed results concerning the relationship between prosocial motivation and citizenship behavior. Building from research suggesting that mixed motives might explain these equivocal findings, we conducted two field studies examining the interaction between prosocial and competitive motives and two types of citizenship behavior. Prosocial motivation, but not competitive motivation, was positively related to citizenship behavior directed at others, though this relationship was weakened when prosocial motives were accompanied by competitive motives. Prosocial motives compensated for weak competitive motives to predict citizenship behavior directed toward the organization. Our studies expand research on prosocial and competitive motivation, mixed-motives, and citizenship behavior. Further, they carry personnel implications given that many organizations seek to hire employees high on both competitive and prosocial motivation.

Adolescents' Aggressive and Prosocial Behavior: Associations with Jealousy and Social Anxiety

Science.gov (United States)

Culotta, Carmen M.; Goldstein, Sara E.

2008-01-01

The authors examined how relational aggression, physical aggression, and proactive prosocial behavior were associated with jealousy and social anxiety in a diverse sample of 60 middle school students. After the authors controlled for gender and race, jealousy predicted relational aggression and proactive prosocial behavior, but it did not predict…

Are nonparticipants in prosocial behavior merely innocent bystanders?

Science.gov (United States)

Anker, Ashley E; Feeley, Thomas Hugh

2011-01-01

Latané and Darley's (1970) bystander intervention theory was used to model individuals' participation in two prosocial behaviors (organ donation, green living). It is argued that nonparticipants in prosocial helping are innocent bystanders who likely fail to notice the need, do not interpret the cause as an emergency, do not accept responsibility for the need to help, and have little knowledge on how to help. Data in study 1 (n = 494) indicate support for the proposed innocent bystander path model (notice event → interpret event as emergency → accept responsibility → knowledge of how to help) in organ donation. Study 2 (n = 519) replicated the model in the context of green living and additionally found a direct path from noticing the event to knowledge of how to help. Implications of framing nonparticipation in prosocial behaviors as innocent bystander effects are discussed in context of campaign communication.

Short-term effects of prosocial video games on aggression: an event-related potential study

OpenAIRE

Liu, Yanling; Teng, Zhaojun; Lan, Haiying; Zhang, Xin; Yao, Dezhong

2015-01-01

Previous research has shown that exposure to violent video games increases aggression, whereas exposure to prosocial video games can reduce aggressive behavior. However, little is known about the neural correlates of these behavioral effects. This work is the first to investigate the electrophysiological features of the relationship between playing a prosocial video game and inhibition of aggressive behavior. Forty-nine subjects played either a prosocial or a neutral video game for 20 min, th...

Sharing and giving across adolescence: an experimental study examining the development of prosocial behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Güroğlu, Berna; van den Bos, Wouter; Crone, Eveline A.

2014-01-01

In this study we use economic exchange games to examine the development of prosocial behavior in the form of sharing and giving in social interactions with peers across adolescence. Participants from four age groups (9-, 12-, 15-, and 18-year-olds, total N = 119) played three types of distribution games and the Trust game with four different interaction partners: friends, antagonists, neutral classmates, and anonymous peers. Nine- and 12-year-olds showed similar levels of prosocial behavior to all interaction partners, whereas older adolescents showed increasing differentiation in prosocial behavior depending on the relation with peers, with most prosocial behavior toward friends. The age related increase in non-costly prosocial behavior toward friends was mediated by self-reported perspective-taking skills. Current findings extend existing evidence on the developmental patterns of fairness considerations from childhood into late adolescence. Together, we show that adolescents are increasingly better at incorporating social context into decision-making. Our findings further highlight the role of friendships as a significant social context for the development of prosocial behavior in early adolescence. PMID:24782796

Sharing and giving across adolescence: an experimental study examining the development of prosocial behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Güroğlu, Berna; van den Bos, Wouter; Crone, Eveline A

2014-01-01

In this study we use economic exchange games to examine the development of prosocial behavior in the form of sharing and giving in social interactions with peers across adolescence. Participants from four age groups (9-, 12-, 15-, and 18-year-olds, total N = 119) played three types of distribution games and the Trust game with four different interaction partners: friends, antagonists, neutral classmates, and anonymous peers. Nine- and 12-year-olds showed similar levels of prosocial behavior to all interaction partners, whereas older adolescents showed increasing differentiation in prosocial behavior depending on the relation with peers, with most prosocial behavior toward friends. The age related increase in non-costly prosocial behavior toward friends was mediated by self-reported perspective-taking skills. Current findings extend existing evidence on the developmental patterns of fairness considerations from childhood into late adolescence. Together, we show that adolescents are increasingly better at incorporating social context into decision-making. Our findings further highlight the role of friendships as a significant social context for the development of prosocial behavior in early adolescence.

Sharing and giving across adolescence: An experimental study examining the development of prosocial behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Berna eGüroğlu

2014-04-01

Full Text Available In this study we use economic exchange games to examine the development of prosocial behavior in the form of sharing and giving in social interactions with peers across adolescence. Participants from four age groups (9-, 12-, 15-, and 18-year-olds, total N=119 played three types of distribution games and the Trust game with four different interaction partners: friends, antagonists, neutral classmates, and anonymous peers. Nine- and 12-year-olds showed similar levels of prosocial behavior to all interaction partners, whereas older adolescents showed increasing differentiation in prosocial behavior depending on the relation with peers, with most prosocial behavior towards friends. The age related increase in non-costly prosocial behavior towards friends was mediated by self-reported perspective-taking skills. Current findings extend existing evidence on the developmental patterns of fairness considerations from childhood into late adolescence. Together, we show that adolescents are increasingly better at incorporating social context into decision-making. Our findings further highlight the role of friendships as a significant social context for the development of prosocial behavior in early adolescence.

When Ignorance is Bliss* : Information Asymmetries Enhance Prosocial Behavior in Dicator Games

OpenAIRE

Winschel, Evguenia; Zahn, Philipp

2014-01-01

In most laboratory experiments concerning prosocial behavior subjects are fully informed how their decision influences the payoff of other players. Outside the laboratory, however, individuals typically have to decide without such detailed knowledge. To asses the effect of information asymmetries on prosocial behavior, we conduct a laboratory experiment with a simple non-strategic interaction. A dictator has only limited knowledge about the benefits his prosocial action generates for a recipi...

When Ignorance is Bliss - Information Asymmetries Enhance Prosocial Behavior in Dictator Games

OpenAIRE

Evguenia Winschel; Philipp Zahn

2014-01-01

In most laboratory experiments concerning prosocial behavior subjects are fully informed how their decision influences the payoff of other players. Outside the laboratory, however, individuals typically have to decide without such detailed knowledge. To assess the effect of information asymmetries on prosocial behavior, we conduct a laboratory experiment with a simple non-strategic interaction. A dictator has only limited knowledge about the benefits his prosocial action generates for a recip...

The virtues of gossip: reputational information sharing as prosocial behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Feinberg, Matthew; Willer, Robb; Stellar, Jennifer; Keltner, Dacher

2012-05-01

Reputation systems promote cooperation and deter antisocial behavior in groups. Little is known, however, about how and why people share reputational information. Here, we seek to establish the existence and dynamics of prosocial gossip, the sharing of negative evaluative information about a target in a way that protects others from antisocial or exploitative behavior. We present a model of prosocial gossip and the results of 4 studies testing the model's claims. Results of Studies 1 through 3 demonstrate that (a) individuals who observe an antisocial act experience negative affect and are compelled to share information about the antisocial actor with a potentially vulnerable person, (b) sharing such information reduces negative affect created by observing the antisocial behavior, and (c) individuals possessing more prosocial orientations are the most motivated to engage in such gossip, even at a personal cost, and exhibit the greatest reduction in negative affect as a result. Study 4 demonstrates that prosocial gossip can effectively deter selfishness and promote cooperation. Taken together these results highlight the roles of prosocial motivations and negative affective reactions to injustice in maintaining reputational information sharing in groups. We conclude by discussing implications for reputational theories of the maintenance of cooperation in human groups.

Longitudinal Relations Among Parenting Styles, Prosocial Behaviors, and Academic Outcomes in U.S. Mexican Adolescents.

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Carlo, Gustavo; White, Rebecca M B; Streit, Cara; Knight, George P; Zeiders, Katharine H

2018-03-01

This article examined parenting styles and prosocial behaviors as longitudinal predictors of academic outcomes in U.S. Mexican youth. Adolescents (N = 462; Wave 1 M age  = 10.4 years; 48.1% girls), parents, and teachers completed parenting, prosocial behavior, and academic outcome measures at 5th, 10th, and 12th grades. Authoritative parents were more likely to have youth who exhibited high levels of prosocial behaviors than those who were moderately demanding and less involved. Fathers and mothers who were less involved and mothers who were moderately demanding were less likely than authoritative parents to have youth who exhibited high levels of prosocial behaviors. Prosocial behaviors were positively associated with academic outcomes. Discussion focuses on parenting, prosocial behaviors, and academic attitudes in understanding youth academic performance. © 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Beyond dichotomies-(m)others' structuring and the development of toddlers' prosocial behavior across cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

Kärtner, Joscha

2018-04-01

Basic elements of prosociality-(pro)social cognition, motivation, and prosocial behavior-emerge during the first and second year of life. These elements are rooted in biological predispositions and the developmental system is complemented by caregivers' structuring. By structuring, (m)others integrate toddlers' unrefined (pro)social sentiments and behavioral inclinations into coherent patterns and align toddlers' experience and behavior with the population's cultural model. These cultural models specify target states for appropriate affective, motivational and behavioral responses regarding toddlers' prosociality and these target states, in turn, inform (m)others' appraisal and guide their structuring. The experiences that toddlers make in these social interactions have important implications for how the basic elements of prosociality are refined and further develop. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Best Friends' Preference and Popularity: Associations with Aggression and Prosocial Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Ellen; Cillessen, Antonius H. N.; Riksen-Walraven, J. Marianne; Haselager, Gerbert J. T.

2010-01-01

This study examined how children's aggression and prosocial behavior are related to the preference and popularity of their best friends. Participants were 1,953 fourth-graders (52.2% boys). Measures included peer nominations of friendship, peer status, overt and relational aggression, and prosocial behavior. A total of 334 reciprocal same-sex best…

The Effect of Factors Affecting Social Behavior and Prosocial Behavior (Case Study: City of Steel of Mobarakeh)

OpenAIRE

Mashallah Valikhani; Abbasali Behzadipur

2015-01-01

The present paper, titled ‘A Study of the Effects of Internal Marketing on Customer-oriented Prosocial Behaviors’ investigates the important role of internal marketing on job satisfaction, organizational commitment and, finally, role-prescribed customer service and extra-role customer service (prosocial behavior) among Standard of Isfahan Steel of Mobarakeh. A main hypothesis (speculating the significant effect of internal marketing on customer-oriented prosocial behavior) and eleven sub-hypo...

Cortical thickness and prosocial behavior in school-age children: A population-based MRI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Thijssen, Sandra; Wildeboer, Andrea; Muetzel, Ryan L; Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J; El Marroun, Hanan; Hofman, Albert; Jaddoe, Vincent W V; van der Lugt, Aad; Verhulst, Frank C; Tiemeier, Henning; van IJzendoorn, Marinus H; White, Tonya

2015-01-01

Prosocial behavior plays an important role in establishing and maintaining relationships with others and thus may have important developmental implications. This study examines the association between cortical thickness and prosocial behavior in a population-based sample of 6- to 9-year-old children. The present study was embedded within the Generation R Study. Magnetic resonance scans were acquired from 464 children whose parents had completed the prosocial scale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. To study the association between cortical thickness and prosocial behavior, we performed whole-brain surface-based analyses. Prosocial behavior was related to a thicker cortex in a cluster that covers part of the left superior frontal and rostral middle frontal cortex (p Gender moderated the association between prosocial behavior and cortical thickness in a cluster including the right rostral middle frontal and superior frontal cortex (p right superior parietal cortex, cuneus, and precuneus (p theory of mind (superior frontal cortex, rostral middle frontal cortex cuneus, and precuneus) and inhibitory control (superior frontal and rostral middle frontal cortex).

When moral identity symbolization motivates prosocial behavior: the role of recognition and moral identity internalization.

Science.gov (United States)

Winterich, Karen Page; Aquino, Karl; Mittal, Vikas; Swartz, Richard

2013-09-01

This article examines the role of moral identity symbolization in motivating prosocial behaviors. We propose a 3-way interaction of moral identity symbolization, internalization, and recognition to predict prosocial behavior. When moral identity internalization is low, we hypothesize that high moral identity symbolization motivates recognized prosocial behavior due to the opportunity to present one's moral characteristics to others. In contrast, when moral identity internalization is high, prosocial behavior is motivated irrespective of the level of symbolization and recognition. Two studies provide support for this pattern examining volunteering of time. Our results provide a framework for predicting prosocial behavior by combining the 2 dimensions of moral identity with the situational factor of recognition. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Disentangling the Relations between Social Identity and Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Competitive Youth Sport.

Science.gov (United States)

Bruner, Mark W; Boardley, Ian D; Benson, Alex J; Wilson, Kathleen S; Root, Zachary; Turnnidge, Jennifer; Sutcliffe, Jordan; Côté, Jean

2018-05-01

The social identities formed through membership on extracurricular activity groups may contribute to the frequency with which youth engage in prosocial and antisocial behavior. However, researchers have yet to disentangle the individual- and group-level processes social identification effects operate through; sex and perceived norms may also moderate such effects. Thus, we investigated the hierarchical and conditional relations between three dimensions of social identity (i.e., ingroup ties, cognitive centrality, ingroup affect) and prosocial and antisocial behavior in youth ice hockey players (N = 376; 33% female). Multilevel analyses demonstrated antisocial teammate and opponent behavior were predicted by cognitive centrality at the team level. Further, prosocial teammate behavior was predicted by cognitive centrality and ingroup ties at the individual-level. Also, perceived norms for prosocial teammate behavior moderated the relations between ingroup ties, cognitive centrality, and ingroup affect and prosocial teammate behaviour. Finally, sex moderated the relations between cognitive centrality/ingroup affect and antisocial opponent behavior. This work demonstrates the multilevel and conditional nature of how social identity dimensions relate to youth prosocial and antisocial behavior.

The Influence of Prosocial Norms and Online Network Structure on Prosocial Behavior : An Analysis of Movember’s Twitter Campaign in 24 Countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Broek, Tijs Adriaan; Need, Ariana; Ehrenhard, Michel Léon; Priante, Anna; Hiemstra, Djoerd

2015-01-01

Sociological research points at norms and social networks as antecedents of prosocial behavior. To date, the literature remains undecided on how these factors jointly influence prosocial behavior. Furthermore, the use of social media by campaign organizations may change the need for formal networks

The relations of children's dispositional prosocial behavior to emotionality, regulation, and social functioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Eisenberg, N; Fabes, R A; Karbon, M; Murphy, B C; Wosinski, M; Polazzi, L; Carlo, G; Juhnke, C

1996-06-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of a measure of children's dispositional prosocial behavior (i.e., peer nominations) to individual differences in children's negative emotionality, regulation, and social functioning. Children with prosocial reputations tended to be high in constructive social skills (i.e., socially appropriate behavior and constructive coping) and attentional regulation, and low in negative emotionality. The relations of children's negative emotionality to prosocial reputation were moderated by level of dispositional attentional regulation. In addition, the relations of prosocial reputation to constructive social skills and parent-reported negative emotionality (for girls) increased with age. Vagal tone, a marker of physiological regulation, was negatively related to girls' prosocial reputation.

The Neural Basis of and a Common Neural Circuitry in Different Types of Pro-social Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun Luo

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Pro-social behaviors are voluntary behaviors that benefit other people or society as a whole, such as charitable donations, cooperation, trust, altruistic punishment, and fairness. These behaviors have been widely described through non self-interest decision-making in behavioral experimental studies and are thought to be increased by social preference motives. Importantly, recent studies using a combination of neuroimaging and brain stimulation, designed to reveal the neural mechanisms of pro-social behaviors, have found that a wide range of brain areas, specifically the prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and amygdala, are correlated or causally related with pro-social behaviors. In this review, we summarize the research on the neural basis of various kinds of pro-social behaviors and describe a common shared neural circuitry of these pro-social behaviors. We introduce several general ways in which experimental economics and neuroscience can be combined to develop important contributions to understanding social decision-making and pro-social behaviors. Future research should attempt to explore the neural circuitry between the frontal lobes and deeper brain areas.

Individual and Social Predictors of Prosocial Behavior among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

OpenAIRE

Lai, Frank H. Y.; Siu, Andrew M. H.; Shek, Daniel T. L.

2015-01-01

Based on the human ecological model, this study hypothesized that individual competence in empathy, prosocial moral reasoning, and social influence from parents, peers, and school are the key determinants of prosocial behavior among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. We recruited a sample of high school students who engaged in volunteering activities regularly (N = 580). They completed a self-administrated questionnaire designed to measure prosocial behavior and its hypothesized predictors usi...

Brazilian adolescents' prosocial moral judgment and behavior: relations to sympathy, perspective taking, gender-role orientation, and demographic characteristics.

Science.gov (United States)

Eisenberg, N; Zhou, Q; Koller, S

2001-01-01

The goal of this study was to examine demographic and individual difference variables that predict level of prosocial moral judgment and self-reported prosocial behavior and to test mediating or moderating relations among predictors. The relations of prosocial moral reasoning and self-reported prosocial behavior to perspective taking, sympathy, age, sociometric status, and gender-role orientation were examined with a sample of 149 Brazilian adolescents who completed a series of questionnaire measures. Prosocial moral judgment was expected to be predicted by both sympathy and perspective taking, whereas sympathy or prosocial moral judgment was expected to mediate the relations of femininity and perspective taking to prosocial behavior. Self-reported perspective taking and sympathy interacted when predicting prosocial moral judgment; adolescents who were high in either sympathy or perspective taking (or both) scored high in prosocial moral reasoning. A feminine orientation predicted sympathy and perspective taking, perspective taking predicted prosocial moral reasoning and sympathy, and sympathy had both direct and indirect paths (through moral judgment) to prosocial behavior. The findings generally were consistent with the contention that both the tendency to take others' perspectives and to sympathize are related to level of prosocial moral reasoning, which in turn motivates prosocial behavior. Moreover, patterns of correlations among variables were similar to those found in the United States.

Neural Reactivity to Emotional Faces May Mediate the Relationship between Childhood Empathy and Adolescent Prosocial Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Flournoy, John C.; Pfeifer, Jennifer H.; Moore, William E.; Tackman, Allison M.; Masten, Carrie L.; Mazziotta, John C.; Iacoboni, Marco; Dapretto, Mirella

2016-01-01

Reactivity to others' emotions not only can result in empathic concern (EC), an important motivator of prosocial behavior, but can also result in personal distress (PD), which may hinder prosocial behavior. Examining neural substrates of emotional reactivity may elucidate how EC and PD differentially influence prosocial behavior. Participants…

Insights into Intraspecies Variation in Primate Prosocial Behavior: Capuchins (Cebus apella Fail to Show Prosociality on a Touchscreen Task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lindsey A. Drayton

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Over the past decade, many researchers have used food donation tasks to test whether nonhuman primates show human-like patterns of prosocial behavior in experimental settings. Although these tasks are elegant in their simplicity, performance within and across species is difficult to explain under a unified theoretical framework. Here, we attempt to better understand variation in prosociality by examining the circumstances that promote and hinder the expression of prosocial preferences. To this end, we tested whether capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella—a species that has previously demonstrated prosocial preferences—would behave prosocially using a novel touchscreen task. In contrast to previous studies, we found that capuchins as a group did not prosocially deliver food to a partner. Importantly however, data from control conditions revealed that subjects demonstrated limited understanding of the reward contingencies of the task. We also compared individuals’ performance in the current study with their performance in a previously published prosociality study. We conclude by discussing how continuing to explore intraspecies variation in performance on prosocial tasks may help inform debates regarding the existence of other-regarding preferences in nonhuman species.

Best friends' preference and popularity: Associations with aggression and prosocial behavior

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Peters, E.; Cillessen, A.H.N.; Riksen-Walraven, J.M.A.; Haselager, G.J.T.

2010-01-01

This study examined how children's aggression and prosocial behavior are related to the preference and popularity of their best friends. Participants were 1,953 fourth-graders (52.2% boys). Measures included peer nominations of friendship, peer status, overt and relational aggression, and prosocial

Effects of Prosocial, Neutral, and Violent Video Games on Children's Helpful and Hurtful Behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Saleem, Muniba; Anderson, Craig A; Gentile, Douglas A

2012-01-01

Recent research reveals that playing prosocial video games increases prosocial cognitions, positive affect, and helpful behaviors [Gentile et al., 2009; Greitemeyer and Osswald, 2009, 2010, 2011]. These results are consistent with the social-cognitive models of social behavior such as the general learning model [Buckley and Anderson, 2006]. However, no experimental studies have examined such effects on children. Previous research on violent video games suggests that short-term effects of video games are largely based on priming of existing behavioral scripts. Thus, it is unclear whether younger children will show similar effects. This research had 9-14 years olds play a prosocial, neutral, or violent video game, and assessed helpful and hurtful behaviors simultaneously through a new tangram measure. Prosocial games increased helpful and decreased hurtful behavior, whereas violent games had the opposite effects. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Korndörfer, Martin; Egloff, Boris; Schmukle, Stefan C

2015-01-01

Does being from a higher social class lead a person to engage in more or less prosocial behavior? Psychological research has recently provided support for a negative effect of social class on prosocial behavior. However, research outside the field of psychology has mainly found evidence for positive or u-shaped relations. In the present research, we therefore thoroughly examined the effect of social class on prosocial behavior. Moreover, we analyzed whether this effect was moderated by the kind of observed prosocial behavior, the observed country, and the measure of social class. Across eight studies with large and representative international samples, we predominantly found positive effects of social class on prosociality: Higher class individuals were more likely to make a charitable donation and contribute a higher percentage of their family income to charity (32,090 ≥ N ≥ 3,957; Studies 1-3), were more likely to volunteer (37,136 ≥N ≥ 3,964; Studies 4-6), were more helpful (N = 3,902; Study 7), and were more trusting and trustworthy in an economic game when interacting with a stranger (N = 1,421; Study 8) than lower social class individuals. Although the effects of social class varied somewhat across the kinds of prosocial behavior, countries, and measures of social class, under no condition did we find the negative effect that would have been expected on the basis of previous results reported in the psychological literature. Possible explanations for this divergence and implications are discussed.

Bidirectional relations between different forms of prosocial behaviors and substance use among female college student athletes.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Alexandra N; Carlo, Gustavo; Hardy, Sam A; Olthuis, Janine V; Zamboanga, Byron L

2017-01-01

Bidirectional, longitudinal relations between alcohol and marijuana use and prosocial behaviors in women college student athletes were examined. Participants were 187 female college students (M age  = 19.87 years; 91% White) who completed questionnaires on their use of marijuana and alcohol, and six forms of prosocial behaviors across 6 years (2004-2010). The findings yield overall evidence that earlier marijuana use predicted lower levels of most specific forms of prosocial behaviors for women athletes in later young adulthood. Early expressions of altruistic behaviors predicted less marijuana use in later young adulthood. Expression of public prosocial behaviors early in young adulthood predicted higher levels of hazardous drinking in late young adulthood. These novel findings have important implications for links between prosocial development and substance use in women college athletes.

Moral emotions associated with prosocial and antisocial behavior in school-aged children.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortiz Barón, María J; Etxebarria Bilbao, Itziar; Apodaca Urquijo, Pedro; Conejero López, Susana; Pascual Jimeno, Aitziber

2018-02-01

The present study aims to explore the main effects and interactive effects of empathy, guilt, shame, pride (authentic and hubristic), and moral pride, on prosocial and antisocial behavior in children. The sample group comprised 351 children aged between 10 and 14 selected from four schools in the Basque Country (Spain). Hierarchical multiple regression models were used in the statistical analyses. Prosocial behavior was found to be predicted by the additive interaction between empathy and moral pride, by guilt and, to a lesser extent and negatively, by shame. In relation to antisocial behavior, children with a strong disposition to guilt scored lower for antisocial behavior, regardless of their empathy levels. Nevertheless, the combination of low empathy and low guilt levels was associated with highest antisocial behavior scores. As regards shame, this emotion was moderately associated with antisocial behavior. By exploring interactions the present study provided a more nuanced view of the emotional factors associated with children´s prosocial and antisocial behavior.

Highlighting relatedness promotes prosocial motives and behavior.

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Pavey, Louisa; Greitemeyer, Tobias; Sparks, Paul

2011-07-01

According to self-determination theory, people have three basic psychological needs: relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Of these, the authors reasoned that relatedness need satisfaction is particularly important for promoting prosocial behavior because of the increased sense of connectedness to others that this engenders. In Experiment 1, the authors manipulated relatedness, autonomy, competence, or gave participants a neutral task, and found that highlighting relatedness led to higher interest in volunteering and intentions to volunteer relative to the other conditions. Experiment 2 found that writing about relatedness experiences promoted feelings of connectedness to others, which in turn predicted greater prosocial intentions. Experiment 3 found that relatedness manipulation participants donated significantly more money to charity than did participants given a neutral task. The results suggest that highlighting relatedness increases engagement in prosocial activities and are discussed in relation to the conflict and compatibility between individual and social outcomes. © 2011 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate enhances mood and prosocial behavior without affecting plasma oxytocin and testosterone.

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Bosch, Oliver G; Eisenegger, Christoph; Gertsch, Jürg; von Rotz, Robin; Dornbierer, Dario; Gachet, M Salomé; Heinrichs, Markus; Wetter, Thomas C; Seifritz, Erich; Quednow, Boris B

2015-12-01

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a GHB-/GABAB-receptor agonist. Reports from GHB abusers indicate euphoric, prosocial, and empathogenic effects of the drug. We measured the effects of GHB on mood, prosocial behavior, social and non-social cognition and assessed potential underlying neuroendocrine mechanisms. GHB (20mg/kg) was tested in 16 healthy males, using a randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over design. Subjective effects on mood were assessed by visual-analogue-scales and the GHB-Specific-Questionnaire. Prosocial behavior was examined by the Charity Donation Task, the Social Value Orientation test, and the Reciprocity Task. Reaction time, memory, empathy, and theory-of-mind were also tested. Blood plasma levels of GHB, oxytocin, testosterone, progesterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), cortisol, aldosterone, and adrenocorticotropic-hormone (ACTH) were determined. GHB showed stimulating and sedating effects, and elicited euphoria, disinhibition, and enhanced vitality. In participants with low prosociality, the drug increased donations and prosocial money distributions. In contrast, social cognitive abilities such as emotion recognition, empathy, and theory-of-mind, and basal cognitive functions were not affected. GHB increased plasma progesterone, while oxytocin and testosterone, cortisol, aldosterone, DHEA, and ACTH levels remained unaffected. GHB has mood-enhancing and prosocial effects without affecting social hormones such as oxytocin and testosterone. These data suggest a potential involvement of GHB-/GABAB-receptors and progesterone in mood and prosocial behavior. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Empatía, razonamiento moral y conducta prosocial en adolescentes Empathy, moral reasoning and prosocial behaviors in adolescents

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Valeria Urquiza

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Se presenta un estudio descriptivo-exploratorio, cuya unidad de análisis está conformada por estudiantes adolescentes. Se ha trabajado con una muestra: intencional, la participación ha sido anónima y voluntaria, integrada por 398 estudiantes adolescentes (197 varones y 201 mujeres de 12 a 15 años (Media edad=13.77; d.t.= 1.14 que residen en la ciudad de Buenos Aires (46.5% y el conurbano bonaerense (53.5%. Los datos se han obtenido administrando tres escalas que evalúan Comportamiento Prosocial, Reacciones Interpersonales, Razonamiento Prosocial y Empatía. El razonamiento prosocial no garantiza por sí mismo un comportamiento de ese tipo. En general los niveles de empatía y razonamientos prosociales son más elevados entre las mujeres.Data from on a exploratory/ descriptive study based on a sample of 398 adolescents students aging 12 to 15 years old (M= 13, 7 y.o , sd =1, 14 living in Buenos Aires city (46.5% and its suburban area (53.5% are presented. Participation was anonymous and voluntary (intentional sampling Scales to assess Moral Reasoning, Prosocial Behavior, Interpersonal Reactions and Empathy were administered. We found that moral reasoning is not related to prosocial behaviors; empathy and moral reasoning seem to be higher in female samples.

Determinants of Prosocial Behavior in Included Versus Excluded Contexts.

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Cuadrado, Esther; Tabernero, Carmen; Steinel, Wolfgang

2015-01-01

Prosocial behavior (PSB) is increasingly becoming necessary as more and more individuals experience exclusion. In this context it is important to understand the motivational determinants of PSB. Here we report two experiments which analyzed the influence of dispositional (prosocialness; rejection sensitivity) and motivational variables (prosocial self-efficacy; prosocial collective efficacy; trust; anger; social affiliation motivation) on PSB under neutral contexts (Study 1), and once under inclusion or exclusion conditions (Study 2). Both studies provided evidence for the predicted mediation of PSB. Results in both neutral and inclusion and exclusion conditions supported our predictive model of PSB. In the model dispositional variables predicted motivational variables, which in turn predicted PSB. We showed that the investigated variables predicted PSB; this suggests that to promote PSB one could (1) foster prosocialness, prosocial self and collective efficacy, trust in others and affiliation motivation and (2) try to reduce negative feelings and the tendency to dread rejection in an attempt to reduce the negative impact that these variables have on PSB. Moreover, the few differences that emerged in the model between the inclusion and exclusion contexts suggested that in interventions with excluded individuals special care emphasis should be placed on addressing rejection sensitivity and lack of trust.

Prospective associations between prosocial behavior and social dominance in early childhood: are sharers the best leaders?

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Ostrov, Jamie M; Guzzo, Jamie L

2015-01-01

A short-term longitudinal study during early childhood (N = 96; M = 42.80; SD = 7.57) investigated the concurrent and prospective association between prosocial behavior and social dominance. Time-intensive school-based focal child sampling with continuous recording observations of prosocial behavior to peers were conducted and teacher-reports of social dominance were collected. The study documents significant prospective links between prosocial behavior to peers and increases in social dominance over time. Social dominance was not associated with changes in prosocial behavior. The findings extend past empirical work in early childhood and future directions are discussed.

Socio-cognitive influences on the domain-specificity of prosocial behavior in the second year.

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Kärtner, Joscha; Schuhmacher, Nils; Collard, Jenny

2014-11-01

The main aim of this study was to explain the domain-specificity of early prosocial behavior in different domains (i.e., helping, comforting, and cooperation) by simultaneously assessing specific socio-cognitive factors (i.e., self-other-differentiation and joint attentional skills) that were hypothesized to be differentially related to the three domains of prosocial behavior. Based on a longitudinal study design, observational and parental report data were collected when toddlers (N=42) from German urban middle-class families were 15 and 18 months of age. At 15 months, regression analyses indicated differential relationships between socio-cognitive development and prosocial behavior (i.e., joint attentional skills were positively related with helping and, as hypothesized, both joint attentional skills and self-other differentiation were positively related with cooperation). Furthermore, self-other differentiation at 15 months predicted increases in coordination between 15 and 18 months. Finally, between 15 and 18 months, parental reports of socio-cognitive measures increased significantly while behavioral measures of both socio-cognitive concepts and prosocial behavior were stable across time. In sum, these results support the theoretical assumption of domain-specific socio-cognitive influences that constitute differential development of prosocial behavior. Implications of the results for theory and future studies are discussed from different perspectives with a focus on an interference interpretation calling for the integration of socialization approaches to the study of prosocial development. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior

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Korndörfer, Martin; Egloff, Boris; Schmukle, Stefan C.

2015-01-01

Does being from a higher social class lead a person to engage in more or less prosocial behavior? Psychological research has recently provided support for a negative effect of social class on prosocial behavior. However, research outside the field of psychology has mainly found evidence for positive or u-shaped relations. In the present research, we therefore thoroughly examined the effect of social class on prosocial behavior. Moreover, we analyzed whether this effect was moderated by the kind of observed prosocial behavior, the observed country, and the measure of social class. Across eight studies with large and representative international samples, we predominantly found positive effects of social class on prosociality: Higher class individuals were more likely to make a charitable donation and contribute a higher percentage of their family income to charity (32,090 ≥ N ≥ 3,957; Studies 1–3), were more likely to volunteer (37,136 ≥N ≥ 3,964; Studies 4–6), were more helpful (N = 3,902; Study 7), and were more trusting and trustworthy in an economic game when interacting with a stranger (N = 1,421; Study 8) than lower social class individuals. Although the effects of social class varied somewhat across the kinds of prosocial behavior, countries, and measures of social class, under no condition did we find the negative effect that would have been expected on the basis of previous results reported in the psychological literature. Possible explanations for this divergence and implications are discussed. PMID:26193099

Social identity shapes social valuation: evidence from prosocial behavior and vicarious reward.

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Hackel, Leor M; Zaki, Jamil; Van Bavel, Jay J

2017-08-01

People frequently engage in more prosocial behavior toward members of their own groups, as compared to other groups. Such group-based prosociality may reflect either strategic considerations concerning one's own future outcomes or intrinsic value placed on the outcomes of in-group members. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, we examined vicarious reward responses to witnessing the monetary gains of in-group and out-group members, as well as prosocial behavior towards both types of individuals. We found that individuals' investment in their group-a motivational component of social identification-tracked the intensity of their responses in ventral striatum to in-group (vs out-group) members' rewards, as well as their tendency towards group-based prosociality. Individuals with strong motivational investment in their group preferred rewards for an in-group member, whereas individuals with low investment preferred rewards for an out-group member. These findings suggest that the motivational importance of social identity-beyond mere similarity to group members-influences vicarious reward and prosocial behavior. More broadly, these findings support a theoretical framework in which salient social identities can influence neural representations of subjective value, and suggest that social preferences can best be understood by examining the identity contexts in which they unfold. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

Failure to Demonstrate That Playing Violent Video Games Diminishes Prosocial Behavior

OpenAIRE

Tear, Morgan J.; Nielsen, Mark

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND: Past research has found that playing a classic prosocial video game resulted in heightened prosocial behavior when compared to a control group, whereas playing a classic violent video game had no effect. Given purported links between violent video games and poor social behavior, this result is surprising. Here our aim was to assess whether this finding may be due to the specific games used. That is, modern games are experienced differently from classic games (more immersion in vir...

Self-focused Motives Undermine the Emotional Rewards of Recalled Prosocial Behavior

OpenAIRE

Wiwad, Dylan; Aknin, Lara

2017-01-01

Past research has demonstrated that engaging in and reflecting upon past instances of prosocial behavior promote happiness. Yet, people provide help for a myriad of reasons. Do the motives for giving impact its emotional consequences? In three experiments (N > 680), we compared the emotional outcomes of recalling a past instance of prosocial behavior motivated by self-focused and other-focused concerns. Using both between and within subjects designs, we find that recalling an instance of o...

[The relationship of empathic-affective responses toward others' positive affect with prosocial behaviors and aggressive behaviors].

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Sakurai, Shigeo; Hayama, Daichi; Suzuki, Takashi; Kurazumi, Tomoe; Hagiwara, Toshihiko; Suzuki, Miyuki; Ohuchi, Akiko; Chizuko, Oikawa

2011-06-01

The purposes of this study were to develop and validate the Empathic-Affective Response Scale, and to examine the relationship of empathic-affective responses with prosocial behaviors and aggressive behaviors. Undergraduate students (N = 443) participated in a questionnaire study. The results of factor analysis indicated that empathic-affective responses involved three factors: (a) sharing and good feeling toward others' positive affect, (b) sharing of negative affect and (c) sympathy toward others' negative affect. Correlations with other empathy-related scales and internal consistency suggested that this scale has satisfactory validity and reliability. Cluster analysis revealed that participants were clustered into four groups: high-empathic group, low-empathic group, insufficient positive affective response group and insufficient negative affective response group. Additional analysis showed the frequency of prosocial behaviors in high-empathic group was highest in all groups. On the other hand, the frequency of aggressive behaviors in both insufficient positive affective response group and low-empathic group were higher than others' groups. The results indicated that empathic-affective responses toward positive affect are also very important to predict prosocial behaviors and aggressive behaviors.

Social Capital and Bystander Behavior in Bullying: Internalizing Problems as a Barrier to Prosocial Intervention.

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Jenkins, Lyndsay N; Fredrick, Stephanie Secord

2017-04-01

Theory and research suggests that individuals with greater social capital (i.e., resources and benefits gained from relationships, experiences, and social interactions) may be more likely to be active, prosocial bystanders in bullying situations. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to examine the association of social capital (social support and social skills) with prosocial bystander behavior, and the role of internalizing problems as a potential barrier to this relation among 299 students (45.8% girls, 95% White) in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Results indicate a positive relation between social capital and prosocial bystander behavior. In addition, internalizing problems were a significant risk factor that may hinder youth-particularly girls-from engaging in defending behavior. Prosocial bystanders are an essential component to prevent and reduce bullying and further research is needed to better understand how to foster prosocial behavior in bullying situations, perhaps by utilizing social capital, related to school bullying.

Social network cohesion in school classes promotes prosocial behavior.

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van den Bos, Wouter; Crone, Eveline A; Meuwese, Rosa; Güroğlu, Berna

2018-01-01

Adolescence is a key period of social development at the end of which individuals are expected to take on adult social roles. The school class, as the most salient peer group, becomes the prime environment that impacts social development during adolescence. Using social network analyses, we investigated how individual and group level features are related to prosocial behavior and social capital (generalized trust). We mapped the social networks within 22 classrooms of adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years (N = 611), and collected data on social behaviors towards peers. Our results indicate that individuals with high centrality show both higher levels of prosocial behavior and relational aggression. Importantly, greater social cohesion in the classroom was associated with (1) reduced levels of antisocial behavior towards peers and (2) increased generalized trust. These results provide novel insights in the relationship between social structure and social behavior, and stress the importance of the school environment in the development of not only intellectual but also social capital.

Social network cohesion in school classes promotes prosocial behavior

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Crone, Eveline A.; Meuwese, Rosa; Güroğlu, Berna

2018-01-01

Adolescence is a key period of social development at the end of which individuals are expected to take on adult social roles. The school class, as the most salient peer group, becomes the prime environment that impacts social development during adolescence. Using social network analyses, we investigated how individual and group level features are related to prosocial behavior and social capital (generalized trust). We mapped the social networks within 22 classrooms of adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years (N = 611), and collected data on social behaviors towards peers. Our results indicate that individuals with high centrality show both higher levels of prosocial behavior and relational aggression. Importantly, greater social cohesion in the classroom was associated with (1) reduced levels of antisocial behavior towards peers and (2) increased generalized trust. These results provide novel insights in the relationship between social structure and social behavior, and stress the importance of the school environment in the development of not only intellectual but also social capital. PMID:29617405

Afraid to help: social anxiety partially mediates the association between 5-HTTLPR triallelic genotype and prosocial behavior.

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Stoltenberg, Scott F; Christ, Christa C; Carlo, Gustavo

2013-01-01

There is growing evidence that the serotonin system influences prosocial behavior. We examined whether anxiety mediated the association between variation in the serotonin transporter gene regulatory region (5-HTTLPR) and prosocial behavior. We collected self-reported tendencies to avoid certain situations and history of helping others using standard instruments and buccal cells for standard 5-HTTLPR genotyping from 398 undergraduate students. Triallelic 5-HTTLPR genotype was significantly associated with prosocial behavior and the effect was partially mediated by social anxiety, such that those carrying the S' allele reported higher levels of social avoidance and lower rates of helping others. These results are consistent with accounts of the role of serotonin on anxiety and prosocial behavior and suggest that targeted efforts to reduce social anxiety in S' allele carriers may enhance prosocial behavior.

Self-other resonance, its control and prosocial inclinations: Brain-behavior relationships.

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Christov-Moore, Leonardo; Iacoboni, Marco

2016-04-01

Humans seem to place a positive reward value on prosocial behavior. Evidence suggests that this prosocial inclination is driven by our reflexive tendency to share in the observed sensations, emotions and behavior of others, or "self-other resonance". In this study, we examine how neural correlates of self-other resonance relate to prosocial decision-making. Subjects performed two tasks while undergoing fMRI: observation of a human hand pierced by a needle, and observation and imitation of emotional facial expressions. Outside the scanner, subjects played the Dictator Game with players of low or high income (represented by neutral-expression headshots). Subjects' offers in the Dictator Game were correlated with activity in neural systems associated with self-other resonance and anticorrelated with activity in systems implicated in the control of pain, affect, and imitation. Functional connectivity between areas involved in self-other resonance and top-down control was negatively correlated with subjects' offers. This study suggests that the interaction between self-other resonance and top-down control processes are an important component of prosocial inclinations towards others, even when biological stimuli associated with self-other resonance are limited. These findings support a view of prosocial decision-making grounded in embodied cognition. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Effect of Child Physical Abuse and Neglect on Aggressive, Withdrawn, and Prosocial Behavior.

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Prino, Claudia T.; Peyrot, Mark

1994-01-01

This study investigated aggressive, withdrawn, and prosocial behavior in 21 physically abused, 26 nonabused-neglected, and 21 nonabused-nonneglected children, ages 5-8. No single dimension adequately discriminated children in each of the three groups. Full discrimination was achieved only when aggressive, withdrawn, and prosocial behaviors were…

Training Emotion Cultivates Morality: How Loving-Kindness Meditation Hones Compassion and Increases Prosocial Behavior.

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Bankard, Joseph

2015-12-01

Traditional moral philosophy has long focused on rationality, principled thinking, and good old-fashioned willpower, but recent evidence strongly suggests that moral judgments and prosocial behavior are more heavily influenced by emotion and intuition. As the evidence mounts, rational traditions emphasizing deliberative analysis and conscious decision making are called into question. The first section highlights some compelling evidence supporting the primacy of affective states in motivating moral judgments and behavior. The real challenge is finding a way to align intuition with desired behavior. In cool reflective states, one may desire to be a kind and loving person. But when it is time to act, the moment is often accompanied by strong affect-laden intuitions. I argue that if affective states are the primary motivators of behavior, then moral sentiments must be trained through habituation in order to increase prosocial behavior. The second section provides empirical evidence linking emotional training with increased prosociality. To highlight this connection, focus is placed on the relationship between habitual meditation training, compassion, and prosocial behavior. Recent studies by Antoine Lutz, Richard Davidson, Susanne Leiberg, and others show that various meditation practices can dramatically affect the human person at various levels, i.e., increased physical health, neural restructuring, regulation and development of emotions, and increased helping behavior, to name a few. The current article focuses on the impact the habit of loving-kindness meditation (LKM) has on compassion and prosocial behavior. Recent studies strongly support the conclusion that LKM training hones compassion and ultimately leads to an increase in compassionate behavior.

Two Sides of the Same Coin? The Relations between Prosocial and Physically Aggressive Behaviors

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McGinley, Meredith; Carlo, Gustavo

2007-01-01

The direct and indirect relations between six types of prosocial behavior and physical aggression were examined. Data were gathered from 252 college students (M age = 21.67 years; 184 women) who completed measures of sympathy, prosocial behavior, and physical aggression. Structural equation modeling revealed that sympathy fully mediated the…

The Multidimensionality of Prosocial Behaviors and Evidence of Measurement Equivalence in Mexican American and European American Early Adolescents

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Carlo, Gustavo; Knight, George P.; McGinley, Meredith; Zamboanga, Byron L.; Jarvis, Lorna Hernandez

2010-01-01

There is growing recognition of the need to examine distinct forms of prosocial behaviors and to conduct research on prosocial behaviors among ethnic minorities. Middle school students (mean age = 12.67 years; 54% girls; European American, n = 290; Mexican American, n = 152) completed a multidimensional measure of prosocial behavior and measures…

The Role of Relative Intrinsic Aspirations in Chinese Adolescents' Prosocial Behaviors

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Fu, Xinyuan; Liu, Xiaolan; Yang, Ying; Zhang, Mengyuan; Kou, Yu

2018-01-01

We examined Chinese adolescents' aspirations and explored the relationship between relative intrinsic aspirations (RIA) and prosocial behaviors and whether adolescents with different levels of RIA have different emphases on self- and other-oriented considerations during prosocial decision making. In Study 1, 236 participants were recruited and…

Vagal activity is quadratically related to prosocial traits, prosocial emotions, and observer perceptions of prosociality.

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Kogan, Aleksandr; Oveis, Christopher; Carr, Evan W; Gruber, June; Mauss, Iris B; Shallcross, Amanda; Impett, Emily A; van der Lowe, Ilmo; Hui, Bryant; Cheng, Cecilia; Keltner, Dacher

2014-12-01

In the present article, we introduce the quadratic vagal activity-prosociality hypothesis, a theoretical framework for understanding the vagus nerve's involvement in prosociality. We argue that vagus nerve activity supports prosocial behavior by regulating physiological systems that enable emotional expression, empathy for others' mental and emotional states, the regulation of one's own distress, and the experience of positive emotions. However, we contend that extremely high levels of vagal activity can be detrimental to prosociality. We present 3 studies providing support for our model, finding consistent evidence of a quadratic relationship between respiratory sinus arrhythmia--the degree to which the vagus nerve modulates the heart rate--and prosociality. Individual differences in vagal activity were quadratically related to prosocial traits (Study 1), prosocial emotions (Study 2), and outside ratings of prosociality by complete strangers (Study 3). Thus, too much or too little vagal activity appears to be detrimental to prosociality. The present article provides the 1st theoretical and empirical account of the nonlinear relationship between vagal activity and prosociality.

Gratitude and prosocial behavior: helping when it costs you.

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Bartlett, Monica Y; DeSteno, David

2006-04-01

The ability of the emotion gratitude to shape costly prosocial behavior was examined in three studies employing interpersonal emotion inductions and requests for assistance. Study 1 demonstrated that gratitude increases efforts to assist a benefactor even when such efforts are costly (i.e., hedonically negative), and that this increase differs from the effects of a general positive affective state. Additionally, mediational analyses revealed that gratitude, as opposed to simple awareness of reciprocity norms, drove helping behavior. Furthering the theory that gratitude mediates prosocial behavior, Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 and demonstrated gratitude's ability to function as an incidental emotion by showing it can increase assistance provided to strangers. Study 3 revealed that this incidental effect dissipates if one is made aware of the true cause of the emotional state. Implications of these findings for the role of gratitude in building relationships are discussed.

Teaching Children to Care: Engendering Prosocial Behavior through Humanistic Parenting.

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Horton-Parker, Radha J.

1998-01-01

Focuses on how counselors can help parents understand that parenting styles influence children's behavior. Offers ideas for humanistic parenting to elicit socially desirable outcomes behavior in children. Presents strategies that parents can use to increase the likelihood that young children will develop prosocial behavior and learn to respond to…

“Remain calm. Be kind”: Effects of relaxing video games on aggressive and prosocial behavior

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Whitaker, J.L.; Bushman, B.J.

2012-01-01

Research shows that violent video games increase aggressive behavior and decrease prosocial behavior, but could relaxing video games have the opposite effects? In two experiments, participants were randomly assigned to play a relaxing, neutral, or prosocial video game for 20 min. In Experiment 1,

Aging, Empathy, and Prosociality

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Sheehan, Alexander H.; Dahlben, Brian; Gutchess, Angela H.

2015-01-01

Objectives. Although empathy is a well-established motivation in younger adults for helping others, it is not known whether this extends to aging. Prioritization of socioemotional goals with age may increase the salience of helping others (i.e., prosocial behavior), but older adults also experience decreased cognitive empathy. Thus, we investigated age-related differences in relationships among empathy and prosocial behavior. Method. Participants were 24 younger (M = 19.8 years) and 24 older (M = 77.9 years) healthy adults. Whereas participants believed the study involved playing the dictator game, in reality, state emotional empathy was induced implicitly through a note from an opponent describing their experience with cancer. Prosocial behavior was measured by participants’ monetary offers to that opponent. Results. Older adults showed greater prosocial behavior due to the empathy induction than younger adults. There was a positive association between state emotional empathy ratings and prosocial behavior in older, but not in younger adults, and preliminary evidence for higher state emotional empathy levels in older adults with higher trait cognitive empathy. Discussion. This suggests that in contexts relevant to socioemotional goals, older adults may be more motivated than younger adults to help others and state emotional empathy may be a potential mechanism for greater prosocial behavior in aging. PMID:24115776

Why and How to Promote Adolescents' Prosocial Behaviors: Direct, Mediated and Moderated Effects of the CEPIDEA School-Based Program.

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Caprara, Gian Vittorio; Luengo Kanacri, Bernadette Paula; Zuffianò, Antonio; Gerbino, Maria; Pastorelli, Concetta

2015-12-01

Prosocial behaviors are considered integral to intervention goals that seek to promote successful youth development. This study examines the effect of a school-based intervention program entirely designed to promote prosocial behaviors called Promoting Prosocial and Emotional Skills to Counteract Externalizing Problems in Adolescence (Italian acronym CEPIDEA). The CEPIDEA curriculum was incorporated into routine educational practices and included five major components that reflect the personal determinants of prosocial behavior during adolescence. The present study assessed 151 students (48.7% female; M(age) = 12.4) of the intervention school and 140 students (51.2% female; M(age) = 13.0) of the control school at three points. A multi-group latent curve analysis revealed that the intervention group, compared with the control group, showed an increase in prosocial behavior, interpersonal self-efficacy beliefs, and agreeableness along with a decrease in physical aggression above and beyond the normative developmental trend of the these variables. Participants of the intervention also obtained higher grades than the control group at the end of middle school. Moderation effects for prosocial behavior and agreeableness evidenced that those who benefited most from the intervention were those adolescents with lower normative development of prosocial behavior, low initial level of agreeableness, and high initial level of physical aggression. The results also showed that the increase of prosocial behaviors mediated the decline of verbal aggression in adolescents who had attended the intervention. These findings suggest that interventions aimed at promoting prosocial behaviors while having the potential to support positive outcomes may also counteract or redirect negative trajectories of functioning.

Longitudinal Relations among Positivity, Perceived Positive School Climate, and Prosocial Behavior in Colombian Adolescents

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Luengo Kanacri, Bernadette P.; Eisenberg, Nancy; Thartori, Eriona; Pastorelli, Concetta; Uribe Tirado, Liliana M.; Gerbino, Maria; Caprara, Gian V.

2017-01-01

Bidirectional relations among adolescents' positivity, perceived positive school climate, and prosocial behavior were examined in Colombian youth. Also, the role of a positive school climate in mediating the relation of positivity to prosocial behaviors was tested. Adolescents (N = 151; M[subscript age] of child in Wave 1 = 12.68, SD = 1.06; 58.9%…

Contemporaneous and 1-Year Longitudinal Prediction of Children's Prosocial Behavior from Sympathy and Moral Motivation

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Malti, Tina; Gummerum, Michaela; Buchmann, Marlis

2007-01-01

The authors investigated the contemporaneous and longitudinal relations of children's (M age = 6.4 years) prosocial behavior to sympathy and moral motivation. Mothers and kindergarten teachers rated children's prosocial behavior. The authors measured sympathy via self- and adult reports. Moral motivation was assessed by children's attribution of…

Does pet arrival trigger prosocial behaviors in individuals with autism?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marine Grandgeorge

Full Text Available Alteration of social interactions especially prosocial behaviors--an important aspect of development--is one of the characteristics of autistic disorders. Numerous strategies or therapies are used to improve communication skills or at least to reduce social impairments. Animal-assisted therapies are used widely but their relevant benefits have never been scientifically evaluated. In the present study, we evaluated the association between the presence or the arrival of pets in families with an individual with autism and the changes in his or her prosocial behaviors. Of 260 individuals with autism--on the basis of presence or absence of pets--two groups of 12 individuals and two groups of 8 individuals were assigned to: study 1 (pet arrival after age of 5 versus no pet and study 2 (pet versus no pet, respectively. Evaluation of social impairment was assessed at two time periods using the 36-items ADI-R algorithm and a parental questionnaire about their child-pet relationships. The results showed that 2 of the 36 items changed positively between the age of 4 to 5 (t(0 and time of assessment (t(1 in the pet arrival group (study 1: "offering to share" and "offering comfort". Interestingly, these two items reflect prosocial behaviors. There seemed to be no significant changes in any item for the three other groups. The interactions between individuals with autism and their pets were more--qualitatively and quantitatively--reported in the situation of pet arrival than pet presence since birth. These findings open further lines of research on the impact of pet's presence or arrival in families with an individual with autism. Given the potential ability of individuals with autism to develop prosocial behaviors, related studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms involved in the development of such child-pet relationship.

Does pet arrival trigger prosocial behaviors in individuals with autism?

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Grandgeorge, Marine; Tordjman, Sylvie; Lazartigues, Alain; Lemonnier, Eric; Deleau, Michel; Hausberger, Martine

2012-01-01

Alteration of social interactions especially prosocial behaviors--an important aspect of development--is one of the characteristics of autistic disorders. Numerous strategies or therapies are used to improve communication skills or at least to reduce social impairments. Animal-assisted therapies are used widely but their relevant benefits have never been scientifically evaluated. In the present study, we evaluated the association between the presence or the arrival of pets in families with an individual with autism and the changes in his or her prosocial behaviors. Of 260 individuals with autism--on the basis of presence or absence of pets--two groups of 12 individuals and two groups of 8 individuals were assigned to: study 1 (pet arrival after age of 5 versus no pet) and study 2 (pet versus no pet), respectively. Evaluation of social impairment was assessed at two time periods using the 36-items ADI-R algorithm and a parental questionnaire about their child-pet relationships. The results showed that 2 of the 36 items changed positively between the age of 4 to 5 (t(0)) and time of assessment (t(1)) in the pet arrival group (study 1): "offering to share" and "offering comfort". Interestingly, these two items reflect prosocial behaviors. There seemed to be no significant changes in any item for the three other groups. The interactions between individuals with autism and their pets were more--qualitatively and quantitatively--reported in the situation of pet arrival than pet presence since birth. These findings open further lines of research on the impact of pet's presence or arrival in families with an individual with autism. Given the potential ability of individuals with autism to develop prosocial behaviors, related studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms involved in the development of such child-pet relationship.

Adolescent Narcissism, Aggression, and Prosocial Behavior: The Relevance of Socially Desirable Responding.

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Barry, Christopher T; Lui, Joyce H L; Anderson, Alexandra C

2017-01-01

An important threat to validity in personality research pertains to an individual's motivation to respond in a socially desirable manner on self-report inventories. This issue was examined in this study in the context of narcissism, aggression, and prosocial behavior in a sample of at-risk adolescents. Participants were 161 adolescents (128 males, 29 females, 4 not reported) ranging in age from 16 to 19 years who were attending a residential program for youth who have dropped out of school. Overall, socially desirable response tendencies were negatively correlated with vulnerable narcissism and self-reported aggression. Moreover, low socially desirable responses strengthened the relation between narcissism and self-reported aggression. Socially desirable responding was not associated with self- or peer-reported prosocial behavior and did not moderate the relation between narcissism and prosocial behavior. These findings indicate that the relation between narcissism and aggression is attenuated by concerns with social desirability. However, further work is needed in broader samples of adolescents to more closely examine whether social desirability concerns actually mitigate aggression among some youth or signify underreporting of one's problem behaviors.

Effects of proactive and prosocial behavior on critical incidents of Lima schoolchildren

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Jhon A. Holguin Alvarez

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The study focuses on the theoretical approaches of proactive and prosocial behavior of Covey (1996, Xifra (2009 and Roche-Olivar (2004, with the objective of analyzing the significant differences in the decrease of critical incidents in public school students And private schools in the district of San Juan de Lurigancho, for which two experimental workshops with quasiexperimental methodology were applied in three groups of 1st and 2nd high school students (G. Exp. (Proactivity = 17; G. Exp. Prosociality = 15; G. Control = 16; A behavior observation log and the PANIC instrument of Monereo and Monte (2011 were used. The results indicate significant differences with better effects in the workshop of proactive behavior (Hrp = 16.59, p <.05; A comparison of the verbal violence dimension in which better effects were obtained by the prosocial behavior workshop (Hrp = 14.12, p <.05; Finally, the limitations were that students in the proactivity workshop slowed down their critical incidents by demonstrating excessive personalism, and for later studies, it is suggested to work the above mentioned workshops, including assaulted students.

Prosociality and proenvironmentalism as components of sustainable behavior: toward an integrated approach to sustainability education

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Alexander Neaman

2015-02-01

Full Text Available The concept of sustainable development includes three interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars: economic development, social development and environmental protection [1]. Below, we provide arguments that proenvironmentalism and prosociality are components of a broader behavior, named “sustainable behavior”. We thus suggest that traditional emphasis of environmental education on protecting and/or preserving the environment may be reinforced with prosocial education. Such a combined educational approach can promote sustainable behavior, contributing to multi- and inter-disciplinary efforts to create an ecologically, socially and perhaps even economically sustainable society. Proenvironmental behavior is defined as actions which contribute towards environmental preservation and/or conservation [2]. In turn, prosocial behavior is defined as voluntary behavior intended to benefit others or promote harmonious relationship with others [3], [4]. Previous studies demonstrate correlations between proenvironmental and prosocial behavior [5], [7]. For example, Joireman et al. [8] found an association between prosociality and the use of public transport, which has a lower impact on the environment, in comparison to the use of individual motorized transport. Furthermore, [5] and [6] empirically demonstrated that prosociality and proenvironmentalism are components of a broader behavior, which they called “sustainable behavior” since it includes actions aimed at protecting both the natural and the human (social environments. With regards to the environmental aspects of sustainability, some authors suggest that “environmental problems” are actually problems of human behavior [9]. The first definition of environmental education [10] emphasized the importance of educating the general public about taking action to solve environmental problems. Based on the in-depth analysis of [11], the main emphasis of environmental education is limited to the

The his and hers of prosocial behavior: an examination of the social psychology of gender.

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Eagly, Alice H

2009-11-01

Prosocial behavior consists of behaviors regarded as beneficial to others, including helping, sharing, comforting, guiding, rescuing, and defending others. Although women and men are similar in engaging in extensive prosocial behavior, they are different in their emphasis on particular classes of these behaviors. The specialty of women is prosocial behaviors that are more communal and relational, and that of men is behaviors that are more agentic and collectively oriented as well as strength intensive. These sex differences, which appear in research in various settings, match widely shared gender role beliefs. The origins of these beliefs lie in the division of labor, which reflects a biosocial interaction between male and female physical attributes and the social structure. The effects of gender roles on behavior are mediated by hormonal processes, social expectations, and individual dispositions. Copyright 2009 by the American Psychological Association

Empathy and nonattachment independently predict peer nominations of prosocial behavior of adolescents.

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Sahdra, Baljinder K; Ciarrochi, Joseph; Parker, Philip D; Marshall, Sarah; Heaven, Patrick

2015-01-01

There is a plethora of research showing that empathy promotes prosocial behavior among young people. We examined a relatively new construct in the mindfulness literature, nonattachment, defined as a flexible way of relating to one's experiences without clinging to or suppressing them. We tested whether nonattachment could predict prosociality above and beyond empathy. Nonattachment implies high cognitive flexibility and sufficient mental resources to step out of excessive self-cherishing to be there for others in need. Multilevel Poisson models using a sample of 15-year olds (N = 1831) showed that empathy and nonattachment independently predicted prosocial behaviors of helpfulness and kindness, as judged by same-sex and opposite-sex peers, except for when boys nominated girls. The effects of nonattachment remained substantial in more conservative models including self-esteem and peer nominations of liking.

Friend Influence on Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Motivational Factors and Friendship Characteristics

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Barry, Carolyn McNamara; Wentzel, Kathryn R.

2006-01-01

This study examined motivation (prosocial goals), individual characteristics (sex, ethnicity, and grade), and friendship characteristics (affective quality, interaction frequency, and friendship stability) in relation to middle adolescents' prosocial behavior over time. Ninth- and 10th-grade students (N=208) attending a suburban, mid-Atlantic…

The Early Emergence of Guilt-Motivated Prosocial Behavior.

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Vaish, Amrisha; Carpenter, Malinda; Tomasello, Michael

2016-11-01

Guilt serves vital prosocial functions: It motivates transgressors to make amends, thus restoring damaged relationships. Previous developmental research on guilt has not clearly distinguished it from sympathy for a victim or a tendency to repair damage in general. The authors tested 2- and 3-year-old children (N = 62 and 64, respectively) in a 2 × 2 design, varying whether or not a mishap caused harm to someone and whether children themselves caused that mishap. Three-year-olds showed greatest reparative behavior when they had caused the mishap and it caused harm, thus showing a specific effect of guilt. Two-year-olds repaired more whenever harm was caused, no matter by whom, thus showing only an effect of sympathy. Guilt as a distinct motivator of prosocial behavior thus emerges by at least 3 years. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

A Mind-Reader Does Not Always Have Deontological Moral Judgments and Prosocial Behavior: A Developmental Perspective.

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Hao, Jian; Liu, Yanchun

2016-01-01

The rationalistic theories of morality emphasize that reasoning plays an important role in moral judgments and prosocial behavior. Theory of mind as a reasoning ability in the mental domain has been considered a facilitator of moral development. The present study examined whether theory of mind was consistently positively associated with morality from middle childhood to late adulthood. Two hundred and four participants, including 48 elementary school children, 45 adolescents, 62 younger adults, and 49 older adults, completed theory of mind, moral judgment and prosocial behavior tasks. Theory of mind was measured with strange stories that tapped into an understanding of lies, white lies, double bluffs, irony, and persuasion. Moral judgments were measured with variants of the trolley dilemma. Prosocial behavior was measured through participants' performance in an interactive situation in which a helping request was made. The results indicated specific rather than similar developmental trajectories of theory of mind, moral judgments, and prosocial behavior. There was a quadratic trend in theory of mind, a combination of quadratic and cubic trends in deontological moral judgments and a linear decline in helping behavior. It is thus suggested that theory of mind may not be associated with morality in an unchanging way during development. Further results indicated that theory of mind and deontological moral judgments were negatively correlated for children, adolescents, and older adults but positively correlated for younger adults. Theory of mind and helping behavior were positively correlated for children but negatively correlated for adolescents. However, the relationships disappeared in adulthood. In sum, the present study reveals that theory of mind may be a nice tool for its facilitation of deontological moral judgments and prosocial behavior, but it may also be a nasty tool for its blocking of deontological moral judgments and prosocial behavior. Moreover, theory

Short-term effects of prosocial video games on aggression: an event-related potential study

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Liu, Yanling; Teng, Zhaojun; Lan, Haiying; Zhang, Xin; Yao, Dezhong

2015-01-01

Previous research has shown that exposure to violent video games increases aggression, whereas exposure to prosocial video games can reduce aggressive behavior. However, little is known about the neural correlates of these behavioral effects. This work is the first to investigate the electrophysiological features of the relationship between playing a prosocial video game and inhibition of aggressive behavior. Forty-nine subjects played either a prosocial or a neutral video game for 20 min, then participated in an event-related potential (ERP) experiment based on an oddball paradigm and designed to test electrophysiological responses to prosocial and violent words. Finally, subjects completed a competitive reaction time task (CRTT) which based on Taylor's Aggression Paradigm and contains reaction time and noise intensity chosen as a measure of aggressive behavior. The results show that the prosocial video game group (compared to the neutral video game group) displayed smaller P300 amplitudes, were more accurate in distinguishing violent words, and were less aggressive as evaluated by the CRTT of noise intensity chosen. A mediation analysis shows that the P300 amplitude evoked by violent words partially mediates the relationship between type of video game and subsequent aggressive behavior. The results support theories based on the General Learning Model. We provide converging behavioral and neural evidence that exposure to prosocial media may reduce aggression. PMID:26257620

Short-Term Effects of Prosocial Video Games on Aggression: An Event-Related Potential Study

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Yanling eLiu

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Previous research has shown that exposure to violent video games increases aggression, whereas exposure to prosocial video games can reduce aggressive behavior. However, little is known about the neural correlates of these behavioral effects. This work is the first to investigate the electrophysiological features of the relationship between playing a prosocial video game and inhibition of aggressive behavior. Forty-nine subjects played either a prosocial or a neutral video game for 20 minutes, then participated in an event-related potential (ERP experiment based on an oddball paradigm and designed to test electrophysiological responses to prosocial and violent words. Finally, subjects completed a competitive reaction time task (CRTT, which is based on Taylor’s Aggression Paradigm and measures both reaction time and noise intensity preference as indices of aggressive behavior. The results show that the prosocial video game group (compared to the neutral video game group displayed smaller P300 amplitudes, were more accurate in distinguishing violent words, and were less aggressive as evaluated by the CRTT (noise intensity preference. A mediation analysis shows that the P300 amplitude evoked by violent words partially mediates the relationship between type of video game and subsequent aggressive behavior. The results support theories based on the General Learning Model. We provide converging behavioral and neural evidence that exposure to prosocial media may reduce aggression.

Short-term effects of prosocial video games on aggression: an event-related potential study.

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Liu, Yanling; Teng, Zhaojun; Lan, Haiying; Zhang, Xin; Yao, Dezhong

2015-01-01

Previous research has shown that exposure to violent video games increases aggression, whereas exposure to prosocial video games can reduce aggressive behavior. However, little is known about the neural correlates of these behavioral effects. This work is the first to investigate the electrophysiological features of the relationship between playing a prosocial video game and inhibition of aggressive behavior. Forty-nine subjects played either a prosocial or a neutral video game for 20 min, then participated in an event-related potential (ERP) experiment based on an oddball paradigm and designed to test electrophysiological responses to prosocial and violent words. Finally, subjects completed a competitive reaction time task (CRTT) which based on Taylor's Aggression Paradigm and contains reaction time and noise intensity chosen as a measure of aggressive behavior. The results show that the prosocial video game group (compared to the neutral video game group) displayed smaller P300 amplitudes, were more accurate in distinguishing violent words, and were less aggressive as evaluated by the CRTT of noise intensity chosen. A mediation analysis shows that the P300 amplitude evoked by violent words partially mediates the relationship between type of video game and subsequent aggressive behavior. The results support theories based on the General Learning Model. We provide converging behavioral and neural evidence that exposure to prosocial media may reduce aggression.

Antisocial and Prosocial Behavior in Sport: The Role of Motivational Climate, Basic Psychological Needs, and Moral Disengagement.

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Hodge, Ken; Gucciardi, Daniel F

2015-06-01

The purpose of this investigation was to examine whether the relationships between contextual factors and basic psychological needs were related to antisocial and prosocial behavior in sport. A two-study project employing Bayesian path analysis was conducted with competitive athletes (Study 1, n = 291; Study 2, n = 272). Coach and teammate autonomy-supportive climates had meaningful direct relations with need satisfaction and prosocial behavior. Coach and teammate controlling climates had meaningful direct relations with antisocial behavior. Need satisfaction was both directly and indirectly related with both prosocial and antisocial behavior, whereas moral disengagement was directly and indirectly related with antisocial behavior. Overall, these findings reflected substantial evidence from the literature on self-determination theory that autonomy-supportive motivational climates are important environmental influences for need satisfaction, and are important correlates of prosocial behavior in sport, whereas controlling coach and teammate climates, along with moral disengagement, were important correlates of antisocial behavior in sport.

PERILAKU PROSOSIAL (PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR ANAK USIA DINI DAN PENGELOLAAN KELAS MELALUI PENGELOMPOKAN USIA RANGKAP (MULTIAGE GROUPING

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Elvrida Sandra Matondang

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract: The aspect of moral development is of great concern of early childhood caregivers. Moral development, which is now better known as prosocial behaviors include behaviors such as empathy, generosity, cooperation, caring, and many more. Various attempts to build prosocial behavior has been carried out in kindergarten, including in one of international preschools  in Bandung that management class is using the multiage grouping.  According to this phenomenon which needed to be achieved, such as the form of prosocial behavior of the child at the multiage grouping, factors that affect the incidence of prosocial behavior in multiage grouping, teachers intervention to any problems relate to prosocial behavior in the multiage grouping, the efforts of teachers to develop prosocial behavior in multiage grouping, the efforts of teachers to manage classes with the concept of multiage grouping. The purpose of doing this research on the grounds of how the management class that uses multiage grouping can increase prosocial behavior of children between the age range of 3-6 years.  The method used in this study is a qualitative approach using case studies, data collection is done by observation, interview and documentation. The findings of this study represent children’s prosocial behavior in the form of cooperative behavior, friendship, helping, sharing, and caring. Children prosocial behavior should practically continually place in their environment and if the foundation is strong enough, they will easily adjust to school environment, especially in a school where the class management is using multiage grouping. Keywords: Early Childhood, Multiage Grouping, Pro-social Behavior   Abstrak: Aspek perkembangan moral adalah perhatian besar dari pengasuh anak usia dini. perkembangan moral, yang sekarang lebih dikenal sebagai perilaku prososial mencakup perilaku seperti empati, kedermawanan, kerjasama, peduli, dan banyak lagi. Berbagai upaya untuk

A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior.

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Grant, Adam M; Gino, Francesca

2010-06-01

Although research has established that receiving expressions of gratitude increases prosocial behavior, little is known about the psychological mechanisms that mediate this effect. We propose that gratitude expressions can enhance prosocial behavior through both agentic and communal mechanisms, such that when helpers are thanked for their efforts, they experience stronger feelings of self-efficacy and social worth, which motivate them to engage in prosocial behavior. In Experiments 1 and 2, receiving a brief written expression of gratitude motivated helpers to assist both the beneficiary who expressed gratitude and a different beneficiary. These effects of gratitude expressions were mediated by perceptions of social worth and not by self-efficacy or affect. In Experiment 3, we constructively replicated these effects in a field experiment: A manager's gratitude expression increased the number of calls made by university fundraisers, which was mediated by social worth but not self-efficacy. In Experiment 4, a different measure of social worth mediated the effects of an interpersonal gratitude expression. Our results support the communal perspective rather than the agentic perspective: Gratitude expressions increase prosocial behavior by enabling individuals to feel socially valued. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Reciprocity of Prosocial Behavior in Japanese Preschool Children

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Fujisawa, Keiko K.; Kutsukake, Nobuyuki; Hasegawa, Toshikazu

2008-01-01

This study investigated the reciprocity of prosocial behavior among 3- and 4-year-old Japanese preschool children during free-play time. Matrix correlation tests revealed positive correlations between the frequencies of object offering given and received within dyads and between the frequencies of helping given and received within dyads. These…

Parent-Adolescent Conflict and Adolescent Antisocial and Prosocial Behavior: A Longitudinal Study in a Chinese Context.

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Shek, Daniel T. L.; Ma, Hing Keung

2001-01-01

Examined the relationships between parent-adolescent conflict and antisocial and prosocial behavior in Chinese adolescents. Results showed that father-adolescent conflict and mother-adolescent conflict were concurrently related to adolescent antisocial and prosocial behavior. Findings suggest that the linkage between father-adolescent conflict and…

Dynamic Duos? Jamaican Fruit Bats (Artibeus jamaicensis Do Not Show Prosocial Behavior in a Release Paradigm

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Eric Hoffmaster

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Once thought to be uniquely human, prosocial behavior has been observed in a number of species, including vampire bats that engage in costly food-sharing. Another social chiropteran, Jamaican fruit bats (Artibeus jamaicensis, have been observed to engage in cooperative mate guarding, and thus might be expected to display prosocial behavior as well. However, frugivory and hematophagy diets may impose different selection pressures on prosocial preferences, given that prosocial preferences may depend upon cognitive abilities selected by different ecological constraints. Thus, we assessed whether Jamaican fruit bats would assist a conspecific in an escape paradigm in which a donor could opt to release a recipient from an enclosure. The test apparatus contained two compartments—one of which was equipped with a sensor that, once triggered, released the trap door of the adjacent compartment. Sixty-six exhaustive pairs of 12 bats were tested, with each bat in each role, twice when the recipient was present and twice when absent. Bats decreased their behavior of releasing the trapdoor in both conditions over time, decreasing the behavior slightly more rapidly in the recipient absent condition. Bats did not release the door more often when recipients were present, regardless of the recipient; thus, there was no clear evidence of prosocial behavior.

Conceptions of Success: Their Correlates with Prosocial Orientation and Behavior in Chinese Adolescents.

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Cheung, Ping Chung; Ma, Hing Keung; Shek, Daniel T. L.

1998-01-01

Data from a sample of 673 Chinese adolescents lent support to the hypothesis that concepts of success or achievement goals affect both inclination to and the actual performance of prosocial acts. Sex differences and grade differences in the relationship between conceptions of success and prosocial and antisocial behaviors were found. Discusses…

Good soldiers and good actors: prosocial and impression management motives as interactive predictors of affiliative citizenship behaviors.

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Grant, Adam M; Mayer, David M

2009-07-01

Researchers have discovered inconsistent relationships between prosocial motives and citizenship behaviors. We draw on impression management theory to propose that impression management motives strengthen the association between prosocial motives and affiliative citizenship by encouraging employees to express citizenship in ways that both "do good" and "look good." We report 2 studies that examine the interactions of prosocial and impression management motives as predictors of affiliative citizenship using multisource data from 2 different field samples. Across the 2 studies, we find positive interactions between prosocial and impression management motives as predictors of affiliative citizenship behaviors directed toward other people (helping and courtesy) and the organization (initiative). Study 2 also shows that only prosocial motives predict voice-a challenging citizenship behavior. Our results suggest that employees who are both good soldiers and good actors are most likely to emerge as good citizens in promoting the status quo.

Adolescents' aggressive and prosocial behaviors: links with social information processing, negative emotionality, moral affect, and moral cognition.

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Laible, Deborah J; Murphy, Tia Panfile; Augustine, Mairin

2014-01-01

The goal of this study was to examine whether moral affect, moral cognition, negative emotionality, and attribution biases independently predicted adolescents' prosocial and aggressive behavior in adolescence. A total of 148 adolescents completed self-report measures of prosocial and aggressive behavior, moral affect, moral cognition, negative emotionality, and attribution biases. Although in general all 3 factors (emotional, moral, and social cognitive) were correlated with adolescent social behavior, the most consistent independent predictors of adolescent social behavior were moral affect and cognition. These findings have important implications for intervention and suggest that programs that promote adolescent perspective taking, moral reasoning, and moral affect are needed to reduce aggressive behavior and promote prosocial behavior.

Longitudinal Relations among Parenting Styles, Prosocial Behaviors, and Academic Outcomes in U.S. Mexican Adolescents

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Carlo, Gustavo; White, Rebecca M. B.; Streit, Cara; Knight, George P.; Zeiders, Katharine H.

2018-01-01

This article examined parenting styles and prosocial behaviors as longitudinal predictors of academic outcomes in U.S. Mexican youth. Adolescents (N = 462; Wave 1 M[subscript age] = 10.4 years; 48.1% girls), parents, and teachers completed parenting, prosocial behavior, and academic outcome measures at 5th, 10th, and 12th grades.…

The Relation of Moral Emotion Attributions to Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior: A Meta-Analysis

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Malti, Tina; Krettenauer, Tobias

2013-01-01

This meta-analytic review of 42 studies covering 8,009 participants (ages 4-20) examines the relation of moral emotion attributions to prosocial and antisocial behavior. A significant association is found between moral emotion attributions and prosocial and antisocial behaviors ("d" = 0.26, 95% CI [0.15, 0.38]; "d" = 0.39, 95%…

Utilizing Social Stories to Increase Prosocial Behavior and Reduce Problem Behavior in Young Children with Autism

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Lisa A. Wright

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the effects of a Social Story intervention on the behavior rates of 4 young children with autism using a multiple-baseline across participants design. The results of this paper indicate that the Social Story was modestly effective in increasing prosocial behavior rates in 3 of the 4 participants, though none of the participants reached the prosocial behavior rates of age and gender-matched peers. The problem behaviors of the participants modestly decreased with the intervention. Maintenance of skills over a 1-month period was demonstrated for all of the participants. The variable and inconsistent results of the research add to the current literature base in support of the use of Social Stories for some children with autism.

The neural components of empathy: Predicting daily prosocial behavior

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Rameson, Lian T.; Lieberman, Matthew D.

2014-01-01

Previous neuroimaging studies on empathy have not clearly identified neural systems that support the three components of empathy: affective congruence, perspective-taking, and prosocial motivation. These limitations stem from a focus on a single emotion per study, minimal variation in amount of social context provided, and lack of prosocial motivation assessment. In the current investigation, 32 participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging session assessing empathic responses to individuals experiencing painful, anxious, and happy events that varied in valence and amount of social context provided. They also completed a 14-day experience sampling survey that assessed real-world helping behaviors. The results demonstrate that empathy for positive and negative emotions selectively activates regions associated with positive and negative affect, respectively. In addition, the mirror system was more active during empathy for context-independent events (pain), whereas the mentalizing system was more active during empathy for context-dependent events (anxiety, happiness). Finally, the septal area, previously linked to prosocial motivation, was the only region that was commonly activated across empathy for pain, anxiety, and happiness. Septal activity during each of these empathic experiences was predictive of daily helping. These findings suggest that empathy has multiple input pathways, produces affect-congruent activations, and results in septally mediated prosocial motivation. PMID:22887480

The neural components of empathy: predicting daily prosocial behavior.

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Morelli, Sylvia A; Rameson, Lian T; Lieberman, Matthew D

2014-01-01

Previous neuroimaging studies on empathy have not clearly identified neural systems that support the three components of empathy: affective congruence, perspective-taking, and prosocial motivation. These limitations stem from a focus on a single emotion per study, minimal variation in amount of social context provided, and lack of prosocial motivation assessment. In the current investigation, 32 participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging session assessing empathic responses to individuals experiencing painful, anxious, and happy events that varied in valence and amount of social context provided. They also completed a 14-day experience sampling survey that assessed real-world helping behaviors. The results demonstrate that empathy for positive and negative emotions selectively activates regions associated with positive and negative affect, respectively. In addition, the mirror system was more active during empathy for context-independent events (pain), whereas the mentalizing system was more active during empathy for context-dependent events (anxiety, happiness). Finally, the septal area, previously linked to prosocial motivation, was the only region that was commonly activated across empathy for pain, anxiety, and happiness. Septal activity during each of these empathic experiences was predictive of daily helping. These findings suggest that empathy has multiple input pathways, produces affect-congruent activations, and results in septally mediated prosocial motivation.

Altruism and Indirect Reciprocity: The Interaction of Person and Situation in Prosocial Behavior

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Simpson, Brent; Willer, Robb

2008-01-01

A persistent puzzle in the social and biological sciences is the existence of prosocial behavior, actions that benefit others, often at a cost to oneself. Recent theoretical models and empirical studies of indirect reciprocity show that actors behave prosocially in order to develop an altruistic reputation and receive future benefits from third…

The effects of prosocial video games on prosocial behaviors: International evidence from correlational, longitudinal, and experimental studies

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Gentile, D.A.; Anderson, C.A.; Yukawa, S.; Ihori, N.; Saleem, M.; Ming, L.K.; Liau, A.K.; Khoo, A.; Bushman, B.J.; Huesmann, L.R.; Sakamoto, A.

2009-01-01

Although dozens of studies have documented a relationship between violent video games and aggressive behaviors, very little attention has been paid to potential effects of prosocial games. Theoretically, games in which game characters help and support each other in nonviolent ways should increase

A Mind-Reader Does Not Always Have Deontological Moral Judgments and Prosocial Behavior: A Developmental Perspective

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Hao, Jian; Liu, Yanchun

2016-01-01

The rationalistic theories of morality emphasize that reasoning plays an important role in moral judgments and prosocial behavior. Theory of mind as a reasoning ability in the mental domain has been considered a facilitator of moral development. The present study examined whether theory of mind was consistently positively associated with morality from middle childhood to late adulthood. Two hundred and four participants, including 48 elementary school children, 45 adolescents, 62 younger adults, and 49 older adults, completed theory of mind, moral judgment and prosocial behavior tasks. Theory of mind was measured with strange stories that tapped into an understanding of lies, white lies, double bluffs, irony, and persuasion. Moral judgments were measured with variants of the trolley dilemma. Prosocial behavior was measured through participants' performance in an interactive situation in which a helping request was made. The results indicated specific rather than similar developmental trajectories of theory of mind, moral judgments, and prosocial behavior. There was a quadratic trend in theory of mind, a combination of quadratic and cubic trends in deontological moral judgments and a linear decline in helping behavior. It is thus suggested that theory of mind may not be associated with morality in an unchanging way during development. Further results indicated that theory of mind and deontological moral judgments were negatively correlated for children, adolescents, and older adults but positively correlated for younger adults. Theory of mind and helping behavior were positively correlated for children but negatively correlated for adolescents. However, the relationships disappeared in adulthood. In sum, the present study reveals that theory of mind may be a nice tool for its facilitation of deontological moral judgments and prosocial behavior, but it may also be a nasty tool for its blocking of deontological moral judgments and prosocial behavior. Moreover, theory

The Effects of Satisfaction of Basic Psychological Needs at School on Children’s Prosocial Behavior and Antisocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of School Satisfaction

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Lili Tian

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Grounded in Basic Psychological Need Theory, we examined the direct effects of the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs at school (i.e., satisfaction of autonomy needs at school, satisfaction of relatedness needs at school, and satisfaction of competence needs at school on prosocial behavior and antisocial behavior as well as the mediation effects of school satisfaction on the relations between the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs at school and prosocial behavior as well as antisocial behavior. We employed a sample of 801 Chinese children (429 males; Mage = 9.47 in a three-wave longitudinal study, with each wave occurring 6 months apart. Direct and indirect effects were estimated by Structural Equation Modeling. Results indicated that: (1 Satisfaction of relatedness needs at school and competence needs at school, but not satisfaction of autonomy needs at school, displayed direct effects on prosocial behavior. Also, satisfaction of relatedness needs at school, but not satisfaction of autonomy needs at school or competence needs at school, displayed direct effects on antisocial behavior. (2 Both satisfaction of relatedness needs at school and competence needs at school displayed indirect effects on prosocial behavior and antisocial behavior via school satisfaction as a mediator. However, satisfaction of autonomy needs at school failed to have indirect effects on prosocial behavior or antisocial behavior via school satisfaction. These findings suggest differential predictors of children’s prosocial and antisocial behavior, supporting the separability of the two constructs. The findings also suggest developmental differences in need satisfaction, with the satisfaction of autonomy needs playing a relatively less important role in school-age children. We also discussed limitations and practical applications of the study.

Prosocial Education and the "Feminine" Voice.

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Scott, Kathryn; Oliner, Pearl

Prosocial education consists of school experiences designed to promote prosocial behavior. This paper demonstrates that: (1) there is an absence of prosocial behaviors in educational goals; (2) educational tradition venerates rationality and objectivity associated with "masculine" thinking and denigrates emotionality and relatedness associated…

Electromyographically Assessed Empathic Concern and Empathic Happiness Predict Increased Prosocial Behavior in Adults

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Light, Sharee N.; Moran, Zachary D.; Swander, Lena; Le, Van; Cage, Brandi; Burghy, Cory; Westbrook, Cecilia; Greishar, Larry; Davidson, Richard J.

2016-01-01

The relation between empathy subtypes and prosocial behavior was investigated in a sample of healthy adults. "Empathic concern" and "empathic happiness," defined as negative and positive vicarious emotion (respectively) combined with an other-oriented feeling of “goodwill” (i.e. a thought to do good to others/see others happy), were elicited in 68 adult participants who watched video clips extracted from the television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Prosocial behavior was quantified via performance on a non-monetary altruistic decision-making task involving book selection and donation. Empathic concern and empathic happiness were measured via self-report (immediately following each video clip) and via facial electromyography recorded from corrugator (active during frowning) and zygomatic (active during smiling) facial regions. Facial electromyographic signs of (a) empathic concern (i.e. frowning) during sad video clips, and (b) empathic happiness (i.e. smiling) during happy video clips, predicted increased prosocial behavior in the form of increased goodwill-themed book selection/donation. PMID:25486408

Agency-communion and interest in prosocial behavior: social motives for assimilation and contrast explain sociocultural inconsistencies.

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Gebauer, Jochen E; Sedikides, Constantine; Lüdtke, Oliver; Neberich, Wiebke

2014-10-01

Identifying the "prosocial personality" is a classic project in personality psychology. However, personality traits have been elusive predictors of prosocial behavior, with personality-prosociality relations varying widely across sociocultural contexts. We propose the social motives perspective to account for such sociocultural inconsistencies. According to this perspective, a focal quality of agency (e.g., competence, independence, openness) is the motive to swim against the social tide-agentic social contrast. Conversely, a focal quality of communion (e.g., warmth, interdependence, agreeableness) is the motive to swim with the social tide-communal social assimilation. We report two cross-sectional studies. Study 1 (N = 131,562) defined social context at the country level (11 European countries), whereas Study 2 (N = 56,395) defined it at the country level (11 European countries) and the city level (296 cities within these countries). Communion predicted interest in prosocial behavior comparatively strongly in sociocultural contexts where such interest was common and comparatively weakly where such interest was uncommon. Agency predicted interest in prosocial behavior comparatively strongly in sociocultural contexts where such interest was uncommon and comparatively weakly where such interest was common. The results supported the social motives perspective. Also, the findings help to reestablish the importance of personality for understanding prosociality. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Peer Influence, Peer Status, and Prosocial Behavior: An Experimental Investigation of Peer Socialization of Adolescents' Intentions to Volunteer.

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Choukas-Bradley, Sophia; Giletta, Matteo; Cohen, Geoffrey L; Prinstein, Mitchell J

2015-12-01

Peer influence processes have been documented extensively for a wide range of maladaptive adolescent behaviors. However, peer socialization is not inherently deleterious, and little is known about whether adolescents influence each other's prosocial behaviors, or whether some peers are more influential than others towards positive youth outcomes. This study addressed these questions using an experimental "chat room" paradigm to examine in vivo peer influence of prosocial behavior endorsement. A school-based sample of 304 early adolescents (55% female, 45% male; M(age) = 12.68) believed they were interacting electronically with same-gender grademates (i.e., "e-confederates"), whose peer status was experimentally manipulated. The participants' intent to engage in prosocial behaviors was measured pre-experiment and in subsequent "public" and "private" experimental sessions. Overall, the adolescents conformed to the e-confederates' prosocial responses in public; yet, these peer influence effects were moderated by the peer status of the e-confederates, such that youth more strongly conformed to the high-status e-confederates than to the low-status ones. There also was some evidence that these peer influence effects were maintained in the private session, indicating potential internalization of prosocial peer norms. These findings help bridge the positive youth development and peer influence literatures, with potential implications for campaigns to increase prosocial behaviors.

Virtual superheroes: using superpowers in virtual reality to encourage prosocial behavior.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robin S Rosenberg

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Recent studies have shown that playing prosocial video games leads to greater subsequent prosocial behavior in the real world. However, immersive virtual reality allows people to occupy avatars that are different from them in a perceptually realistic manner. We examine how occupying an avatar with the superhero ability to fly increases helping behavior. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using a two-by-two design, participants were either given the power of flight (their arm movements were tracked to control their flight akin to Superman's flying ability or rode as a passenger in a helicopter, and were assigned one of two tasks, either to help find a missing diabetic child in need of insulin or to tour a virtual city. Participants in the "super-flight" conditions helped the experimenter pick up spilled pens after their virtual experience significantly more than those who were virtual passengers in a helicopter. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that having the "superpower" of flight leads to greater helping behavior in the real world, regardless of how participants used that power. A possible mechanism for this result is that having the power of flight primed concepts and prototypes associated with superheroes (e.g., Superman. This research illustrates the potential of using experiences in virtual reality technology to increase prosocial behavior in the physical world.

The Influences of Family, Peers, School and Media in Children ’s Proso-cial Behaviors

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

惠菲

2014-01-01

Children’s skills of social interaction is a significant index of their following psychological development. Prosocial be-haviors which influenced by many factors are fundamental representatives of social interaction. Present essay illustrates an in-depth review of literature concerning the impacts of family,peers, school and media in Children ’s prosocial behaviors and also in-dicates the limitations of each research.

Sexual risk behavior among youth: modeling the influence of prosocial activities and socioeconomic factors.

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Ramirez-Valles, J; Zimmerman, M A; Newcomb, M D

1998-09-01

Sexual activity among high-school-aged youths has steadily increased since the 1970s, emerging as a significant public health concern. Yet, patterns of youth sexual risk behavior are shaped by social class, race, and gender. Based on sociological theories of financial deprivation and collective socialization, we develop and test a model of the relationships among neighborhood poverty; family structure and social class position; parental involvement; prosocial activities; race; and gender as they predict youth sexual risk behavior. We employ structural equation modeling to test this model on a cross-sectional sample of 370 sexually active high-school students from a midwestern city; 57 percent (n = 209) are males and 86 percent are African American. We find that family structure indirectly predicts sexual risk behavior through neighborhood poverty, parental involvement, and prosocial activities. In addition, family class position indirectly predicts sexual risk behavior through neighborhood poverty and prosocial activities. We address implications for theory and health promotion.

Measuring Prosocial Tendencies in Germany: Sources of Validity and Reliablity of the Revised Prosocial Tendency Measure

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Rodrigues, Johannes; Ulrich, Natalie; Mussel, Patrick; Carlo, Gustavo; Hewig, Johannes

2017-01-01

The prosocial tendencies measure (PTM; Carlo and Randall, 2002) is a widely used measurement for prosocial tendencies in English speaking participants. This instrument distinguishes between six different types of prosocial tendencies that partly share some common basis, but also can be opposed to each other. To examine these constructs in Germany, a study with 1067 participants was conducted. The study investigated the structure of this German version of the PTM-R via exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlations with similar constructs in subsamples as well as via measurement invariance test concerning the original English version. The German translation showed a similar factor structure to the English version in exploratory factor analysis and in confirmatory factor analysis. Measurement invariance was found between the English and German language versions of the PTM and support for the proposed six-factor structure (altruistic, anonymous, compliant, dire, emotional and public prosocial behavior) was also found in confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, the expected interrelations of these factors of prosocial behavior tendencies were obtained. Finally, correlations of the prosocial behavior tendencies with validating constructs and behaviors were found. Thus, the findings stress the importance of seeing prosocial behavior not as a single dimension construct, but as a factored construct which now can also be assessed in German speaking participants. PMID:29270144

Lasting effect of intimate partner violence exposure during preschool on aggressive behavior and prosocial skills.

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Holmes, Megan R; Voith, Laura A; Gromoske, Andrea N

2015-06-01

Intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure can negatively affect children's social behavior. However, it is unknown if the negative effects of IPV exposure during the preschool years are sustained through the early school years, if maladaptive behavior in one domain (e.g., aggressive behavior) is linked to subsequent maladaptive behavior in a different developmental domain (e.g., prosocial skill deficits), and if these relations differ by gender. This study addresses these gaps by using data from a sample of 1,125 children aged 3 to 4 at Time 1 and aged 5 to 7 at Time 2 from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. A series of nested longitudinal structural equation models were tested. Aggressive behavior and prosocial skills were stable across time. Time 1 IPV was associated with increased aggressive behavior at Time 1, which in turn was related to increased Time 2 aggressive behavior. Gender differences emerged; Time 2 IPV was associated with prosocial skills deficits for girls but not boys. A cross-domain relation existed between Time 1 aggressive behavior and Time 2 prosocial skills deficits for boys but not girls. These findings support that behavioral problems demonstrated later in childhood may emerge from earlier adverse developmental experiences and that difficulties in one domain may spill over into other developmental domains. Gender-specific interventions to promote competence in children may contribute to diverting children from maladaptive developmental outcomes. © The Author(s) 2014.

When does self-sacrificial leadership motivate prosocial behavior? It depends on followers' prevention focus.

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De Cremer, David; Mayer, David M; van Dijke, Marius; Bardes, Mary; Schouten, Barbara C

2009-07-01

In the present set of studies, the authors examine the idea that self-sacrificial leadership motivates follower prosocial behavior, particularly among followers with a prevention focus. Drawing on the self-sacrificial leadership literature and regulatory focus theory, the authors provide results from 4 studies (1 laboratory and 3 field studies) that support the research hypothesis. Specifically, the relationship between self-sacrificial leadership and prosocial behavior (i.e., cooperation, organizational citizenship behavior) is stronger among followers who are high in prevention focus. Implications for the importance of taking a follower-centered approach to leadership are discussed.

Sex, violence, & rock n' roll: Longitudinal effects of music on aggression, sex, and prosocial behavior during adolescence.

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Coyne, Sarah M; Padilla-Walker, Laura M

2015-06-01

The current study examined longitudinal associations between listening to aggression, sex, and prosocial behavior in music on a number of behavioral outcomes across a one-year period during adolescence. Adolescents (N = 548, M age = 15.32, 52% female) completed a number of questionnaires on musical preferences, general media use, aggression, sexual outcomes, and prosocial behavior at two different time points separated by about one year. Using structural equation modeling to analyze the data, results revealed that listening to aggression in music was associated with increased aggression and decreased prosocial behavior over time, even when controlling for initial levels of these behaviors. Listening to sexual content in music was associated with earlier initiation of sexual intercourse and a trend for a higher number of sexual partners (reported at Time 2). Prosocial behavior in music was not associated with any behavioral outcome longitudinally. Collectively, these results suggest that listening to certain types of content in music can have a longitudinal effect on behavior during adolescence. Copyright © 2015 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceived neighborhood social resources as determinants of prosocial behavior in early adolescence.

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Lenzi, Michela; Vieno, Alessio; Perkins, Douglas D; Pastore, Massimiliano; Santinello, Massimo; Mazzardis, Sonia

2012-09-01

The present study aims to develop an integrative model that links neighborhood behavioral opportunities and social resources (neighborhood cohesion, neighborhood friendship and neighborhood attachment) to prosocial (sharing, helping, empathic) behavior in early adolescence, taking into account the potential mediating role of perceived support of friends. Path analysis was used to test the proposed theoretical model in a sample of 1,145 Italian early adolescents (6th through 8th graders). More perceived opportunities and social resources in the neighborhood are related to higher levels of adolescent prosocial behavior, and this relationship is partially mediated by perceived social support from friends. The results offer promising implications for future research and intervention programs that aim to modify social systems to improve child and adolescent social competencies.

Peer Influence, Peer Status, and Prosocial Behavior: An Experimental Investigation of Peer Socialization of Adolescents’ Intentions to Volunteer

Science.gov (United States)

Giletta, Matteo; Cohen, Geoffrey L.

2018-01-01

Peer influence processes have been documented extensively for a wide range of maladaptive adolescent behaviors. However, peer socialization is not inherently deleterious, and little is known about whether adolescents influence each other’s prosocial behaviors, or whether some peers are more influential than others towards positive youth outcomes. This study addressed these questions using an experimental “chat room” paradigm to examine in vivo peer influence of prosocial behavior endorsement. A school-based sample of 304 early adolescents (55 % female, 45 % male; Mage = 12.68) believed they were interacting electronically with same-gender grademates (i.e., “e-confederates”), whose peer status was experimentally manipulated. The participants’ intent to engage in prosocial behaviors was measured pre-experiment and in subsequent “public” and “private” experimental sessions. Overall, the adolescents conformed to the e-confederates’ prosocial responses in public; yet, these peer influence effects were moderated by the peer status of the e-confederates, such that youth more strongly conformed to the high-status e-confederates than to the low-status ones. There also was some evidence that these peer influence effects were maintained in the private session, indicating potential internalization of prosocial peer norms. These findings help bridge the positive youth development and peer influence literatures, with potential implications for campaigns to increase prosocial behaviors. PMID:26525387

The Relations of Ego-Resiliency and Emotion Socialization to the Development of Empathy and Prosocial Behavior Across Early Childhood

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Taylor, Zoe E.; Eisenberg, Nancy; Spinrad, Tracy L.; Eggum, Natalie D.; Sulik, Michael J.

2015-01-01

The present study explored early personality and environmental predictors of the development of young children’s empathy, as well as relations of empathy to prosocial behavior with peers at a later age. How children manage their own emotions and behaviors when under stress—their ego-resiliency—would be expected to affect their responses to others’ emotions. Also, socialization experiences, such as the quality of parenting behaviors, have been associated with individual differences in empathy-related responding. We examined whether mothers’ emotion socialization practices and children’s ego-resiliency at 18 months predicted initial levels and change in empathy across five time points (24, 30, 42, 48, and 54 months; N = 242), and whether empathy in turn predicted prosocial behavior with peers at 72/84 months of age. Ego-resiliency and mothers’ expressive encouragement both uniquely predicted the intercept of empathy. Boys’ empathy was lower than girls’ but improved more with age. Initial levels and growth of empathy positively predicted later prosocial behavior. Children’s ego-resiliency predicted the slope of empathy at near significance (p = .054). We also found that the intercept of empathy mediated the relation between ego-resiliency and prosocial behavior as well as the relation between mothers’ expressive encouragement and prosocial behavior. These findings suggest that both parenting and personality characteristics are relevant to the development of empathy during early childhood and might contribute to children’s later prosocial behavior with peers. PMID:24098930

Ranking low, feeling high: How hierarchical position and experienced power promote prosocial behavior in response to procedural justice.

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van Dijke, Marius; De Cremer, David; Langendijk, Gerben; Anderson, Cameron

2018-02-01

Research shows that power can lead to prosocial behavior by facilitating the behavioral expression of dispositional prosocial motivation. However, it is not clear how power may facilitate responses to contextual factors that promote prosocial motivation. Integrating fairness heuristic theory and the situated focus theory of power, we argue that in particular, organization members in lower (vs. higher) hierarchical positions who simultaneously experience a high (vs. low) sense of power respond with prosocial behavior to 1 important antecedent of prosocial motivation, that is, the enactment of procedural justice. The results from a multisource survey among employees and their leaders from various organizations (Study 1) and an experiment using a public goods dilemma (Study 2) support this prediction. Three subsequent experiments (Studies 3-5) show that this effect is mediated by perceptions of authority trustworthiness. Taken together, this research (a) helps resolve the debate regarding whether power promotes or undermines prosocial behavior, (b) demonstrates that hierarchical position and the sense of power can have very different effects on processes that are vital to the functioning of an organization, and (c) helps solve ambiguity regarding the roles of hierarchical position and power in fairness heuristic theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The effect of group attachment and social position on prosocial behavior. Evidence from lab-in-the-field experiments.

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Baldassarri, Delia; Grossman, Guy

2013-01-01

Social life is regulated by norms of fairness that constrain selfish behavior. While a substantial body of scholarship on prosocial behavior has provided evidence of such norms, large inter- and intra-personal variation in prosocial behavior still needs to be explained. The article identifies two social-structural dimensions along which people's generosity varies systematically: group attachment and social position. We conducted lab-in-the-field experiments involving 2,597 members of producer organizations in rural Uganda. Using different variants of the dictator game, we demonstrate that group attachment positively affects prosocial behavior, and that this effect is not simply the by-product of the degree of proximity between individuals. Second, we show that occupying a formal position in an organization or community leads to greater generosity toward in-group members. Taken together, our findings show that prosocial behavior is not an invariant social trait; rather, it varies according to individuals' relative position in the social structure.

The effect of group attachment and social position on prosocial behavior. Evidence from lab-in-the-field experiments.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Delia Baldassarri

Full Text Available Social life is regulated by norms of fairness that constrain selfish behavior. While a substantial body of scholarship on prosocial behavior has provided evidence of such norms, large inter- and intra-personal variation in prosocial behavior still needs to be explained. The article identifies two social-structural dimensions along which people's generosity varies systematically: group attachment and social position. We conducted lab-in-the-field experiments involving 2,597 members of producer organizations in rural Uganda. Using different variants of the dictator game, we demonstrate that group attachment positively affects prosocial behavior, and that this effect is not simply the by-product of the degree of proximity between individuals. Second, we show that occupying a formal position in an organization or community leads to greater generosity toward in-group members. Taken together, our findings show that prosocial behavior is not an invariant social trait; rather, it varies according to individuals' relative position in the social structure.

Helping others in online games: prosocial behavior in cyberspace.

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Wang, Chih-Chien; Wang, Chia-Hsin

2008-06-01

This study examined the reasons players help others in the virtual space of online games. Results of an online empirical survey indicated that both altruism and reciprocity influence prosocial behavior simultaneously. Additionally, the study found that male players are more likely than female players to seek friendship of opposite sex.

PERILAKU PROSOSIAL (PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR) ANAK USIA DINI DAN PENGELOLAAN KELAS MELALUI PENGELOMPOKAN USIA RANGKAP (MULTIAGE GROUPING)

OpenAIRE

Elvrida Sandra Matondang

2017-01-01

Abstract: The aspect of moral development is of great concern of early childhood caregivers. Moral development, which is now better known as prosocial behaviors include behaviors such as empathy, generosity, cooperation, caring, and many more. Various attempts to build prosocial behavior has been carried out in kindergarten, including in one of international preschools  in Bandung that management class is using the multiage grouping.  According to this phenomenon which needed to be achieved, ...

The Motivational Foundations of Prosocial Behavior From A Developmental Perspective-Evolutionary Roots and Key Psychological Mechanisms: Introduction to the Special Section.

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Davidov, Maayan; Vaish, Amrisha; Knafo-Noam, Ariel; Hastings, Paul D

2016-11-01

Prosocial behavior is versatile, multifaceted, and complex. This special section seeks to advance coherent, integrative understanding of prosocial development by addressing this topic through the prism of motivations. This conceptual Introduction presents key ideas that provide a framework for thinking about motivation for prosocial behavior and its development. It outlines the evolutionary roots of prosocial behavior, underscoring the interdependent roles of nature and nurture. This is followed by a discussion of several key psychological mechanisms reflecting different motivations for prosocial action (empathy for a distressed other, concern about another's goal, desire to act in accordance with internalized prosocial norms, and guilt). We discuss the critical components of each motivation and highlight pertinent contributions of the special section articles. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Visual function affects prosocial behaviors in older adults.

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Teoli, Dac A; Smith, Merideth D; Leys, Monique J; Jain, Priyanka; Odom, J Vernon

2016-02-01

Eye-related pathological conditions such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration commonly lead to decreased peripheral/central field, decreased visual acuity, and increased functional disability. We sought to answer if relationships exist between measures of visual function and reported prosocial behaviors in an older adult population with eye-related diagnoses. The sample consisted of adults, aged ≥ 60 years old, at an academic hospital's eye institute. Vision ranged from normal to severe impairment. Medical charts determined the visual acuities, ocular disease, duration of disease (DD), and visual fields (VF). Measures of giving help were via validated questionnaires on giving formal support (GFS) and giving informal support; measures of help received were perceived support (PS) and informal support received (ISR). ISR had subscales: tangible support (ISR-T), emotional support (ISR-E), and composite (ISR-C). Visual acuities of the better and worse seeing eyes were converted to LogMAR values. VF information converted to a 4-point rating scale of binocular field loss severity. DD was in years. Among 96 participants (mean age 73.28; range 60-94), stepwise regression indicated a relationship of visual variables to GFS (p T (p prosocial behavior in older adults.

Warding off the evil eye: when the fear of being envied increases prosocial behavior.

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van de Ven, Niels; Zeelenberg, Marcel; Pieters, Rik

2010-11-01

The fear of being envied makes people act prosocially, in an attempt to ward off the potentially destructive effects of envy. In three experiments, people who were in a superior position and could be envied were more likely than control participants to give time-consuming advice to a potentially envious person or to help a potentially envious person pick up erasers she had accidentally scattered. However, helping behavior increased only if envy was likely to be malicious rather than benign. People who were better off did not increase their helping behavior toward people in general, but increased their helping only toward the potentially envious. This finding is consistent with the idea that the better off act more prosocially as an appeasement strategy. The fear of being envied serves useful group functions, because it triggers prosocial behavior that is likely to dampen the potentially destructive effects of envy and simultaneously helps to improve the situation of people who are worse off.

The Motivational Foundations of Prosocial Behavior from a Developmental Perspective--Evolutionary Roots and Key Psychological Mechanisms: Introduction to the Special Section

Science.gov (United States)

Davidov, Maayan; Vaish, Amrisha; Knafo-Noam, Ariel; Hastings, Paul D.

2016-01-01

Prosocial behavior is versatile, multifaceted, and complex. This special section seeks to advance coherent, integrative understanding of prosocial development by addressing this topic through the prism of motivations. This conceptual Introduction presents key ideas that provide a framework for thinking about motivation for prosocial behavior and…

Teammate Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviors Predict Task Cohesion and Burnout: The Mediating Role of Affect.

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Al-Yaaribi, Ali; Kavussanu, Maria

2017-06-01

The manner in which teammates behave toward each other when playing sport could have important achievement-related consequences. However, this issue has received very little research attention. In this study, we investigated whether (a) prosocial and antisocial teammate behaviors predict task cohesion and burnout, and (b) positive and negative affect mediates these relationships. In total, 272 (M age  = 21.86, SD = 4.36) team-sport players completed a multisection questionnaire assessing the aforementioned variables. Structural equation modeling indicated that prosocial teammate behavior positively predicted task cohesion and negatively predicted burnout, and these relationships were mediated by positive affect. The reverse pattern of relationships was observed for antisocial teammate behavior which negatively predicted task cohesion and positively predicted burnout, and these relationships were mediated by negative affect. Our findings underscore the importance of promoting prosocial and reducing antisocial behaviors in sport and highlight the role of affect in explaining the identified relationships.

Prosocial skills may be necessary for better peer functioning in children with symptoms of disruptive behavior disorders

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Browne, Dillon T.; Tannock, Rosemary

2014-01-01

Children with disruptive behavior disorders experience substantial social challenges; however, the factors that account for (i.e., mediate), or influence (i.e., moderate), peer problems are not well understood. This study tested whether symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder were associated with peer impairment and whether prosocial skills mediated or moderated these associations. Teacher ratings were gathered for 149 children (Mage = 9.09, SD = 1.71, 26% female) referred for behavioral concerns to an urban child psychiatry clinic. Path-analytic linear regressions testing mediation and moderation effects showed that prosocial skills significantly moderated the negative effects of symptoms of Conduct Disorder on peer impairment. Children showed less peer impairment only when they had relatively few conduct symptoms and high prosocial skills. Measurement of prosocial skills, in addition to conduct problems, may best capture factors which contribute to peer problems of children with disruptive behaviors. PMID:25083349

Prosocial skills may be necessary for better peer functioning in children with symptoms of disruptive behavior disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Andrade, Brendan F; Browne, Dillon T; Tannock, Rosemary

2014-01-01

Children with disruptive behavior disorders experience substantial social challenges; however, the factors that account for (i.e., mediate), or influence (i.e., moderate), peer problems are not well understood. This study tested whether symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder were associated with peer impairment and whether prosocial skills mediated or moderated these associations. Teacher ratings were gathered for 149 children (Mage = 9.09, SD = 1.71, 26% female) referred for behavioral concerns to an urban child psychiatry clinic. Path-analytic linear regressions testing mediation and moderation effects showed that prosocial skills significantly moderated the negative effects of symptoms of Conduct Disorder on peer impairment. Children showed less peer impairment only when they had relatively few conduct symptoms and high prosocial skills. Measurement of prosocial skills, in addition to conduct problems, may best capture factors which contribute to peer problems of children with disruptive behaviors.

Prosocial skills may be necessary for better peer functioning in children with symptoms of disruptive behavior disorders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brendan F. Andrade

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Children with disruptive behavior disorders experience substantial social challenges; however, the factors that account for (i.e., mediate, or influence (i.e., moderate, peer problems are not well understood. This study tested whether symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder were associated with peer impairment and whether prosocial skills mediated or moderated these associations. Teacher ratings were gathered for 149 children (Mage = 9.09, SD = 1.71, 26% female referred for behavioral concerns to an urban child psychiatry clinic. Path-analytic linear regressions testing mediation and moderation effects showed that prosocial skills significantly moderated the negative effects of symptoms of Conduct Disorder on peer impairment. Children showed less peer impairment only when they had relatively few conduct symptoms and high prosocial skills. Measurement of prosocial skills, in addition to conduct problems, may best capture factors which contribute to peer problems of children with disruptive behaviors.

Developing Prosocial Behaviors in Early Adolescence with Reactive Aggression

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Fung, Annis L. C.

2008-01-01

Despite the alarming rise of early adolescence aggression in Hong Kong, it is the pioneer evidence-based outcome study on Anger Coping Training (ACT) program for early adolescence with reactive aggression to develop their prosocial behaviors. This research program involved experimental and control groups with pre- and post-comparison using a …

Prosocial behaviour and gender

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Maria Paz eEspinosa

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This study revisits different experimental data sets that explore social behavior in economic games and uncovers that many treatment effects may be gender-specific. In general, men and women do not differ in neutral baselines. However, we find that social framing tends to reinforce prosocial behavior in women but not men, whereas encouraging reflection decreases the prosociality of males but not females. The treatment effects are sometimes statistically different across genders and sometimes not but never go in the opposite direction. These findings suggest that (i the social behavior of both sexes is malleable but each gender responds to different aspects of the social context, and (ii gender differences observed in some studies might be the result of particular features of the experimental design. Our results contribute to the literature on prosocial behavior and may improve our understanding of the origins of human prosociality. We discuss the possible link between the observed differential treatment effects across genders and the differing male and female brain network connectivity, documented in recent neural studies.

Toward an Integrated Approach to Environmental and Prosocial Education

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Alexander Neaman

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Environmental education programs neglect the aspect of prosocial behavior as a correlate of pro-environmental behavior. This article examines the possible benefits of increasing the emphasis on prosocial behavior as a way to reinforce environmental education. In our study, prosocial behavior was positively related to pro-environmental behavior (r = 0.34, p < 0.001, and even a combined scale consisting of prosocial and pro-environmental behavior items showed an acceptable reliability (separation reliability = 0.82, at the level of the separated scales, which implies that prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors are a similar class of behavior. We can assume that the two underlying propensities (prosocial behavior and pro-environmentalism are probably only two facets of an overarching common propensity that supports both kinds of behavior. Therefore, promoting one facet will, through its relationship with the other facet, also foster the respective other facet. Even more so, it might be most effective to relate to both propensities equally.

Prosocial Behaviors in Context: Examining the Role of Children's Social Companions

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de Guzman, Maria Rosario T.; Carlo, Gustavo; Edwards, Carolyn Pope

2008-01-01

This study examines the role of immediate social companions in the prosocial behaviors of children from two cultural communities from the USA and the Philippines. Materials for this study comprised behavioral observations drawn from the Six Cultures Study--with 612 five-minute observations of 23 children (12 girls, 11 boys) from Orchard Town, MA…

Bidirectional Relations between Authoritative Parenting and Adolescents' Prosocial Behaviors

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Padilla-Walker, Laura M.; Carlo, Gustavo; Christensen, Katherine J.; Yorgason, Jeremy B.

2012-01-01

This study examined the bidirectional relations between authoritative parenting and adolescents' prosocial behavior over a 1-year time period. Data were taken from Time 2 and 3 of the Flourishing Families Project, and included reports from 319 two-parent families with an adolescent child (M age of child at Time 2 = 12.34, SD = 1.06, 52% girls).…

Kindness in the blood: A randomized controlled trial of the gene regulatory impact of prosocial behavior

OpenAIRE

Nelson-Coffey, SK; Fritz, MM; Lyubomirsky, S; Cole, SW

2017-01-01

Prosocial behavior is linked to longevity, but few studies have experimentally manipulated prosocial behavior to identify the causal mechanisms underlying this association. One possible mediating pathway involves changes in gene expression that may subsequently influence disease development or resistance.In the current study, we examined changes in a leukocyte gene expression profile known as the Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity (CTRA) in 159 adults who were randomly assigned f...

Effect of Participation in Student Success Skills on Prosocial and Bullying Behavior

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Mariani, Melissa; Webb, Linda; Villares, Elizabeth; Brigman, Greg

2015-01-01

This study involved fifth-grade students (N = 336) from one Florida school district and examined prosocial behaviors, bullying behaviors, engagement in school success skills and perceptions of classroom climate between the treatment group who received the school counselor-led Student Success Skills classroom guidance program, and their peer…

The Jekyll and Hyde of emotional intelligence: emotion-regulation knowledge facilitates both prosocial and interpersonally deviant behavior.

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Côté, Stéphane; Decelles, Katherine A; McCarthy, Julie M; Van Kleef, Gerben A; Hideg, Ivona

2011-08-01

Does emotional intelligence promote behavior that strictly benefits the greater good, or can it also advance interpersonal deviance? In the investigation reported here, we tested the possibility that a core facet of emotional intelligence--emotion-regulation knowledge--can promote both prosocial and interpersonally deviant behavior. Drawing from research on how the effective regulation of emotion promotes goal achievement, we predicted that emotion-regulation knowledge would strengthen the effects of other-oriented and self-oriented personality traits on prosocial behavior and interpersonal deviance, respectively. Two studies supported our predictions. Among individuals with higher emotion-regulation knowledge, moral identity exhibited a stronger positive association with prosocial behavior in a social dilemma (Study 1), and Machiavellianism exhibited a stronger positive association with interpersonal deviance in the workplace (Study 2). Thus, emotion-regulation knowledge has a positive side and a dark side.

The development of prosocial moral reasoning and a prosocial orientation in young adulthood: concurrent and longitudinal correlates.

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Eisenberg, Nancy; Hofer, Claire; Sulik, Michael J; Liew, Jeffrey

2014-01-01

We examined stability and change in prosocial moral reasoning (PRM) assessed longitudinally at ages 20/21, 22/23, 24/25, 26/27, and 31/32 years (N = 32; 16 female) using a pencil-and-paper measure of moral reasoning and examined relations of PRM and prosocial behavior with one another and with empathy, sympathy measured with self- and friend reports in adulthood, self- and mother reports of prosocial tendencies in adolescence, and observed prosocial behavior in preschool. Proportions of different types of PRM (hedonistic, approval, stereotypic, internalized) exhibited high mean-level stability across early adulthood, although stereotypic PMR increased with age and hedonistic PRM (a less sophisticated type of PRM) declined over time for males. More sophisticated PMR was positively related to friends' reports of a prosocial orientation concurrently and at age 24/25, as well as self-reports of sympathy in adolescence. Specific modes of PMR related to spontaneous or compliant sharing in preschool. Women used more sophisticated PMR than men across the entire study period. Self-reported and friend-reported prosociality at age 27/28 and 31/32 (combined) was related to numerous prior measures of a prosocial orientation, including spontaneous, relatively costly prosocial behavior in preschool (for self-reports and friend-reported sympathy/consideration for others). Donating/volunteering at T13/T14 was related to concurrent self- and friend-reported prosociality and to self-reported prosocial orientation in earlier adulthood and mother-reported helping in adolescence. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Specifics of Gender Manifestation of Prosocial and Antisocial Features in Human Behavior

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Shatyr Yuliya Aleksandrovna

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The paper presents an analysis of the gender factors in the formation of prosociality – asociality in humans. A set of indicators reflecting the quantitative and qualitative terms motivational prerequisites of social behavior is presented. The estimation actualization needs are characterized as the beginning of the centripetal and focused on the involvement of the individual in society. Comparative analysis and accentuation of personality traits identified predominance of cycles, emotive and exaltation on the background of male domination of reactive aggression and masculinity. Assessment of the severity of empathy revealed the advantage of emotional and intuitive channels in the group of women relative to men. Undertaken study allowed to determine the presence of specific features of the formation of prosocial behavior of women, where the key element is the dominance of emotional factors initiation of social behavior, and situational mode, reactive response.

Prosocial attitudes and empathic behavior in emotional positive versus negative situations: brain response (ERPs) and source localization (LORETA) analysis.

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Balconi, Michela; Canavesio, Ylenia

2013-03-01

The present research firstly investigated the neural correlates (ERPs, event-related potentials) of attitudes to engage in prosocial-helping behaviors, and secondly, it analyzed the relation between these brain-based potentials and personal profile (high vs. low empathic profile). It was considered the subjects' behavior in response to specific emotional situations (positive vs. negative) in case it was required a possible prosocial intervention. Thirty-one subjects were invited to empathize with the emotional contexts (videotapes that reproduced two person's exchanges) and to decide whether to intervene or not to support these persons. BEES questionnaire for empathic behavior was submitted to the subjects after the experimental session. ERP acquisition and LORETA source analysis revealed a negative ongoing deflection (N200 effect) more prefrontally distributed (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) in response to prosocial intervention options mainly for negative and positive contexts. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was found between high-empathic profiles, intervention behaviors (higher frequency of interventions) and N200 amplitude (higher peak). These results highlight the role of emotions in prosocial behavior, since the N200 effect was considered a marker of the emotional significance of the interpersonal situation. Secondly, the empathic trait may explain the prosocial decisional processes: Higher empathic trait contributes to induce subject's intervention behavior which in turn appears to be directly related to the cortical responsiveness within the prefrontal areas.

Being Mimicked Increases Prosocial Behavior in 18-Month-Old Infants

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Carpenter, Malinda; Uebel, Johanna; Tomasello, Michael

2013-01-01

Most previous research on imitation in infancy has focused on infants' learning of instrumental actions on objects. This study focused instead on the more social side of imitation, testing whether being mimicked increases prosocial behavior in infants, as it does in adults (van Baaren, Holland, Kawakami, & van Knippenberg, 2004).…

Prosocial and antisocial behavior in sport: the role of coaching style, autonomous vs. controlled motivation, and moral disengagement.

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Hodge, Ken; Lonsdale, Chris

2011-08-01

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the relationships between contextual factors (i.e., autonomy-supportive vs. controlling coaching style) and person factors (i.e., autonomous vs. controlled motivation) outlined in self-determination theory (SDT) were related to prosocial and antisocial behaviors in sport. We also investigated moral disengagement as a mediator of these relationships. Athletes' (n = 292, M = 19.53 years) responses largely supported our SDT-derived hypotheses. Results indicated that an autonomy-supportive coaching style was associated with prosocial behavior toward teammates; this relationship was mediated by autonomous motivation. Controlled motivation was associated with antisocial behavior toward teammates and antisocial behavior toward opponents, and these two relationships were mediated by moral disengagement. The results provide support for research investigating the effect of autonomy-supportive coaching interventions on athletes' prosocial and antisocial behavior.

Toddlers' Prosocial Behavior: From Instrumental to Empathic to Altruistic Helping

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Svetlova, Margarita; Nichols, Sara R.; Brownell, Celia A.

2010-01-01

The study explored how the meaning of prosocial behavior changes over toddlerhood. Sixty-five 18- and 30-month-olds could help an adult in 3 contexts: instrumental (action based), empathic (emotion based), and altruistic (costly). Children at both ages helped readily in instrumental tasks. For 18-month-olds, empathic helping was significantly more…

Do storybooks with anthropomorphized animal characters promote prosocial behaviors in young children?

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Larsen, Nicole E; Lee, Kang; Ganea, Patricia A

2018-05-01

For millennia, adults have told children stories not only to entertain but also to impart important moral lessons to promote prosocial behaviors. Many such stories contain anthropomorphized animals because it is believed that children learn from anthropomorphic stories as effectively, if not better than, from stories with human characters, and thus are more inclined to act according to the moral lessons of the stories. Here we experimentally tested this belief by reading preschoolers a sharing story with either human characters or anthropomorphized animal characters. Reading the human story significantly increased preschoolers' altruistic giving but reading the anthropomorphic story or a control story decreased it. Thus, contrary to the common belief, realistic stories, not anthropomorphic ones, are better for promoting young children's prosocial behavior. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The eye of the camera: effects of security cameras on pro-social behavior

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van Rompay, T.J.L.; Vonk, D.J.; Fransen, M.L.

2009-01-01

This study addresses the effects of security cameras on prosocial behavior. Results from previous studies indicate that the presence of others can trigger helping behavior, arising from the need for approval of others. Extending these findings, the authors propose that security cameras can likewise

Prosocial and self-interested intra-twin pair behavior in monozygotic and dizygotic twins in the early to middle childhood transition.

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Yirmiya, Karen; Segal, Nancy L; Bloch, Guy; Knafo-Noam, Ariel

2018-04-06

Several related and complementary theoretical frameworks have been proposed to explain the existence of prosocial behavior, despite its potential fitness cost to the individual. These include kin selection theory, proposing that organisms have a propensity to help those to whom they are genetically related, and reciprocity, referring to the benefit of being prosocial, depending on past and future mutual interactions. A useful paradigm to examine prosociality is to compare mean levels of this behavior between monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins. Here, we examined the performance of 883 6.5-year-old twins (139 MZ and 302 DZ same-sex 6.5-year-old full twin pairs) in the Differential Productivity Task. In this task, the twins' behaviors were observed under two conditions: working for themselves vs. working for their co-twin. There were no significant differences between the performances of MZ and DZ twins in the prosocial condition of the task. Correlations within the twin dyads were significantly higher in MZ than DZ twins in the self-interested condition. However, similar MZ and DZ correlations were found in the prosocial condition, supporting the role of reciprocity in twins' prosociality towards each other. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Effect of Group Attachment and Social Position on Prosocial Behavior. Evidence from Lab-in-the-Field Experiments

OpenAIRE

Baldassarri, Delia; Grossman, Guy

2013-01-01

Social life is regulated by norms of fairness that constrain selfish behavior. While a substantial body of scholarship on prosocial behavior has provided evidence of such norms, large inter- and intra-personal variation in prosocial behavior still needs to be explained. The article identifies two social-structural dimensions along which people's generosity varies systematically: group attachment and social position. We conducted lab-in-the-field experiments involving 2,597 members of producer...

Ethical leadership and employee pro-social rule-breaking behavior in China

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Zhu, Jinqiang; Xu, Shiyong; Ouyang, Kan; Herst, David; Farndale, E.

2018-01-01

Chinese people generally show flexibility in obeying formal rules and emphasize rules in terms of virtue. In such a cultural background, we explore the effects of ethical leadership and ethical idealism on employee pro-social rule-breaking behavior (PSRB). Our study incorporates individual traits

Prosocial behavior and academic motivation in Spanish High School Students

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Cándido J. Inglés

2011-05-01

Full Text Available This study analyzed the relationship between prosocial behaviour and academic goals in a sample of 2,022 Spanish compulsory secondary education students. The prosocial behaviour was measured with the Prosocial Behaviour scale of the Teenage Inventory of Social Skills (TISS and academic goals were measured with the Achievement Goal Tendencies Questionnaire (AGTQ. The results revealed that students with high prosocial behaviour presented higher significantly scores in learning and performance goals. The prosocial behaviour was a positive and statistically significant predictor of learning and performance goals. Furthermore, learning and performance goals were positive and statistically significant predictors of the prosocial behaviour, whereas social reinforcement goals were a negative and statisticallysignificant predictor of prosocial behaviour.

Emotion regulation moderates the association between empathy and prosocial behavior.

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Lockwood, Patricia L; Seara-Cardoso, Ana; Viding, Essi

2014-01-01

Theory and evidence suggest that empathy is an important motivating factor for prosocial behaviour and that emotion regulation, i.e. the capacity to exert control over an emotional response, may moderate the degree to which empathy is associated with prosocial behaviour. However, studies to date have not simultaneously explored the associations between different empathic processes and prosocial behaviour, nor whether different types of emotion regulation strategies (e.g. cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) moderate associations between empathy and prosocial behaviour. One hundred-and-ten healthy adults completed questionnaire measures of empathy, emotion regulation and prosocial tendencies. In this sample, both affective and cognitive empathy predicted self-reported prosocial tendencies. In addition, cognitive reappraisal moderated the association between affective empathy and prosocial tendencies. Specifically, there was a significant positive association between empathy and prosocial tendencies for individuals with a low or average tendency to reappraise but not for those with a high tendency to reappraise. Our findings suggest that, in general, empathy is positively associated with prosocial behaviour. However, this association is not significant for individuals with a high tendency for cognitive reappraisal.

Memories of good deeds past: The reinforcing power of prosocial behavior in children.

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Tasimi, Arber; Young, Liane

2016-07-01

Does considering one's past prosociality affect future behavior? Prior research has revealed instances in which adults engage in additional prosocial behavior-moral reinforcement-as well as instances in which adults engage in worse behavior-moral licensing. The current study examined the developmental origins of these effects by testing whether 6- to 8-year-old children (N=225) are more or less generous after recalling their own good deeds. Children were asked to recount a time when they were nice, were mean, or watched a movie. Children behaved more generously after recalling a time when they were nice. We show that this boost in generosity was not simply the result of instructing children to consider nice behavior; children's giving did not increase after recalling others' good deeds. We also show that, even after recounting multiple instances of their past goodness, children continue to behave more generously. These findings suggest that doing good leads to more good in children. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How Upward Moral Comparison Influences Prosocial Behavioral Intention: Examining the Mediating Role of Guilt and the Moderating Role of Moral Identity

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Heyun Zhang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Although it has been shown that exceptional good deeds exert influences on people's prosocial behavior and intention, we have known little about how common moral actions in our daily life. The present study aimed to examine how upward moral comparison influenced prosocial behavioral intention as well as to explore the mediating role of guilt and the moderating role of moral identity in the focal relationship. An experimental study was conducted with 162 Chinese undergraduates (103 women, 59 men randomly assigned to an upward moral comparison condition, an upward competence comparison condition or a control condition. Results indicated that participants in the upward moral comparison condition experienced higher levels of guilt and exhibited stronger motivation to act prosocially, relative to participants in the other two conditions. That is to say, upward moral comparison induces guilty experience, and then increases people's prosocial behavioral intention. Moreover, we have found that moral identity internalization moderates the upward moral comparison-guilt relationship, and the indirect effect of upward moral comparison on prosocial behavioral intention via guilt. The implications of these findings were discussed.

How Upward Moral Comparison Influences Prosocial Behavioral Intention: Examining the Mediating Role of Guilt and the Moderating Role of Moral Identity.

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Zhang, Heyun; Chen, Sisi; Wang, Rong; Jiang, Jiang; Xu, Yan; Zhao, Huanhuan

2017-01-01

Although it has been shown that exceptional good deeds exert influences on people's prosocial behavior and intention, we have known little about how common moral actions in our daily life. The present study aimed to examine how upward moral comparison influenced prosocial behavioral intention as well as to explore the mediating role of guilt and the moderating role of moral identity in the focal relationship. An experimental study was conducted with 162 Chinese undergraduates (103 women, 59 men) randomly assigned to an upward moral comparison condition, an upward competence comparison condition or a control condition. Results indicated that participants in the upward moral comparison condition experienced higher levels of guilt and exhibited stronger motivation to act prosocially, relative to participants in the other two conditions. That is to say, upward moral comparison induces guilty experience, and then increases people's prosocial behavioral intention. Moreover, we have found that moral identity internalization moderates the upward moral comparison-guilt relationship, and the indirect effect of upward moral comparison on prosocial behavioral intention via guilt. The implications of these findings were discussed.

How Upward Moral Comparison Influences Prosocial Behavioral Intention: Examining the Mediating Role of Guilt and the Moderating Role of Moral Identity

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Heyun; Chen, Sisi; Wang, Rong; Jiang, Jiang; Xu, Yan; Zhao, Huanhuan

2017-01-01

Although it has been shown that exceptional good deeds exert influences on people's prosocial behavior and intention, we have known little about how common moral actions in our daily life. The present study aimed to examine how upward moral comparison influenced prosocial behavioral intention as well as to explore the mediating role of guilt and the moderating role of moral identity in the focal relationship. An experimental study was conducted with 162 Chinese undergraduates (103 women, 59 men) randomly assigned to an upward moral comparison condition, an upward competence comparison condition or a control condition. Results indicated that participants in the upward moral comparison condition experienced higher levels of guilt and exhibited stronger motivation to act prosocially, relative to participants in the other two conditions. That is to say, upward moral comparison induces guilty experience, and then increases people's prosocial behavioral intention. Moreover, we have found that moral identity internalization moderates the upward moral comparison-guilt relationship, and the indirect effect of upward moral comparison on prosocial behavioral intention via guilt. The implications of these findings were discussed. PMID:28959221

Emotional valence and context of social influences on drug abuse-related behavior in animal models of social stress and prosocial interaction.

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Neisewander, J L; Peartree, N A; Pentkowski, N S

2012-11-01

Social factors are important determinants of drug dependence and relapse. We reviewed pre-clinical literature examining the role of social experiences from early life through the development of drug dependence and relapse, emphasizing two aspects of these experiences: (1) whether the social interaction is appetitive or aversive and (2) whether the social interaction occurs within or outside of the drug-taking context. The models reviewed include neonatal care, isolation, social defeat, chronic subordination, and prosocial interactions. We review results from these models in regard to effects on self-administration and conditioned place preference established with alcohol, psychostimulants, and opiates. We suggest that in general, when the interactions occur outside of the drug-taking context, prosocial interactions are protective against drug abuse-related behaviors, whereas social stressors facilitate these behaviors. By contrast, positive or negative social interactions occurring within the drug-taking context may interact with other risk factors to enhance or inhibit these behaviors. Despite differences in the nature and complexity of human social behavior compared to other species, the evolving animal literature provides useful models for understanding social influences on drug abuse-related behavior that will allow for research on the behavioral and biological mechanisms involved. The models have contributed to understanding social influences on initiation and maintenance of drug use, but more research is needed to understand social influences on drug relapse.

Effect of a perfume on prosocial behavior of pedestrians.

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Guéguen, N

2001-06-01

Several studies have shown that perfumes encourage prosocial behavior of people from whom help is requested in the street. Implicit requests for help were studied. On a pedestrian walk, a woman confederate, with or without a heavy perfume, walked by the subject while dropping a packet of paper handkerchiefs or a glove apparently without noticing. Results show that the confederate was warned more often when wearing a perfume.

Prosocial competencies among adolescent siblings of the physically disabled

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Lidia Perenc

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Background The current study examined possible prosocial benefits of having a disabled sibling. Until now research has mainly focused on the negative effects of having a sibling with a disability. We hypothesized that regular and frequent interactions with a disabled person should result in an increase of positive attitude and empathy toward other people who are in a disadvantageous situation. Participants and procedure A sample of 208 students from public secondary schools (middle and high schools completed the Polish version of the Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM in order to assess the tendencies to prosocial behaviors in different conditions. Participants were between 13 and 18 years old. Ninety-six adolescents had a disabled sibling (group T and 112 constituted the control group (group C. Results Results showed that group T generally scored higher than group C in the number of helping behaviors. Furthermore, girls scored higher than boys in anonymous prosocial behaviors. The older adolescents are more inclined to use helping behaviors both in anonymous and compliant situations than their younger colleagues. Conclusions Presence of disabled children in a family context may facilitate prosocial behavior in their non-disabled siblings. Older participants less frequently described themselves as prosocial in public situations. In contrast, younger adolescents reported weaker prosocial tendencies in anonymous and compliant situations. The effect of gender on prosocial tendencies was significant for public prosocial behavior, with a higher level achieved by males in this domain. Data analysis also showed significantly greater emotional and altruistic tendencies in females than in males.

Emotion Regulation Moderates the Association between Empathy and Prosocial Behavior

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Lockwood, Patricia L.; Seara-Cardoso, Ana; Viding, Essi

2014-01-01

Theory and evidence suggest that empathy is an important motivating factor for prosocial behaviour and that emotion regulation, i.e. the capacity to exert control over an emotional response, may moderate the degree to which empathy is associated with prosocial behaviour. However, studies to date have not simultaneously explored the associations between different empathic processes and prosocial behaviour, nor whether different types of emotion regulation strategies (e.g. cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) moderate associations between empathy and prosocial behaviour. One hundred–and-ten healthy adults completed questionnaire measures of empathy, emotion regulation and prosocial tendencies. In this sample, both affective and cognitive empathy predicted self-reported prosocial tendencies. In addition, cognitive reappraisal moderated the association between affective empathy and prosocial tendencies. Specifically, there was a significant positive association between empathy and prosocial tendencies for individuals with a low or average tendency to reappraise but not for those with a high tendency to reappraise. Our findings suggest that, in general, empathy is positively associated with prosocial behaviour. However, this association is not significant for individuals with a high tendency for cognitive reappraisal. PMID:24810604

[What factors of prosocial behavior evoke recipients’ gratitude and indebtedness? An experimental examination].

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Shiraki, Yuma; Igarashi, Tasuku

2016-12-01

We examined two psychological processes of prosocial behavior: feeling gratitude and indebtedness. First, we asked if the value of the behavior for the receiver promotes gratitude; and second if the cost of the behavior for the giver promotes indebtedness. Gratitude and indebtedness were measured as behavioral indices of a quid pro quo (indirect reciprocity and direct reciprocity) to avoid social desirability effects in self-report measures. In Study 1, 119 undergraduates recalled a past experience in which they had been the recipients of prosocial behavior while emphasizing the value, cost, or situation (control) of the event. The level of gratitude was higher, and indirect reciprocity was observed more frequently, in the value condition than in the cost and control conditions. Indebtedness, however, did not differ across the conditions. In Study 2, 59 participants received a gift (the value and cost of which were manipulated) from an imaginary confederate. The value manipulation promoted indirect reciprocity, and both value and cost manipulations encouraged direct reciprocity. Implications for adaptive functions of gratitude in social selection processes are discussed.

Sympathy, Distress, and Prosocial Behavior of Preschool Children in Four Cultures

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Trommsdorff, Gisela; Friedlmeier, Wolfgang; Mayer, Boris

2007-01-01

This study examined emotional responding (sympathy and distress) and prosocial behavior as well as their relations across four cultures in a specific context. Preschool children (N = 212) from two Western cultures, Germany and Israel, and two South-East Asian cultures, Indonesia and Malaysia, participated in this study. Children's emotional…

Analyzing Prosocial Content on T.V.

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Davidson, Emily S.; Neale, John M.

To enhance knowledge of television content, a prosocial code was developed by watching a large number of potentially prosocial television programs and making notes on all the positive acts. The behaviors were classified into a workable number of categories. The prosocial code is largely verbal and contains seven categories which fall into two…

Does teachers’ education about social competence influence the frequency of pro-social and aggressive behavior in preschool children?

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Glavina Eleonora

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Children’s aggressive behavior is a common problem of specialists who work in preschool institutions, with proportionally less frequent occurrence of pro-social behavior. The aim of this action research was to determine whether additional training of educators in ways and skills of stimulating children’s social competence can influence reduced the frequency of aggressive and increased the frequency of pro-social behavior among children of preschool age. The training included 49 teachers, educators in kindergarten Čakovec, and comprised lectures, workshops and practical application that lasted for three months, under the mentorship of a psychologist. Before carrying out the activities and after the implementation period of three months, educators used the scale Pros/Ag (N = 466 to evaluate the children. The results indicate a statistically significant increase in the frequency of pro-social behavior and decrease in the frequency of aggressive behavior in children of both genders. However, in the absence of a control group, the reason for progress in the desired direction may be the maturation and error of evaluators, and hence the results can be generalized to a limited extent. Qualitative analysis of gender differences suggests the possibility that education leads to equalization of boys and girls in pro-social behavior, but not in aggressive behavior. The number of participants, as well as the results obtained, suggests interest and need to organize additional training in this area.

Parenting Styles or Practices? Parenting, Sympathy, and Prosocial Behaviors among Adolescents

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Carlo, Gustavo; McGinley, Meredith; Hayes, Rachel; Batenhorst, Candice; Wilkinson, Jamie

2007-01-01

In the present study, the authors examined the relations among parenting styles, parental practices, sympathy, and prosocial behaviors in adolescents. The participants were 233 adolescents (M age = 16.7 years; 69% girls; mostly White) from public high schools in the Midwestern region of the United States who completed measures of prosocial…

Constructive and Destructive Marital Conflict, Emotional Security and Children's Prosocial Behavior

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McCoy, Kathleen; Cummings, E. Mark; Davies, Patrick T.

2009-01-01

Background: This study addresses the gaps in understanding the relationship between constructive and destructive marital conflict and children's prosocial behavior from a process-oriented perspective. Method: Data were drawn from a three-wave study of 235 families with children ages 5-7 at wave 1. Relations between constructive and destructive…

The emergence and early development of prosocial behavior: universalities and cultural specifications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Song, Y.; Dubas, J.J.S.; Broekhuizen, M.L.

2015-01-01

Despite a long standing interest in the early development of prosocial behaviors, there is still considerable controversy about their origins and development. While some researchers propose that humans are born with a fundamental motivation to help, share and comfort others (nature), some

The Effect of Journey around the World Curriculum on Prosocial Behavior in Elementary School Children: A Pilot Study

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Cha, Jae Seung

2017-01-01

This small-scale pilot study explored the effectiveness of proposed research instruments in measuring the outcomes of the prosocial and global education curriculum, "Journey Around the World" ("JAWD"), regarding attitudes toward school, affective language, prosocial motivation and behavior of second-grade school students.…

Prosocial and antisocial behavior in preadolescence : Teachers' and parents' perceptions of the behavior of girls and boys

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Veenstra, René; Lindenberg, Siegwart; Oldehinkel, Albertine J.; Winter, Andrea F. de; Verhulst, Frank C.; Ormel, Johan

There has been recent emphasis on the importance of investigating prosocial and antisocial behavior simultaneously owing to doubts about whether examining one automatically gives information about the other. However, there has been little empirical research into this question. The present study

Neurocomputational mechanisms of prosocial learning and links to empathy.

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Lockwood, Patricia L; Apps, Matthew A J; Valton, Vincent; Viding, Essi; Roiser, Jonathan P

2016-08-30

Reinforcement learning theory powerfully characterizes how we learn to benefit ourselves. In this theory, prediction errors-the difference between a predicted and actual outcome of a choice-drive learning. However, we do not operate in a social vacuum. To behave prosocially we must learn the consequences of our actions for other people. Empathy, the ability to vicariously experience and understand the affect of others, is hypothesized to be a critical facilitator of prosocial behaviors, but the link between empathy and prosocial behavior is still unclear. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) participants chose between different stimuli that were probabilistically associated with rewards for themselves (self), another person (prosocial), or no one (control). Using computational modeling, we show that people can learn to obtain rewards for others but do so more slowly than when learning to obtain rewards for themselves. fMRI revealed that activity in a posterior portion of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex/basal forebrain (sgACC) drives learning only when we are acting in a prosocial context and signals a prosocial prediction error conforming to classical principles of reinforcement learning theory. However, there is also substantial variability in the neural and behavioral efficiency of prosocial learning, which is predicted by trait empathy. More empathic people learn more quickly when benefitting others, and their sgACC response is the most selective for prosocial learning. We thus reveal a computational mechanism driving prosocial learning in humans. This framework could provide insights into atypical prosocial behavior in those with disorders of social cognition.

The Link between Peer Relations, Prosocial Behavior, and ODD/ADHD Symptoms in 7-9-Year-Old Children.

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Paap, Muirne C S; Haraldsen, Ira R; Breivik, Kyrre; Butcher, Phillipa R; Hellem, Frøydis M; Stormark, Kjell M

2013-01-01

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by symptoms that hinder successful positive interaction with peers. The main goal of this study was to examine if the presence of symptoms of ODD and ADHD affects the relationship between positive social behavior and peer status found in 7-9-year-old children who show symptoms typical of ADHD and/or ODD. Furthermore, the possible interaction with sex was investigated. We used data collected in the first wave of The Bergen Child Study of mental health (BCS), a prospective longitudinal total population study of children's developmental and mental health. The target population consisted of children in the second to the fourth, in all public, private, and special schools in Bergen, Norway, in the fall of 2002 (N = 9430). All 79 primary schools in Bergen participated in the study. Both teacher (8809 complete cases) and parent (6253 complete cases) report were used in the analyses. ADHD and ODD scores were estimated using the Swanson Noland and Pelham rating scale version IV (SNAP-IV), and peer problems and prosocial behavior were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). We replicated the relationship between peer problems and prosocial behavior found previously in typically developing children. Our results showed that the relationship between peer problems and prosocial behavior became weaker as the ODD symptoms increased in number and severity. For ADHD this effect was only found in the teacher report of the children. A sex effect for ODD symptoms was found only using the parent report: boys with ODD symptoms showed less prosocial behavior than girls with similar levels of ODD symptoms. Since this effect was not found using the teacher data, it may imply a situational effect (school/home) for girls with high levels of ODD. The moderator effect of ODD/ADHD was comparable for boys and girls. Our findings suggest that even if children with

Lending a Helping Hand at Work: A Multilevel Investigation of Prosocial Motivation, Inclusive Climate and Inclusive Behavior.

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Nelissen, Philippe T J H; Hülsheger, Ute R; van Ruitenbeek, Gemma M C; Zijlstra, Fred R H

2017-09-01

Purpose People with disabilities often encounter difficulties at the workplace such as exclusion or unfair treatment. Researchers have therefore pointed to the need to focus on behavior that fosters inclusion as well as variables that are antecedents of such 'inclusive behavior'. Therefore the purpose of this study was to research the relationship between prosocial motivation, team inclusive climate and employee inclusive behavior. Method A survey was conducted among a sample of 282 paired employees and colleagues, which were nested in 84 teams. Employees self-rated prosocial motivation and team inclusive climate, their inclusive behavior was assessed by colleagues. Hypotheses were tested using multilevel random coefficient modeling. Results Employees who are prosocially motivated will display more inclusive behavior towards people with disabilities, and this relationship is moderated by team inclusive climate in such a way that the relationship is stronger when the inclusive climate is high. Conclusion This study shows that inclusive organizations, which value a diverse workforce, need to be aware of not only individual employee characteristics, but also team level climate to ensure the smooth integrations of people with disabilities into regular work teams.

Prosocial behavior and academic motivation in Spanish High School Students

OpenAIRE

Inglés, Cándido J.; Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche; Martínez-González, Agustin E.; Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche; Valle, Antonio; Universidad de A Coruña; García-Fernández, José M.; Universidad de Alicante; Ruiz-Esteban, Cecilia; Universidad de Murcia

2010-01-01

This study analyzed the relationship between prosocial behaviour and academic goals in a sample of 2,022 Spanish compulsory secondary education students. The prosocial behaviour was measured with the Prosocial Behaviour scale of the Teenage Inventory of Social Skills (TISS) and academic goals were measured with the Achievement Goal Tendencies Questionnaire (AGTQ). The results revealed that students with high prosocial behaviour presented higher significantly scores in learning and performance...

Out of control!? How loss of self-control influences prosocial behavior: the role of power and moral values.

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Anne Joosten

Full Text Available Lack of self-control has been suggested to facilitate norm-transgressing behaviors because of the operation of automatic selfish impulses. Previous research, however, has shown that people having a high moral identity may not show such selfish impulses when their self-control resources are depleted. In the present research, we extended this effect to prosocial behavior. Moreover, we investigated the role of power in the interaction between moral identity and self-control depletion. More specifically, we expected that power facilitates the externalization of internal states, which implies that for people who feel powerful, rather than powerless, depletion decreases prosocial behavior especially for those low in moral identity. A laboratory experiment and a multisource field study supported our predictions. The present finding that the interaction between self-control depletion and moral identity is contingent upon people's level of power suggests that power may enable people to refrain from helping behavior. Moreover, the findings suggest that if organizations want to improve prosocial behaviors, it may be effective to situationally induce moral values in their employees.

Out of Control!? How Loss of Self-Control Influences Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Power and Moral Values

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Joosten, Anne; van Dijke, Marius; Van Hiel, Alain; De Cremer, David

2015-01-01

Lack of self-control has been suggested to facilitate norm-transgressing behaviors because of the operation of automatic selfish impulses. Previous research, however, has shown that people having a high moral identity may not show such selfish impulses when their self-control resources are depleted. In the present research, we extended this effect to prosocial behavior. Moreover, we investigated the role of power in the interaction between moral identity and self-control depletion. More specifically, we expected that power facilitates the externalization of internal states, which implies that for people who feel powerful, rather than powerless, depletion decreases prosocial behavior especially for those low in moral identity. A laboratory experiment and a multisource field study supported our predictions. The present finding that the interaction between self-control depletion and moral identity is contingent upon people’s level of power suggests that power may enable people to refrain from helping behavior. Moreover, the findings suggest that if organizations want to improve prosocial behaviors, it may be effective to situationally induce moral values in their employees. PMID:26024380

[Relationships among empathy, prosocial behavior, aggressiveness, self-efficacy and pupils' personal and social responsibility].

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Gutiérrez Sanmartín, Melchor; Escartí Carbonell, Amparo; Pascual Baños, Carminal

2011-02-01

The aim of this study was, on the one hand, to present/display the Spanish version of diverse instruments that assess Empathy, Prosocial behavior, Aggressiveness, Self-efficacy and Personal and social responsibility, and, on the other hand, to analyze which of these variables could predict responsibility. Participants were 822 pupils, ages 8 to 15 years, who studied in 11 educational centres of the Valencian Community. Measures include Spanish versions of the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents, Prosocial Behaviour, and Physical and Verbal Aggression, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Self-Efficacy, and the Contextual Self-Responsibility Questionnaire. Through structural equation modelling (SEM), the results showed positive relationships between Prosocial behaviour, Empathy, Self-efficacy, and Responsibility; and negative relationships between Aggressiveness and Responsibility. The results and implications for education are discussed.

Peers Influence Prosocial Behavior in Adolescent Males with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Van Hoorn, Jorien; Van Dijk, Eric; Crone, Eveline A.; Stockmann, Lex; Rieffe, Carolien

2017-01-01

Peer influence has a profound impact on decision-making in typically developing adolescents. In this study, we examined to what extent adolescent males (age 11-17 years; N = 144) with and without autism (ASD) were influenced by peer feedback on prosocial behavior, and which factors were related to individual differences in peer feedback…

Quantity of Group Child Care, Behavior Problems, and Prosocial Behaviors: A Study with Portuguese Preschoolers

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Torres, Nuno; Veríssimo, Manuela; Santos, António J.; Monteiro, Ligia; Figueiredo, Mafalda; Vaughn, Brian E.

2015-01-01

Research Findings: Data from a national sample of Portuguese preschool centers were used to examine the relationship between age of start and number of hours in child care and levels of externalizing and prosocial behaviors with peers. Participants were both parents and teachers of 543 children (mean age = 4.5 years, 50.6% girls). Children started…

Associations among Life Events, Empathic Concern, and Adolescents' Prosocial and Aggressive Behaviors Toward Specific Targets.

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Davis, Alexandra N; Luce, Haley; Davalos, Natasha

2018-05-25

The goal of the present study was to examine the links between life events and adolescents' social behaviors (prosocial and aggressive behaviors) toward specific targets and to examine how empathic concern may play a role in these associations. The study examined two hypotheses: both the mediating role of empathic concern and the moderating role of empathic concern. The sample included 311 high school students from the Midwest (M age = 16.10 years; age range = 14-19 years; 58.7% girls; 82.7% White, 13.6% Latino). The results demonstrated support for the moderation model as well as complex links between life events and prosocial and aggressive behaviors toward specific targets. The discussion focuses on the role of empathic concern in understanding how life events are ultimately associated with adolescents' social development.

Measurement of prosocial reasoning among Chinese adolescents.

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Lai, Frank H Y; Siu, Andrew M H; Chan, Chewtyn C H; Shek, Daniel T L

2012-01-01

This study attempted to develop a standardized instrument for assessment of prosocial reasoning in Chinese populations. The Prosocial Reasoning Objective Measure (PROM) was translated, and a two-stage study was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the translated instrument. The content validity, cultural relevance, and reading level of the translated instrument were evaluated by an expert panel. Upon revisions according to the expert opinions, the Chinese PROM demonstrated good content validity, "good-to-very good test-retest" reliability, and internal consistency. However, only partial support to the convergent validity of the Chinese PROM was found. In the first stage of the study (n = 50), the PROM scores had high positive correlations with empathy and negative correlations with personal distress and fantasy. These results were consistent with theoretical expectations, although this is also a concern that empathy had a close-to-unity correlation with PROM score in the small sample study of stage 1. In the second stage of the study (n = 566), the relationship between PROM scores and prosocial behavior appeared to be weak. Results suggest that there were many personal, family, or social factors that were linked to prosocial behavior, and prosocial reasoning might only contribute to a small proportion of variation in prosocial behavior among adolescents.

Measurement of Prosocial Reasoning among Chinese Adolescents

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Frank H. Y. Lai

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This study attempted to develop a standardized instrument for assessment of prosocial reasoning in Chinese populations. The Prosocial Reasoning Objective Measure (PROM was translated, and a two-stage study was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the translated instrument. The content validity, cultural relevance, and reading level of the translated instrument were evaluated by an expert panel. Upon revisions according to the expert opinions, the Chinese PROM demonstrated good content validity, “good-to-very good test-retest” reliability, and internal consistency. However, only partial support to the convergent validity of the Chinese PROM was found. In the first stage of the study (=50, the PROM scores had high positive correlations with empathy and negative correlations with personal distress and fantasy. These results were consistent with theoretical expectations, although this is also a concern that empathy had a close-to-unity correlation with PROM score in the small sample study of stage 1. In the second stage of the study (=566, the relationship between PROM scores and prosocial behavior appeared to be weak. Results suggest that there were many personal, family, or social factors that were linked to prosocial behavior, and prosocial reasoning might only contribute to a small proportion of variation in prosocial behavior among adolescents.

No costly prosociality among related long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis).

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Sterck, Elisabeth H M; Olesen, Caroline U; Massen, Jorg J M

2015-08-01

Altruism, benefiting another at a cost to the donor, may be achieved through prosocial behavior. Studies of nonhuman animals typically investigate prosocial behavior with paradigms in which the donor can choose to give a recipient a food item, and the choice does not affect the donor's reward (which is either present or absent). In such tasks, long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) show prosocial behavior, especially toward kin. Here, we tested captive long-tailed macaques with related recipients in an alternative task, in which the donor had to give up a preferred reward to benefit the recipient; that is, they had to choose a lower valued reward for themselves to provide food to their kin. Overall, the macaques did not provide their kin with food. The task forced the donor to balance its prosocial behavior with its selfish choice for a higher value reward, a balance that turned out to favor selfish motives. Consequently, our study shows that a prosocial tendency is not sufficient to elicit costly prosocial behavior in long-tailed macaques. Subsequently, we feel that tasks in which the donor must choose a lower value reward to benefit another individual may allow the titration of the strength of prosocial behavior, and thus provides interesting possibilities for future comparative studies. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Prosocial norms as a positive youth development construct: conceptual bases and implications for curriculum development.

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Siu, Andrew M H; Cheng, Howard C H; Leung, Mana C M

2006-01-01

Prosocial norms are clear, healthy, ethical standards, beliefs, and behavior guidelines that promote prosocial behavior and minimize health risks. The promotion of prosocial norms like altruism, solidarity, and volunteerism is an important aspect of positive youth development programs. From the literature, it is evident that a prosocial orientation is encouraged in traditional Chinese philosophy. Longitudinal studies have shown that prosocial behavior increases gradually over adolescence, and that the development of prosocial behavior is closely linked to the development of moral reasoning, perspective taking, and regulation of personal distress. It is noteworthy that females have a higher prosocial orientation than males, and peer influence could be a major mediating factor of interventions to foster prosocial norms and behavior during adolescence. This review also analyzes the mechanism underlying prosocial behavior using the cost-reward model, social cognitive theory, and stages of moral development. Role modeling, social reinforcements and evaluations, discussion of moral dilemmas, empathy skills training, and foot-in-the-door procedures are identified as useful strategies for fostering prosocial norms and behavior.

Does Religious Belief Promote Prosociality? A Critical Examination

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Galen, Luke W.

2012-01-01

Numerous authors have suggested that religious belief has a positive association, possibly causal, with prosocial behavior. This article critiques evidence regarding this "religious prosociality" hypothesis from several areas of the literature. The extant literature on religious prosociality is reviewed including domains of charity,…

Prosocial deficits in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia relate to reward network atrophy

OpenAIRE

Sturm, Virginia E.; Perry, David C.; Wood, Kristie; Hua, Alice Y.; Alcantar, Oscar; Datta, Samir; Rankin, Katherine P.; Rosen, Howard J.; Miller, Bruce L.; Kramer, Joel H.

2017-01-01

Abstract Introduction Empathy and shared feelings of reward motivate individuals to share resources with others when material gain is not at stake. Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects emotion‐ and reward‐relevant neural systems. Although there is diminished empathy and altered reward processing in bvFTD, how the disease impacts prosocial behavior is less well understood. Methods A total of 74 participants (20 bvFTD, 15 Alzheimer's dis...

Parenting Styles, Prosocial, and Aggressive Behavior: The Role of Emotions in Offender and Non-offender Adolescents

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Anna Llorca

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The aim is to analyse the parenting styles effects (acceptance, negative control and negligence on prosociality and aggressive behavior in adolescents through the mediator variables empathy and emotional instability, and also, if this model fits to the same extent when we study adolescents institutionalized due to problems with the law and adolescents from the general population, and at the same time, if the values of the different analyzed variables are similar in both groups of adolescents. We carried out a cross-sectional study. 220 participants from schools in the metropolitan area of Valencia took part in the study. Also, 220 young offenders took part recruited from four Youth Detention Centres of Valencia, in which they were carrying out court sentences. The age of the subjects range from 15-18 years. The results indicate that the emotional variables act as mediators in general, in the non-offender adolescents, but it has been observed, in the offender adolescents, a direct effect of support on aggressive behavior in a negative way and on prosociality in a positive way; and of negligence on aggressive behavior and of permissiveness on prosociality in a negative way.

The direct effects of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity on peer problems and mediating roles of prosocial and conduct problem behaviors in a community sample of children.

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Andrade, Brendan F; Tannock, Rosemary

2013-11-01

This study tested whether children's symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity were associated with peer problems and whether these associations were mediated by conduct problems and prosocial behaviors. A community sample of 500 children, including 245 boys and 255 girls, who ranged in age from 6 to 9 years (M = 7.6, SD = 0.91) were recruited. Teachers' report of children's inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, conduct problems, prosocial behaviors, and peer problems was collected. Symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity were significantly positively associated with peer problems. Conduct problems were associated with more peer problems and prosocial behaviors with less peer problems. Conduct problems and prosocial behaviors partially mediated the association between hyperactivity/impulsivity and peer problems and fully mediated the inattention-peer problems association. Findings show that prosocial behaviors and conduct problems are important variables that account for some of the negative impact of symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity on peer functioning.

Do sensitive parents foster kind children, or vice versa? Bidirectional influences between children's prosocial behavior and parental sensitivity.

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Newton, Emily K; Laible, Deborah; Carlo, Gustavo; Steele, Joel S; McGinley, Meredith

2014-06-01

Bidirectional theories of social development have been around for over 40 years (Bell, 1968), yet they have been applied primarily to the study of antisocial development. In the present study, the reciprocal relationship between parenting behavior and children's socially competent behaviors were examined. Using the National Institute of Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care data set (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005), bidirectional relationships between parental sensitivity and children's prosocial behavior were modeled using latent variables in structural equation modeling for mothers and fathers, separately. Children and their parents engaged in structured interactions when children were 54-month-olds, 3rd graders, and 5th graders, and these interactions were coded for parental sensitivity. At 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades, teachers and parents reported on children's prosocial behavior. Parental education and child gender were entered as covariates in the models. The results provide support for a bidirectional relationship between children's prosocial behavior and maternal sensitivity (but not paternal sensitivity) in middle childhood. The importance of using a bidirectional approach to examine the development of social competence is emphasized. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Ready to Make Nice: Parental Socialization of Young Sons' and Daughters' Prosocial Behaviors with Peers

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Hastings, Paul D.; McShane, Kelly E.; Parker, Richard; Ladha, Farriola

2007-01-01

In this study, the authors examined the extent to which maternal and paternal parenting styles, cognitions, and behaviors were associated with young girls' and boys' more compassionate (prototypically feminine) and more agentic (prototypically masculine) prosocial behaviors with peers. Parents of 133 preschool-aged children reported on their…

Response time in economic games reflects different types of decision conflict for prosocial and proself individuals.

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Yamagishi, Toshio; Matsumoto, Yoshie; Kiyonari, Toko; Takagishi, Haruto; Li, Yang; Kanai, Ryota; Sakagami, Masamichi

2017-06-13

Behavioral and neuroscientific studies explore two pathways through which internalized social norms promote prosocial behavior. One pathway involves internal control of impulsive selfishness, and the other involves emotion-based prosocial preferences that are translated into behavior when they evade cognitive control for pursuing self-interest. We measured 443 participants' overall prosocial behavior in four economic games. Participants' predispositions [social value orientation (SVO)] were more strongly reflected in their overall game behavior when they made decisions quickly than when they spent a longer time. Prosocially (or selfishly) predisposed participants behaved less prosocially (or less selfishly) when they spent more time in decision making, such that their SVO prosociality yielded limited effects in actual behavior in their slow decisions. The increase (or decrease) in slower decision makers was prominent among consistent prosocials (or proselfs) whose strong preference for prosocial (or proself) goals would make it less likely to experience conflict between prosocial and proself goals. The strong effect of RT on behavior in consistent prosocials (or proselfs) suggests that conflict between prosocial and selfish goals alone is not responsible for slow decisions. Specifically, we found that contemplation of the risk of being exploited by others (social risk aversion) was partly responsible for making consistent prosocials (but not consistent proselfs) spend longer time in decision making and behave less prosocially. Conflict between means rather than between goals (immediate versus strategic pursuit of self-interest) was suggested to be responsible for the time-related increase in consistent proselfs' prosocial behavior. The findings of this study are generally in favor of the intuitive cooperation model of prosocial behavior.

Prosocial Behavior and Subjective Insecurity in Violent Contexts: Field Experiments

OpenAIRE

V?lez, Mar?a Alejandra; Trujillo, Carlos Andres; Moros, Lina; Forero, Clemente

2016-01-01

Subjective insecurity is a key determinant of different forms of prosocial behavior. In Study 1, we used field experiments with farmers in Colombian villages exposed to different levels of violence to investigate how individual perceptions of insecurity affect cooperation, trust, reciprocity and altruism. To do so, we developed a cognitive-affective measure of subjective insecurity. We found that subjective insecurity has a negative effect on cooperation but influences trust and altruism posi...

Psychopathy and Pride: Testing Lykken’s Hypothesis Regarding the Implications of Fearlessness for Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior

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Thomas H. Costello

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Despite widespread assumptions that psychopathy is associated with serious and repeated law-breaking, individuals with psychopathic personality traits do not invariably become chronic criminal offenders. As a partial explanation for this finding, Lykken (1995 ventured that a fearless temperament underlies both psychopathic traits and heroic behavior, and that heroic individuals’ early exposure to effective socializing forces such as warm parenting or healthy self-esteem often fosters a characteristic adaption that tends to beget “successful” behaviors, thereby differentiating heroes from convicts. In this study, we investigate relations between psychopathy, principally its fearless dominance dimension, pride, and prosocial and antisocial behavior in a community sample (N = 339. Fearless dominance and self-centered impulsivity components of psychopathy yielded differential relations with authentic and hubristic pride (Tracy and Robins, 2004, such that fearless dominance was significantly positively correlated with both facets of pride while self-centered Impulsivity was significantly negatively correlated with authentic pride and significantly positively correlated with hubristic pride. Further, authentic pride moderated (potentiated the relation between fearless dominance and transformational leadership, one of the two outcome measures for prosocial behavior employed in our investigation. Authentic pride did not moderate the relations between fearless dominance and either our other measure of prosocial behavior (heroism or antisocial behavior, nor did positive parenting moderate the relations between psychopathy components and social behavior. Unexpectedly, hubristic pride significantly moderated the relation between impulsive-antisocial features and antisocial behavior in a protective manner.

Psychopathy and Pride: Testing Lykken’s Hypothesis Regarding the Implications of Fearlessness for Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior

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Costello, Thomas H.; Unterberger, Ansley; Watts, Ashley L.; Lilienfeld, Scott O.

2018-01-01

Despite widespread assumptions that psychopathy is associated with serious and repeated law-breaking, individuals with psychopathic personality traits do not invariably become chronic criminal offenders. As a partial explanation for this finding, Lykken (1995) ventured that a fearless temperament underlies both psychopathic traits and heroic behavior, and that heroic individuals’ early exposure to effective socializing forces such as warm parenting or healthy self-esteem often fosters a characteristic adaption that tends to beget “successful” behaviors, thereby differentiating heroes from convicts. In this study, we investigate relations between psychopathy, principally its fearless dominance dimension, pride, and prosocial and antisocial behavior in a community sample (N = 339). Fearless dominance and self-centered impulsivity components of psychopathy yielded differential relations with authentic and hubristic pride (Tracy and Robins, 2004), such that fearless dominance was significantly positively correlated with both facets of pride while self-centered Impulsivity was significantly negatively correlated with authentic pride and significantly positively correlated with hubristic pride. Further, authentic pride moderated (potentiated) the relation between fearless dominance and transformational leadership, one of the two outcome measures for prosocial behavior employed in our investigation. Authentic pride did not moderate the relations between fearless dominance and either our other measure of prosocial behavior (heroism) or antisocial behavior, nor did positive parenting moderate the relations between psychopathy components and social behavior. Unexpectedly, hubristic pride significantly moderated the relation between impulsive-antisocial features and antisocial behavior in a protective manner. PMID:29520247

Media Exposure, Aggression and Prosocial Behavior during Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Study

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Ostrov, Jamie M.; Gentile, Douglas A.; Crick, Nicki R.

2006-01-01

Preschool children (N = 78) enrolled in multi-informant, multi-method longitudinal study were participants in a study designed to investigate the role of media exposure (i.e., violent and educational) on concurrent and future aggressive and prosocial behavior. Specifically, the amount of media exposure and the nature of the content was used to…

Explaining female offending and prosocial behavior: the role of empathy and cognitive distortions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Langen, M.A.M.; Stams, G.J.J.M.; Van Vugt, E.S.; Wissink, I.B.; Asscher, J.J.

2014-01-01

The aim of the present study was threefold: to examine (1) the relation between both cognitive and affective empathy and prosocial behavior; (2) the relation between both cognitive and affective empathy and offending; and (3) the role of cognitive distortions in the relation between cognitive

Contemplative/emotion training reduces negative emotional behavior and promotes prosocial responses.

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Kemeny, Margaret E; Foltz, Carol; Cavanagh, James F; Cullen, Margaret; Giese-Davis, Janine; Jennings, Patricia; Rosenberg, Erika L; Gillath, Omri; Shaver, Phillip R; Wallace, B Alan; Ekman, Paul

2012-04-01

Contemplative practices are believed to alleviate psychological problems, cultivate prosocial behavior and promote self-awareness. In addition, psychological science has developed tools and models for understanding the mind and promoting well-being. Additional effort is needed to combine frameworks and techniques from these traditions to improve emotional experience and socioemotional behavior. An 8-week intensive (42 hr) meditation/emotion regulation training intervention was designed by experts in contemplative traditions and emotion science to reduce "destructive enactment of emotions" and enhance prosocial responses. Participants were 82 healthy female schoolteachers who were randomly assigned to a training group or a wait-list control group, and assessed preassessment, postassessment, and 5 months after training completion. Assessments included self-reports and experimental tasks to capture changes in emotional behavior. The training group reported reduced trait negative affect, rumination, depression, and anxiety, and increased trait positive affect and mindfulness compared to the control group. On a series of behavioral tasks, the training increased recognition of emotions in others (Micro-Expression Training Tool), protected trainees from some of the psychophysiological effects of an experimental threat to self (Trier Social Stress Test; TSST), appeared to activate cognitive networks associated with compassion (lexical decision procedure), and affected hostile behavior in the Marital Interaction Task. Most effects at postassessment that were examined at follow-up were maintained (excluding positive affect, TSST rumination, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia recovery). Findings suggest that increased awareness of mental processes can influence emotional behavior, and they support the benefit of integrating contemplative theories/practices with psychological models and methods of emotion regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Correlates of Prosocial Behaviors of Students in Ethnically and Racially Diverse Middle Schools

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Spivak, Asha Leah; White, Samantha Simmons; Juvonen, Jaana; Graham, Sandra

2015-01-01

This study examined the association between ethnicity-related context variables and the prosocial behavior of early adolescents in ethnically/racially diverse schools. Specifically, youths' perceptions of greater representation of same-ethnic peers at school, school support for ethnic diversity, and engagement in and valuing cross-ethnic contact…

Relationships among Moral and Contesting Variables and Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Sport

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Shields, David Light; Funk, Christopher D.; Bredemeier, Brenda Light

2018-01-01

The current study of US intercollegiate athletes (n = 1066) involved in multiple sports investigated relationships among moral (moral reasoning maturity, moral value evaluation [MVE], and moral identity), contesting (partnership and war orientations) and behavioral (prosocial and antisocial) variables in sport. Among other relationships, results…

Helping Others? The Effects of Childhood Poverty and Family Instability on Prosocial Behavior.

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Lichter, Daniel T.; Shanahan, Michael J.; Gardner, Erica L.

2002-01-01

Examines the relationship between poverty and family instability during childhood on prosocial behavior (volunteerism) during late adolescence. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), including mother and family records, indicate that adolescents, particularly males, from single parent families are less likely than those from…

Forms of aggression, peer relationships, and relational victimization among Chinese adolescent girls and boys: roles of prosocial behavior.

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Wang, Shujun; Zhang, Wei; Li, Dongping; Yu, Chengfu; Zhen, Shuangju; Huang, Shihua

2015-01-01

Through a sample of 686 Chinese adolescents (mean age = 13.73 years; 50% girls), we examined the compensatory and moderating effects of prosocial behavior on the direct and indirect associations between forms of aggression and relational victimization mediated by peer relationships among adolescent girls and boys. The results indicated that only adolescent girls' relationally aggressive behaviors could be directly linked with their experiences of relational victimization, and both relationally and overtly aggressive adolescent boys and girls might be more often rejected by their peers, which, in turn, could make them targets of relational aggression. Next, we found that prosocial behavior indirectly counteracts the effects of aggression on relational victimization through reducing adolescents' peer rejection and promoting adolescents' peer attachment. In addition, relationally aggressive girls with high levels of prosocial behavior might be less rejected by peers; however, they might also have lower levels of peer attachment and be more likely to experience relational victimization. Last, adolescent boys scored higher on risks, but lower on the protective factors of relational victimization than girls, which, to some degree, might explain the gender difference in relational victimization. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Forms of Aggression, Peer Relationships, and Relational Victimization among Chinese Adolescent girls and boys: Roles of Prosocial Behavior

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Shujun eWang

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Through a sample of 686 Chinese adolescents (mean age = 13.73 years; 50% girls, we examined the compensatory and moderating effects of prosocial behavior on the direct and indirect associations between forms of aggression and relational victimization mediated by peer relationships among adolescent girls and boys. The results indicated that only adolescent girls’ relationally aggressive behaviors could be directly linked with their experiences of relational victimization, and both relationally and overtly aggressive adolescent boys and girls might be more often rejected by their peers, which, in turn, could make them targets of relational aggression. Next, we found that prosocial behavior indirectly counteracts the effects of aggression on relational victimization through reducing adolescents’ peer rejection and promoting adolescents’ peer attachment. In addition, relationally aggressive girls with high levels of prosocial behavior might be less rejected by peers; however, they might also have lower levels of peer attachment and be more likely to experience relational victimization. Last, adolescent boys scored higher on risks, but lower on the protective factors of relational victimization than girls, which, to some degree, might explain the gender difference in relational victimization. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

A lifespan perspective on attachment and care for others: Empathy, altruism, and prosocial behavior

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shaver, P.R.; Mikulincer, M.; Gross, J.T.; Stern, J.A.; Cassidy, J.A.; Cassidy, J.; Shaver, P.R.

2016-01-01

Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969/1982, 1973, 1980) is, at its core, a theory of prosocial behavior. It explains how, in early childhood, interactions with mindful, caring, and supportive parental figures ("attachment figures") create and solidify children's positive mental representations of others

When does self-sacrificial leadership motivate prosocial behavior? It depends on followers’ prevention focus

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Cremer, D.; Mayer, D.M.; van Dijke, M.; Schouten, B.C.; Bardes, M.

2009-01-01

In the present set of studies, the authors examine the idea that self-sacrificial leadership motivates follower prosocial behavior, particularly among followers with a prevention focus. Drawing on the self-sacrificial leadership literature and regulatory focus theory, the authors provide results

Cyberbullying Among Adolescent Bystanders: Role of Affective Versus Cognitive Empathy in Increasing Prosocial Cyberbystander Behavior

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Barlińska, Julia; Szuster, Anna; Winiewski, Mikołaj

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate if affective (vicarious sharing of emotions) and cognitive empathy (mental perspective taking) induction may stimulate adolescent online bystanders’ intervention in cyberbullying cases. The role of reporting the abuse is crucial because it is a form of active support to the victim, initiated by children, to stop the bullying. The effectiveness of empathy activation in decreasing negative cyberbystander reinforcing behavior has been proved in previous studies. The effects of affective and cognitive empathy activation on positive cyberbystander behavior, defined as reporting the bullying online, were explored in two follow-up studies N = 271 and N = 265. The influence of experiencing cyberbullying as perpetrator, victim, and as determined by gender on prosocial cyberbystander behavior was also controlled. The results indicate that only cognitive empathy activation increases the likelihood of intervening bystander behavior. Neither affective empathy induction, previous experience of cyberperpetration, cybervictimization, nor gender affected the engagement in prosocial bystander behavior. The conclusion of the research is that a program consequently activating more reflective cognitive empathy induction can contribute toward the establishment of healthier behavioral patterns among bystanders to cyberbullying, increasing the probability of their reporting the cyberbullying acts. PMID:29899715

Cyberbullying Among Adolescent Bystanders: Role of Affective Versus Cognitive Empathy in Increasing Prosocial Cyberbystander Behavior

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Julia Barlińska

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate if affective (vicarious sharing of emotions and cognitive empathy (mental perspective taking induction may stimulate adolescent online bystanders’ intervention in cyberbullying cases. The role of reporting the abuse is crucial because it is a form of active support to the victim, initiated by children, to stop the bullying. The effectiveness of empathy activation in decreasing negative cyberbystander reinforcing behavior has been proved in previous studies. The effects of affective and cognitive empathy activation on positive cyberbystander behavior, defined as reporting the bullying online, were explored in two follow-up studies N = 271 and N = 265. The influence of experiencing cyberbullying as perpetrator, victim, and as determined by gender on prosocial cyberbystander behavior was also controlled. The results indicate that only cognitive empathy activation increases the likelihood of intervening bystander behavior. Neither affective empathy induction, previous experience of cyberperpetration, cybervictimization, nor gender affected the engagement in prosocial bystander behavior. The conclusion of the research is that a program consequently activating more reflective cognitive empathy induction can contribute toward the establishment of healthier behavioral patterns among bystanders to cyberbullying, increasing the probability of their reporting the cyberbullying acts.

The Link between Peer Relations, Prosocial Behavior, and ODD/ADHD Symptoms in 7–9-Year-Old Children

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Paap, Muirne C. S.; Haraldsen, Ira R.; Breivik, Kyrre; Butcher, Phillipa R.; Hellem, Frøydis M.; Stormark, Kjell M.

2013-01-01

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by symptoms that hinder successful positive interaction with peers. The main goal of this study was to examine if the presence of symptoms of ODD and ADHD affects the relationship between positive social behavior and peer status found in 7–9-year-old children who show symptoms typical of ADHD and/or ODD. Furthermore, the possible interaction with sex was investigated. We used data collected in the first wave of The Bergen Child Study of mental health (BCS), a prospective longitudinal total population study of children's developmental and mental health. The target population consisted of children in the second to the fourth, in all public, private, and special schools in Bergen, Norway, in the fall of 2002 (N = 9430). All 79 primary schools in Bergen participated in the study. Both teacher (8809 complete cases) and parent (6253 complete cases) report were used in the analyses. ADHD and ODD scores were estimated using the Swanson Noland and Pelham rating scale version IV (SNAP-IV), and peer problems and prosocial behavior were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). We replicated the relationship between peer problems and prosocial behavior found previously in typically developing children. Our results showed that the relationship between peer problems and prosocial behavior became weaker as the ODD symptoms increased in number and severity. For ADHD this effect was only found in the teacher report of the children. A sex effect for ODD symptoms was found only using the parent report: boys with ODD symptoms showed less prosocial behavior than girls with similar levels of ODD symptoms. Since this effect was not found using the teacher data, it may imply a situational effect (school/home) for girls with high levels of ODD. The moderator effect of ODD/ADHD was comparable for boys and girls. Our findings suggest that even if children with

The Link between Peer Relations, Prosocial Behavior, and ODD/ADHD Symptoms in 7–9-Year-Old Children

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Muirne C. S. Paap

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD are characterized by symptoms that hinder successful positive interaction with peers. The main goal of this study was to examine if the presence of symptoms of ODD and ADHD affects the relationship between positive social behavior and peer status found in 7–9-year-old children who show symptoms typical of ADHD and/or ODD. Furthermore, the possible interaction with sex was investigated. We used data collected in the first wave of The Bergen Child Study of mental health (BCS, a prospective longitudinal total population study of children’s developmental and mental health. The target population consisted of children in the second to the fourth, in all public, private, and special schools in Bergen, Norway, in the fall of 2002 (N=9430. All 79 primary schools in Bergen participated in the study. Both teacher (8809 complete cases and parent (6253 complete cases report were used in the analyses. ADHD and ODD scores were estimated using the Swanson Noland and Pelham rating scale version IV (SNAP-IV, and peer problems and prosocial behavior were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ. We replicated the relationship between peer problems and prosocial behavior found previously in typically developing children. Our results showed that the relationship between peer problems and prosocial behavior became weaker as the ODD symptoms increased in number and severity. For ADHD this effect was only found in the teacher report of the children. A sex effect for ODD symptoms was found only using the parent report: boys with ODD symptoms showed less prosocial behavior than girls with similar levels of ODD symptoms. Since this effect was not found using the teacher data, it may imply a situational effect (school/home for girls with high levels of ODD. The moderator effect of ODD/ADHD was comparable for boys and girls. Our findings suggest that even if

Prosocial Motivation: Inferences from an Opaque Body of Work

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Eisenberg, Nancy; VanSchyndel, Sarah K.; Spinrad, Tracy L.

2016-01-01

Because motivations for prosocial actions typically are unclear, sometimes even to actors but especially for observers, it is difficult to study prosocial motivation. This article reviews research that provides evidence regarding children's motives for prosocial behaviors. First, we present a heuristic model to classify motives on the dimension of…

Familial and Contextual Influences on Children's Prosocial Behavior: South African Caregivers as Adult Protective Shields in Enhancing Child Mental Health.

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Parchment, Tyrone M; Small, Latoya; Osuji, Hadiza; McKay, Mary; Bhana, Arvin

2016-03-01

The mental health of children is too frequently overlooked in resource scarce low and middle-income countries. South Africa represents one of many country contexts struggling to meet the mental health needs of large numbers of young people. Family caregivers have been identified as potential protective influences on child mental health, even for those children being reared with high exposure to poverty. This paper explores contextual influences on South African caregiver's social-emotional health living in communities impacted by poverty and food insecurity as they attempt to support their children's prosocial skills and behavior. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to explore the relationship between neighborhood social cohesion and caregiver report of child's prosocial behavior as mediated by the caregiver's mental health ( n =478). Results indicated that the more caregivers experience their communities as socially cohesive, the better their social-emotional well-being, thus positively related to their reports of children's prosocial behavior. Furthermore, when there is a male head of household, caregivers reported better social-emotional well-being in comparison to female headed of household. The more food secure caregivers also were likely to report better general health. South African community characteristics and caregivers, in particular male caregivers, are integral to child and caregiver mental health. Future research should examine the impact of interventions that mobilize community and caregiver supports for children's prosocial behavior and mental health.

Perceived Maternal Parenting Styles, Cultural Values, and Prosocial Tendencies Among Mexican American Youth.

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Davis, Alexandra N; Carlo, Gustavo; Knight, George P

2015-01-01

The present study aimed to extend research on parenting and positive development of Latino youth. Participants were 207 Mexican American adolescents (M age = 10.9 years, SD = 0.83 years; 50% girls) who completed measures of their parents' supportive and firm parenting, their own endorsement of respect and traditional gender role values, and their tendency to engage in six forms of prosocial behaviors. Maternal nativity was also considered as an initial predictor of parenting, adolescents' cultural values, and adolescents' prosocial behaviors. Overall, the results demonstrated that maternal nativity was associated with traditional gender roles and specific forms of prosocial behaviors. Parenting dimensions were differentially associated with respect and traditional gender role values and prosocial behaviors. Cultural values, in turn, were associated with multiple forms of prosocial behaviors. Gender differences in the processes were also explored.

The Role of Emotional Reactivity, Self-Regulation, and Puberty in Adolescents' Prosocial Behaviors

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Carlo, Gustavo; Crockett, Lisa J.; Wolff, Jennifer M.; Beal, Sarah J.

2012-01-01

This study was designed to examine the roles of emotional reactivity, self-regulation, and pubertal timing in prosocial behaviors during adolescence. Participants were 850 sixth graders (50 percent female, mean age = 11.03, standard deviation = 0.17) who were followed up at the age of 15. In hierarchical regression models, measures of emotional…

The Impact of Prolonged Participation in a Pro-Social Cognitive Behavioral Skills Program on Elementary Age Students, with Behavior Related Disorders, Behavior Accelerative, Behavior Reductive, and Return to Regular Classroom Outcomes

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Esser, Ted H.

2012-01-01

Overall, pretest-posttest results indicated statistically significant pretest beginning program compared to posttest ending program percentage of behavioral improvement for on task, following directions, and positive interactions outcomes improvement for individual students who completed the elementary grades pro-social cognitive behavioral skills…

Group Music Training and Children's Prosocial Skills.

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Schellenberg, E Glenn; Corrigall, Kathleen A; Dys, Sebastian P; Malti, Tina

2015-01-01

We investigated if group music training in childhood is associated with prosocial skills. Children in 3rd or 4th grade who attended 10 months of music lessons taught in groups were compared to a control group of children matched for socio-economic status. All children were administered tests of prosocial skills near the beginning and end of the 10-month period. Compared to the control group, children in the music group had larger increases in sympathy and prosocial behavior, but this effect was limited to children who had poor prosocial skills before the lessons began. The effect was evident even when the lessons were compulsory, which minimized the role of self-selection. The results suggest that group music training facilitates the development of prosocial skills.

Roles of Personality Types, Emotional Intelligence and Gender Differences on Prosocial Behavior

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Olukayode A. Afolabi

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Due to dearth of research on prosocial behavior (PSB among undergraduates in Nigeria, this study investigated the influence of five –factorpersonality factors (FFP, emotional intelligence (EI and gender differences on prosocial behavior (PSB among undergraduates in Nigeria.Cross-sectional survey design was adopted to tap information from 200 randomly selected undergraduates. They responded to a carefullydesigned questionnaire with 4 sections. Five hypotheses were tested. The results showed that there were significant relationships betweenthe variables of study. The first step in the hierarchical regression showed that the independent and joint contributions of age, gender, religionand educational level on PSB were not significant. The second step which involved the FFP did not have significant independent and jointcontribution on PSB except for conscientiousness [R2 = .34, t = 7.08; p < .01]. In the third step EI also had no significant contribution but theoverall joint contribution (with other variables to PSB increased to 35.3%. However, high EI increased PSB [t(198 = 12.36; p < .01] but genderdid not have significant effect on PSB. The findings were discussed based on the existing literature and important recommendations weremade.

Toward Predicting Prosocial Behavior: Music Preference and Empathy Differences Between Adolescents and Adults

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Shannon Scott Clark

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Empathy plays a role in social competence and intelligence, and can serve as a buffer against antisocial tendencies. Numerous studies highlight the relationship between empathy, prosocial behaviors, and the predictive utility of music preferences. This study examined participant differences in music preferences and empathy as a function of age, and whether preferred music genre predicted empathy (as a correlate to prosocial behavior. A new measure was devised to assess music preferences more accurately (i.e. with better face/construct validity than existing measures. The Basic Empathy Scale measured empathy as a multidimensional construct. Younger participants exhibited greater empathy than older ones. Each music preference factor contributed uniquely to empathy variance in multiple regression models. Younger and older participants differed on music preferences (arguably associated with age-related sociocultural influences. Conclusions were drawn regarding the age differences in empathy and music preferences, the systematically greater influences of music preferences on cognitive compared to affective empathy, and the greater associations with empathy of specific music preferences. Limitations and implications for government policy and further research are considered.

But is helping you worth the risk? Defining Prosocial Risk Taking in adolescence

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Do, Kathy T.; Guassi Moreira, João F.; Telzer, Eva H.

2017-01-01

Recent work has shown that the same neural circuitry that typically underlies risky behaviors also contributes to prosocial behaviors. Despite the striking overlap between two seemingly distinct behavioral patterns, little is known about how risk taking and prosociality interact and inform adolescent decision making. We review literature on adolescent brain development as it pertains to risk taking and prosociality and propose a new area of study, Prosocial Risk Taking, which suggests that adolescents can make risky decisions with the intention of helping other individuals. Given key socialization processes and ongoing neurodevelopmental changes during this time, adolescence may represent a sensitive period for the emergence of Prosocial Risk Taking, especially within a wide variety of social contexts when youth’s increased sensitivity to social evaluation and belonging impacts their behaviors. Prosocial Risk Taking in adolescence is an area of study that has been overlooked in the literature, but could help explain how ontogenetic changes in the adolescent brain may create not only vulnerabilities, but also opportunities for healthy prosocial development. PMID:28063823

THE PREREQUISITES OF PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN HUMAN ONTOGENY

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Irina M. Sozinova

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Understanding the development of moral attitudes toward unrelated individuals from different social groups may provide insights into the role of biological and cultural factors in prosocial behavior. Children (3–11 years old, N=80 were presented with moral dilemmas describing a conflict of interests between a con-specific (human and another species (animals or aliens. Participants were asked to evaluate the behavior of a human in terms of ‘good’ and ‘bad’, and to choose whom they would help: a human aggressor who benefits at the expense of a victim in vital need, or the victim. Results showed that the older children preferred to help non-human victims significantly more often than the younger children. The evaluation of human actions was related to the proportion of such preferences. These findings are discussed from the perspectives of kin selection theory, group selection theory and the system-evolutionary approach. The implications of the study for moral education are suggested.

The Watching-Eye Effect on Prosocial Lying

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Ryo Oda

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Evidence shows that people tend to behave prosocially when they are in the presence of images depicting eyes. There are two proximate causes of the eyes effect. One involves positive motivation to gain future reward and the other involves negative motivation to avoid violating a norm. Although several studies have suggested that positive motivation is a strong candidate, these studies were unable to distinguish between adherence to norms and prosocial behavior. We investigated the watching-eyes effect in an experimental setting to determine whether the tendency of humans to violate norms voluntarily could be understood as prosocial behavior. We compared the tendency to tell “prosocial lies” in the presence of a depiction of stylized eyes (eyes condition with that involving no such depiction (control condition. Under the control condition, participants tended to tell lies that benefitted others, whereas the tendency toward prosocial lying disappeared under the eyes condition. This suggests that the desire to avoid violating norms by being honest is stronger than the desire to pursue a good reputation by demonstrating generosity when such violation might lead to serious costs.

The Development of Prosocial Moral Reasoning and a Prosocial Orientation in Young Adulthood: Concurrent and Longitudinal Correlates

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Eisenberg, Nancy; Hofer, Claire; Sulik, Michael J.; Liew, Jeffrey

2014-01-01

We examined stability and change in prosocial moral reasoning (PRM) assessed longitudinally at ages 20/21, 22/23, 24/25, 26/27, and 31/32 years (N = 32; 16 female) using a pencil-and-paper measure of moral reasoning and examined relations of PRM and prosocial behavior with one another and with empathy, sympathy measured with self- and friend…

Group Music Training and Children's Prosocial Skills.

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E Glenn Schellenberg

Full Text Available We investigated if group music training in childhood is associated with prosocial skills. Children in 3rd or 4th grade who attended 10 months of music lessons taught in groups were compared to a control group of children matched for socio-economic status. All children were administered tests of prosocial skills near the beginning and end of the 10-month period. Compared to the control group, children in the music group had larger increases in sympathy and prosocial behavior, but this effect was limited to children who had poor prosocial skills before the lessons began. The effect was evident even when the lessons were compulsory, which minimized the role of self-selection. The results suggest that group music training facilitates the development of prosocial skills.

Helping the One You Hurt: Toddlers' Rudimentary Guilt, Shame, and Prosocial Behavior After Harming Another.

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Drummond, Jesse D K; Hammond, Stuart I; Satlof-Bedrick, Emma; Waugh, Whitney E; Brownell, Celia A

2017-07-01

This study explored the role of guilt and shame in early prosocial behavior by extending previous findings that guilt- and shame-like responses can be distinguished in toddlers and, for the first time, examining their associations with helping. Toddlers (n = 32; M age  = 28.9 months) were led to believe they broke an adult's toy, after which they exhibited either a guilt-like response that included frequently confessing their behavior and trying to repair the toy; or a shame-like response that included frequently avoiding the adult and seldom confessing or attempting to repair the toy. In subsequent prosocial tasks, children showing a guilt-like response helped an adult in emotional distress significantly faster and more frequently than did children showing a shame-like response. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Prosocial Tendencies Predict Friendship Quality, But Not for Popular Children

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Poorthuis, Astrid M. G.; Thomaes, Sander; Denissen, Jaap J. A.; van Aken, Marcel A. G.; de Castro, Bram Orobio

2012-01-01

Is prosocial behavior a prerequisite for having good-quality friendships? This study (N=477, mean age=12.2 years) examined whether the link between children's prosocial tendencies and their perceived friendship quality was dependent on children's level of popularity in the peer group. Children's prosocial tendencies were assessed both as observed…

The neural components of empathy: Predicting daily prosocial behavior

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Morelli, Sylvia A.; Rameson, Lian T.; Lieberman, Matthew D.

2012-01-01

Previous neuroimaging studies on empathy have not clearly identified neural systems that support the three components of empathy: affective congruence, perspective-taking, and prosocial motivation. These limitations stem from a focus on a single emotion per study, minimal variation in amount of social context provided, and lack of prosocial motivation assessment. In the current investigation, 32 participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging session assessing empathic response...

On- and Off-field Antisocial and Prosocial Behavior in Adolescent Soccer Players: A Multilevel Study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rutten, E.A.; Stams, G.J.; Dekovic, M.; Schuengel, C.; Biesta, G.J.J.; Hoeksma, J.B.

2008-01-01

This study investigated to what extent team membership predicts on- and off-field antisocial and prosocial behavior in (pre)adolescent athletes. Effects of team-membership were related to characteristics of the team environment, such as relational support from the coach towards team members, fair

Task design influences prosociality in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes.

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Bailey R House

Full Text Available Chimpanzees confer benefits on group members, both in the wild and in captive populations. Experimental studies of how animals allocate resources can provide useful insights about the motivations underlying prosocial behavior, and understanding the relationship between task design and prosocial behavior provides an important foundation for future research exploring these animals' social preferences. A number of studies have been designed to assess chimpanzees' preferences for outcomes that benefit others (prosocial preferences, but these studies vary greatly in both the results obtained and the methods used, and in most cases employ procedures that reduce critical features of naturalistic social interactions, such as partner choice. The focus of the current study is on understanding the link between experimental methodology and prosocial behavior in captive chimpanzees, rather than on describing these animals' social motivations themselves. We introduce a task design that avoids isolating subjects and allows them to freely decide whether to participate in the experiment. We explore key elements of the methods utilized in previous experiments in an effort to evaluate two possibilities that have been offered to explain why different experimental designs produce different results: (a chimpanzees are less likely to deliver food to others when they obtain food for themselves, and (b evidence of prosociality may be obscured by more "complex" experimental apparatuses (e.g., those including more components or alternative choices. Our results suggest that the complexity of laboratory tasks may generate observed variation in prosocial behavior in laboratory experiments, and highlights the need for more naturalistic research designs while also providing one example of such a paradigm.

Moderating Effects of Social Value Orientation on the Effect of Social Influence in Prosocial Decisions.

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Wei, Zhenyu; Zhao, Zhiying; Zheng, Yong

2016-01-01

Prosocial behaviors are susceptible to individuals' preferences regarding payoffs and social context. In the present study, we combined individual differences with social influence and attempted to discover the effect of social value orientation (SVO) and social influence on prosocial behavior in a trust game and a dictator game. Prosocial behavior in the trust game could be motivated by strategic considerations whereas individuals' decisions in the dictator game could be associated with their social preference. In the trust game, prosocials were less likely than proselfs to conform to the behavior of other group members when the majority of group members distrusted the trustee. In the dictator game, the results of the three-way ANOVA indicated that, irrespective of the type of offer, in contrast to proselfs, prosocials were influenced more by others' generous choices than their selfish choices, even if the selfish choices were beneficial to themselves. The overall results demonstrated that the effect of social influence appears to depend on individuals' SVO: that is, prosocials tend to conform to prosocial rather than proself behaviors.

Group Music Training and Children's Prosocial Skills

OpenAIRE

Schellenberg, E. Glenn; Corrigall, Kathleen A.; Dys, Sebastian P.; Malti, Tina

2015-01-01

We investigated if group music training in childhood is associated with prosocial skills. Children in 3rd or 4th grade who attended 10 months of music lessons taught in groups were compared to a control group of children matched for socio-economic status. All children were administered tests of prosocial skills near the beginning and end of the 10-month period. Compared to the control group, children in the music group had larger increases in sympathy and prosocial behavior, but this effect w...

The sociocultural appraisals, values, and emotions (SAVE) framework of prosociality: core processes from gene to meme.

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Keltner, Dacher; Kogan, Aleksandr; Piff, Paul K; Saturn, Sarina R

2014-01-01

The study of prosocial behavior--altruism, cooperation, trust, and the related moral emotions--has matured enough to produce general scholarly consensus that prosociality is widespread, intuitive, and rooted deeply within our biological makeup. Several evolutionary frameworks model the conditions under which prosocial behavior is evolutionarily viable, yet no unifying treatment exists of the psychological decision-making processes that result in prosociality. Here, we provide such a perspective in the form of the sociocultural appraisals, values, and emotions (SAVE) framework of prosociality. We review evidence for the components of our framework at four levels of analysis: intrapsychic, dyadic, group, and cultural. Within these levels, we consider how phenomena such as altruistic punishment, prosocial contagion, self-other similarity, and numerous others give rise to prosocial behavior. We then extend our reasoning to chart the biological underpinnings of prosociality and apply our framework to understand the role of social class in prosociality.

‘It’s up to you’: Experimentally manipulated autonomy support for prosocial behavior improves well-being in two cultures over six weeks

OpenAIRE

Nelson, SK; Della Porta, MD; Jacobs Bao, K; Lee, HC; Choi, I; Lyubomirsky, S

2014-01-01

© 2014 Taylor & Francis. Previous research has demonstrated a strong link between prosocial behavior – particularly autonomous prosocial behavior – and well-being. Little is known, however, about whether and how autonomy might be boosted in the context of everyday kindnesses. We tested the effect of supporting students’ autonomy on well-being gains from practicing acts of kindness in a six-week randomized experimental study in the United States and South Korea. As predicted, performing kind...

Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in Eastern and Western countries: A meta-analytic review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Anderson, C.A.; Shibuya, A.; Ihori, N.; Swing, E.L.; Bushman, B.J.; Sakamoto, A.; Rothstein, H.R.; Saleem, M.; Barlett, C.P.

2010-01-01

Meta-analytic procedures were used to test the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, empathy/desensitization, and prosocial behavior. Unique features of this meta-analytic review include (a) more restrictive

Developmental Differences in Prosocial Motives and Behavior in Children from Low-Socioeconomic Status Families

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McGrath, Marianne P.; Brown, Bethany C.

2008-01-01

Developmental theories of prosocial reasoning and behavior posit a transition from concrete (e.g., give a toy to receive one) to abstract (e.g., spend time to make someone happy) forms and have been supported with research on middle-socioeconomic status (SES), White samples. The methodology that researchers have used to date has restricted the…

Relations between Popularity and Prosocial Behavior in Middle School and High School Chinese Adolescents

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Lu, Ting; Li, Ling; Niu, Li; Jin, Shenghua; French, Doran C.

2018-01-01

The concurrent and longitudinal associations between popularity, likeability, and prosocial behavior were evaluated in this three-year study of middle school and high school Chinese adolescents. The initial sample included 766 middle school (mean age = 13.3 years) and 668 high school participants (mean age = 16.6 years); there were 880 (399 girls)…

Technology-Related Strategies Used by Educational Leaders to Increase Prosocial Behavior in K-12 Schools

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Beers, Jason Ronald

2017-01-01

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify technology-related strategies used by educational leaders to increase prosocial behavior in K-12 schools. Information and communication technology (ICT) is developing at a rapid rate and is becoming more ubiquitous among students. Discovering and understanding common technology-related strategies…

Do Guilt- and Shame-Proneness Differentially Predict Prosocial, Aggressive, and Withdrawn Behaviors during Early Adolescence?

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Roos, Sanna; Hodges, Ernest V. E.; Salmivalli, Christina

2014-01-01

In this short-term longitudinal study, we systematically examined the distinctiveness of guilt- and shame-proneness in early adolescents (N = 395, mean age = 11.8 years) in terms of differential relations with peer reported prosocial behavior, withdrawal, and aggression. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that guilt-proneness…

Pro-Social Behavior Amongst Students of Tertiary Institutions: An Explorative and a Quantitative Approach

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Quain, Samuel; Yidana, Xiaaba Dantallah; Ambotumah, Bernard Baba; Mensah-Livivnstone, Ike Joe Nii Annang

2016-01-01

The purpose of this paper was to explore antecedents of pro-social behavior amongst university students, using a private university as a case study. Following an explorative research, the study was guided by some theories relating to the phenomenon, focusing on gender and location factors. A quantitative approach was used in the follow up to the…

On- and Off-Field Antisocial and Prosocial Behavior in Adolescent Soccer Players: A Multilevel Study

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Rutten, Esther A.; Dekovic, Maja; Stams, Geert Jan J. M.; Schuengel, Carlo; Hoeksma, Jan B.; Biesta, Gert J. J.

2008-01-01

This study investigated to what extent team membership predicts on- and off-field antisocial and prosocial behavior in (pre)adolescent athletes. Effects of team-membership were related to characteristics of the team environment, such as relational support from the coach towards team members, fair play attitude and sociomoral reasoning within the…

Pretty as a Princess: Longitudinal Effects of Engagement With Disney Princesses on Gender Stereotypes, Body Esteem, and Prosocial Behavior in Children.

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Coyne, Sarah M; Linder, Jennifer Ruh; Rasmussen, Eric E; Nelson, David A; Birkbeck, Victoria

2016-11-01

This study examined level of engagement with Disney Princess media/products as it relates to gender-stereotypical behavior, body esteem (i.e. body image), and prosocial behavior during early childhood. Participants consisted of 198 children (M age  = 58 months), who were tested at two time points (approximately 1 year apart). Data consisted of parent and teacher reports, and child observations in a toy preference task. Longitudinal results revealed that Disney Princess engagement was associated with more female gender-stereotypical behavior 1 year later, even after controlling for initial levels of gender-stereotypical behavior. Parental mediation strengthened associations between princess engagement and adherence to female gender-stereotypical behavior for both girls and boys, and for body esteem and prosocial behavior for boys only. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Psychopathology and prosocial behavior in adolescents from socio-economically disadvantaged families: the role of proximal and distal adverse life events.

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Flouri, Eirini; Tzavidis, Nikos

2008-12-01

The study investigated if proximal contextual risk (number of adverse life events experienced in the last year) or distal contextual risk (number of adverse life events experienced before the last year) is a better predictor of adolescent psychopathology and prosocial behavior. It also tested for the specificity, accumulation and gradient of contextual risk in psychopathology and prosocial behavior, and for the interaction between proximal and distal contextual risk in psychopathology and prosocial behavior. The sample was 199 11-18 year old children from a socio-economically disadvantaged area in North-East London. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), which measures four difficulties (hyperactivity, emotional symptoms, conduct problems, and peer problems) and prosocial behavior, was used. Confounders were age, gender, and maternal educational qualifications. To model the relationship between the five SDQ scales and contextual risk multivariate response regression models and multivariate response logistic regression models that allow the error terms of the scale specific models to be correlated were fitted. This study highlighted the importance of proximal contextual risk in predicting both broad and externalizing psychopathology, and the importance of considering risk accumulation rather than specificity in predicting psychopathology. By showing that the number of proximal adverse life events experienced had a steady, additive effect on broad and externalizing psychopathology, it also highlighted the need to protect adolescents experiencing current risk from further risk exposure. By showing that the number of distal adverse life events experienced did not affect the proximal risk's impact on either broad or externalizing psychopathology, it highlighted the need to protect all adolescents, irrespective of experience of early life adversities, from risk.

Associations between Violent Video Gaming, Empathic Concern, and Prosocial Behavior toward Strangers, Friends, and Family Members

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Fraser, Ashley M.; Padilla-Walker, Laura M.; Coyne, Sarah M.; Nelson, Larry J.; Stockdale, Laura A.

2012-01-01

Exposure to media violence, including violent video gaming, can have a cognitive desensitization effect, lowering empathic concern for others in need. Since emerging adulthood offers increased opportunities to volunteer, strengthen relationships, and initiate new relationships, decreases in empathic concern and prosocial behavior may prove…

Violent Video Game Effects on Aggression, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Eastern and Western Countries: A Meta-Analytic Review

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Craig A.; Shibuya, Akiko; Ihori, Nobuko; Swing, Edward L.; Bushman, Brad J.; Sakamoto, Akira; Rothstein, Hannah R.; Saleem, Muniba

2010-01-01

Meta-analytic procedures were used to test the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, empathy/desensitization, and prosocial behavior. Unique features of this meta-analytic review include (a) more restrictive methodological quality inclusion criteria than in past…

Prosociality: the contribution of traits, values, and self-efficacy beliefs.

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Caprara, Gian Vittorio; Alessandri, Guido; Eisenberg, Nancy

2012-06-01

The present study examined how agreeableness, self-transcendence values, and empathic self-efficacy beliefs predict individuals' tendencies to engage in prosocial behavior (i.e., prosociality) across time. Participants were 340 young adults, 190 women and 150 men, age approximately 21 years at Time 1 and 25 years at Time 2. Measures of agreeableness, self-transcendence, empathic self-efficacy beliefs, and prosociality were collected at 2 time points. The findings corroborated the posited paths of relations, with agreeableness directly predicting self-transcendence and indirectly predicting empathic self-efficacy beliefs and prosociality. Self-transcendence mediated the relation between agreeableness and empathic self-efficacy beliefs. Empathic self-efficacy beliefs mediated the relation of agreeableness and self-transcendence to prosociality. Finally, earlier prosociality predicted agreeableness and empathic self-efficacy beliefs assessed at Time 2. The posited conceptual model accounted for a significant portion of variance in prosociality and provides guidance to interventions aimed at promoting prosociality. 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Empathy and Empathy Induced Prosocial Behavior in 6-and 7-Year-Olds with Autism Spectrum Disorder

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Deschamps, Peter K. H.; Been, Marieke; Matthys, Walter

The present study aimed to assess empathy and prosocial behavior in 6-7 year old children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Results showed, first, lower levels of parent- and teacher-rated cognitive empathy, and similar levels of affective empathy in children with ASD compared to typically

An Evolutionary Model of the Environmental Conditions that Shape the Development of Prosociality

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Daniel Tumminelli O'Brien

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The current review presents a model for how prosocial development is driven by sociocognitive mechanisms that have been shaped by natural selection to translate critical environmental factors into locally adaptive levels of prosociality. This is done through a synthesis of two existing literatures. Evolutionary developmental psychologists have demonstrated a biological basis for the emergence of prosocial behavior early in youth, and work based on social learning theory has explored how social experiences can influence prosociality across development. The model forwarded organizes this latter literature in a way that is specific to how the biological mechanisms underpinning prosociality have evolved. This consists of two main psychological mechanisms. 1 A domain-specific program that is responsive to environmental factors that determine the relative success of different levels of prosociality. It uses the local prevalence of prosocial others (i.e., support and expectations for prosocial behavior (i.e., structure to guide prosocial development. 2 The domain-general process of cultural learning, by which youth adopt local social norms based on the examples of others. Implications and hypotheses are articulated for both the sociocognitive structure of the individual and the role of social contexts.

REVISIÓN TEÓRICA RESPECTO A LAS CONDUCTAS PROSOCIALES. ANÁLISIS PARA UNA REFLEXIÓN - THEORETICAL REVIEW REGARDING PROSOCIAL BEHAVIORS; ANALYSIS FOR REFLECTION

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JUAN CARLOS MARÍN ESCOBAR

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Prosocial behaviors are a compulsory theme in social psychology. In recent years there has been some proliferation with respect to this issue, having developed research works as evidence,as well as field experiences which are increasingly growing in number. The reason forthis concern is associated with the hope that is the study of prosocial behaviors to educate and socialize supportive and cooperative behaviors that replace competitive and aggressivestandpoints so common in human beings. This article which constitutes a theoretical review is intended to reflect on the dynamicspresent in prosocial behavior. In this regard, apart from introducing a definition of prosocial behaviors, there are some models that attempt to explain this type of behaviors from social psychology. Finally, the possible relationships between prosocial behaviours and concepts such as personality, motivation, mood and perception, are identified.Resumen Las conductas prosociales son un tema obligado dentro de la Psicología Social. En los últimos años se ha dado cierta proliferación respecto al abordaje de este tema, evidenciado por los trabajos investigativos desarrollados y por las experiencias de campo que cada vez crecenen número. La razón por esta preocupación está asociada a la esperanza que constituye el estudio de la prosocialidad para educar y socializar conductas solidarias y cooperativas que reemplacen las miradas competitivas y de naturaleza agresiva tan habituales en los sereshumanos. Este artículo que constituye una revisión teórica tiene la intención de reflexionar en torno a la dinámica presente en las conductas prosociales. En este sentido además de presentar unadefinición de la prosocialidad se muestran algunos modelos que intentan explicar este tipo de conductas desde la Psicología Social. Finalmente se señalan las relaciones que puede haber entre este constructo y conceptos como la personalidad, la motivación, el estado de ánimo y la

La competència social i la conducta prosocial en estudiants de secundària

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Lorente Escriche, Sara; Martí Vilar, Manuel; Puchol i Fraile, Irene

2015-01-01

At this work two fundamental elements in relationships with peers, social competence and prosocial behavior, are analyzed in 193 teenagers from secondary studies.. Results shows how scales of Prosocial Behaviour influences in a significative way on Social Competence sub-scales. High levels of Prosocial Behavior are significantly related in a positive way with Appropriate Social Skills dimension of social competence, while high levels of Antisocial Behavior are positively related to Inappropri...

Virtually justifiable homicide: the effects of prosocial contexts on the link between violent video games, aggression, and prosocial and hostile cognition.

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Gitter, Seth A; Ewell, Patrick J; Guadagno, Rosanna E; Stillman, Tyler F; Baumeister, Roy F

2013-01-01

Previous work has shown that playing violent video games can stimulate aggression toward others. The current research has identified a potential exception. Participants who played a violent game in which the violence had an explicitly prosocial motive (i.e., protecting a friend and furthering his nonviolent goals) were found to show lower short-term aggression (Study 1) and show higher levels of prosocial cognition (Study 2) than individuals who played a violent game in which the violence was motivated by more morally ambiguous motives. Thus, violent video games that are framed in an explicitly prosocial context may evoke more prosocial sentiments and thereby mitigate some of the short-term effects on aggression observed in previous research. While these findings are promising regarding the potential aggression-reducing effects of prosocial context, caution is still warranted as a small effect size difference (d = .2-.3), although nonsignificant, was still observed between those who played the explicitly prosocial violent game and those who played a nonviolent game; indicating that aggressive behavior was not completely eliminated by the inclusion of a prosocial context for the violence. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Prosocial behavior leads to happiness in a small-scale rural society.

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Aknin, Lara B; Broesch, Tanya; Hamlin, J Kiley; Van de Vondervoort, Julia W

2015-08-01

Humans are extraordinarily prosocial, and research conducted primarily in North America indicates that giving to others is emotionally rewarding. To examine whether the hedonic benefits of giving represent a universal feature of human behavior, we extended upon previous cross-cultural examinations by investigating whether inhabitants of a small-scale, rural, and isolated village in Vanuatu, where villagers have little influence from urban, Western culture, survive on subsistence farming without electricity, and have minimal formal education, report or display emotional rewards from engaging in prosocial (vs. personally beneficial) behavior. In Study 1, adults were randomly assigned to purchase candy for either themselves or others and then reported their positive affect. Consistent with previous research, adults purchasing goods for others reported greater positive emotion than adults receiving resources for themselves. In Study 2, 2- to 5-year-old children received candy and were subsequently asked to engage in costly giving (sharing their own candy with a puppet) and non-costly giving (sharing the experimenter's candy with a puppet). Emotional expressions were video-recorded during the experiment and later coded for happiness. Consistent with previous research conducted in Canada, children displayed more happiness when giving treats away than when receiving treats themselves. Moreover, the emotional rewards of giving were largest when children engaged in costly (vs. non-costly) giving. Taken together, these findings indicate that the emotional rewards of giving are detectable in people living in diverse societies and support the possibility that the hedonic benefits of generosity are universal. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Prosocial coping and substance use during pregnancy.

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Blechman, E A; Lowell, E S; Garrett, J

1999-01-01

In structured interviews of pregnant inner-city residents, 38 substance users reported more current liking of drugs and polysubstance use, disengagement coping, depressive symptoms, negative affect, and antisocial behavior than did 45 nonusers. During videotaped interviews, trained observers coded less warmth and less prosocial information exchange (e.g., self-disclosure, question asking) among users. Factor analysis of measures of coping and its concomitants yielded a three-factor (prosocial, antisocial, asocial) solution, with asocial and antisocial coping predominating among substance users. These results suggest that coping has emotional, social, and cognitive elements. This study is the first to demonstrate an association between a substance-using lifestyle and limited prosocial information exchange.

The Jekyll and Hyde of emotional intelligence: emotion-regulation knowledge facilitates both prosocial and interpersonally deviant behavior

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Côté, S.; DeCelles, K.A.; McCarthy, J.M.; van Kleef, G.A.; Hideg, I.

2011-01-01

Does emotional intelligence promote behavior that strictly benefits the greater good, or can it also advance interpersonal deviance? In the investigation reported here, we tested the possibility that a core facet of emotional intelligence—emotion-regulation knowledge—can promote both prosocial and

Increased neural responses to empathy for pain might explain how acute stress increases prosociality.

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Tomova, L; Majdandžic, J; Hummer, A; Windischberger, C; Heinrichs, M; Lamm, C

2017-03-01

Recent behavioral investigations suggest that acute stress can increase prosocial behavior. Here, we investigated whether increased empathy represents a potential mechanism for this finding. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we assessed the effects of acute stress on neural responses related to automatic and regulatory components of empathy for pain as well as subsequent prosocial behavior. Stress increased activation in brain areas associated with the automatic sharing of others' pain, such as the anterior insula, the anterior midcingulate cortex, and the primary somatosensory cortex. In addition, we found increased prosocial behavior under stress. Furthermore, activation in the anterior midcingulate cortex mediated the effects of stress on prosocial behavior. However, stressed participants also displayed stronger and inappropriate other-related responses in situations which required them to take the perspective of another person, and to regulate their automatic affective responses. Thus, while acute stress may increase prosocial behavior by intensifying the sharing of others' emotions, this comes at the cost of reduced cognitive appraisal abilities. Depending on the contextual constraints, stress may therefore affect empathy in ways that are either beneficial or detrimental. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press.

Promoting prosocial behavior and self-regulatory skills in preschool children through a mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum.

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Flook, Lisa; Goldberg, Simon B; Pinger, Laura; Davidson, Richard J

2015-01-01

Self-regulatory abilities are robust predictors of important outcomes across the life span, yet they are rarely taught explicitly in school. Using a randomized controlled design, the present study investigated the effects of a 12-week mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum (KC) delivered in a public school setting on executive function, self-regulation, and prosocial behavior in a sample of 68 preschool children. The KC intervention group showed greater improvements in social competence and earned higher report card grades in domains of learning, health, and social-emotional development, whereas the control group exhibited more selfish behavior over time. Interpretation of effect sizes overall indicate small to medium effects favoring the KC group on measures of cognitive flexibility and delay of gratification. Baseline functioning was found to moderate treatment effects with KC children initially lower in social competence and executive functioning demonstrating larger gains in social competence relative to the control group. These findings, observed over a relatively short intervention period, support the promise of this program for promoting self-regulation and prosocial behavior in young children. They also support the need for future investigation of program implementation across diverse settings.

Helping and hurting others: Person and situation effects on aggressive and prosocial behavior as assessed by the Tangram task.

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Saleem, Muniba; Barlett, Christopher P; Anderson, Craig A; Hawkins, Ian

2017-04-01

The Tangram Help/Hurt Task is a laboratory-based measure designed to simultaneously assess helpful and hurtful behavior. Across five studies we provide evidence that further establishes the convergent and discriminant validity of the Tangram Help/Hurt Task. Cross-sectional and meta-analytic evidence finds consistently significant associations between helpful and hurtful scores on the Tangram Task and prosocial and aggressive personality traits. Experimental evidence reveals that situational primes known to induce aggressive and prosocial behavior significantly influence helpful and hurtful scores on the Tangram Help/Hurt Task. Additionally, motivation items in all studies indicate that tangram choices are indeed associated with intent of helping and hurting. We discuss the advantages and limitations of the Tangram Help/Hurt Task relative to established measures of helpful and hurtful behavior. Aggr. Behav. 43:133-146, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Empathy and Empathy Induced Prosocial Behavior in 6- and 7-Year-Olds with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Deschamps, Peter K. H.; Been, Marieke; Matthys, Walter

2014-01-01

The present study aimed to assess empathy and prosocial behavior in 6-7 year old children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Results showed, first, lower levels of parent- and teacher-rated cognitive empathy, and similar levels of affective empathy in children with ASD compared to typically developing (TD) children. Second, emotion recognition…

BABY EMPATHY: INFANT DISTRESS AND PEER PROSOCIAL RESPONSES.

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Liddle, Mitzi-Jane E; Bradley, Ben S; Mcgrath, Andrew

2015-01-01

Empathy is an important competence in our social world, a motivator of prosocial behavior, and thought to develop throughout the second year of life. The current study examined infants' responses to naturalistic peer distress to explore markers of empathy and prosocial behavior in young babies. Seventeen 8-month-old infants participated in a repeated measures design using the "babies-in-groups" paradigm, with maternal presence as the independent variable. Significant differences were found between response types: Gaze was the standard response to infant distress, followed by socially directed behaviors and affect, with self-distress rarely occurring. Maternal presence was not found to impact the nature or frequency of babies' responses to peer distress. During distress episodes, babies looked preferentially at the distressed peer, then other mothers, and least to their own mother. Data revealed that infant responses to peer distress resulted in a successful cessation of that distress episode over one third of the time. Case studies are provided to illustrate the quantitative data. The results provided evidence of empathic concern and prosocial behavior in the first year of life, and provoke a challenge to developmental theories of empathy. © 2015 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Neurobiological correlates of externalizing and prosocial behavior in school-age children : A study on truths and lies

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S. Thijssen (Sandra)

2015-01-01

markdownabstractThis thesis describes a series of studies on the neurobiological correlates of externalizing and prosocial behavior in six-to ten-year old children. Chapter 1 provides an outline and describes the background and aims of our work. The studies described in this thesis are embedded in

Self-interest and other-orientation in organizational behavior: implications for job performance, prosocial behavior, and personal initiative.

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De Dreu, Carsten K W; Nauta, Aukje

2009-07-01

In this article, the authors develop the self-concern and other-orientation as moderators hypothesis. The authors argue that many theories on work behavior assume humans to be either self-interested or to be social in nature with strong other-orientation but that this assumption is empirically invalid and may lead to overly narrow models of work behavior. The authors instead propose that self-concern and other-orientation are independent. The authors also propose that job performance, prosocial behavior, and personal initiative are a function of (a) individual-level attributes, such as job characteristics when employees are high in self-concern, and (b) group-level attributes, such as justice climate when employees are high in other-orientation. Three studies involving 4 samples of employees from a variety of organizations support these propositions. Implications are discussed for theory on work behavior and interventions geared toward job enrichment and team-based working.

Prosocial Behavior and Subjective Insecurity in Violent Contexts: Field Experiments

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Vélez, María Alejandra; Trujillo, Carlos Andres; Moros, Lina; Forero, Clemente

2016-01-01

Subjective insecurity is a key determinant of different forms of prosocial behavior. In Study 1, we used field experiments with farmers in Colombian villages exposed to different levels of violence to investigate how individual perceptions of insecurity affect cooperation, trust, reciprocity and altruism. To do so, we developed a cognitive-affective measure of subjective insecurity. We found that subjective insecurity has a negative effect on cooperation but influences trust and altruism positively. In Study 2, carried out three years after Study 1, we repeated the initial design with additional measures of victimization. Our goal was to relate subjective insecurity with actual victimization. The findings of Study 2 support the initial results, and are robust and consistent for cooperative behavior and trust when including victimization as a mediator. Different indicators of victimization are positively correlated with subjective insecurity and an aggregate index of victimization has a negative effect on cooperation but exerts a positive influence on trust. PMID:27472437

Prosocial Behavior and Subjective Insecurity in Violent Contexts: Field Experiments.

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María Alejandra Vélez

Full Text Available Subjective insecurity is a key determinant of different forms of prosocial behavior. In Study 1, we used field experiments with farmers in Colombian villages exposed to different levels of violence to investigate how individual perceptions of insecurity affect cooperation, trust, reciprocity and altruism. To do so, we developed a cognitive-affective measure of subjective insecurity. We found that subjective insecurity has a negative effect on cooperation but influences trust and altruism positively. In Study 2, carried out three years after Study 1, we repeated the initial design with additional measures of victimization. Our goal was to relate subjective insecurity with actual victimization. The findings of Study 2 support the initial results, and are robust and consistent for cooperative behavior and trust when including victimization as a mediator. Different indicators of victimization are positively correlated with subjective insecurity and an aggregate index of victimization has a negative effect on cooperation but exerts a positive influence on trust.

Prosocial Behavior and Subjective Insecurity in Violent Contexts: Field Experiments.

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Vélez, María Alejandra; Trujillo, Carlos Andres; Moros, Lina; Forero, Clemente

2016-01-01

Subjective insecurity is a key determinant of different forms of prosocial behavior. In Study 1, we used field experiments with farmers in Colombian villages exposed to different levels of violence to investigate how individual perceptions of insecurity affect cooperation, trust, reciprocity and altruism. To do so, we developed a cognitive-affective measure of subjective insecurity. We found that subjective insecurity has a negative effect on cooperation but influences trust and altruism positively. In Study 2, carried out three years after Study 1, we repeated the initial design with additional measures of victimization. Our goal was to relate subjective insecurity with actual victimization. The findings of Study 2 support the initial results, and are robust and consistent for cooperative behavior and trust when including victimization as a mediator. Different indicators of victimization are positively correlated with subjective insecurity and an aggregate index of victimization has a negative effect on cooperation but exerts a positive influence on trust.

When do people cooperate? The neuroeconomics of prosocial decision making

OpenAIRE

DECLERCK, Carolyn H.; BOONE, Christophe; EMONDS, Griet

2011-01-01

Understanding the roots of prosocial behavior is an interdisciplinary research endeavor that has generated an abundance of empirical data across many disciplines. This review integrates research findings from different fields into a theoretical framework that can account for when prosocial behavior is likely to occur. Specifically, we propose that the motivation to cooperate is generated by the reward system in the brain (extending from striatum to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex), and tha...

You Get What You Get and You Don’t Throw A Fit!: Emotion Socialization and Child Physiology Jointly Predict Early Prosocial Development

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Scrimgeour, Meghan B.; Davis, Elizabeth L.; Buss, Kristin A.

2015-01-01

Prosocial behavior in early childhood is a precursor to later adaptive social functioning. This investigation leveraged mother-reported, physiological, and observational data to examine children’s prosocial development from age 2 to age 4 (N = 125). Maternal emotion socialization (ES) strategies and children’s parasympathetic regulation have each been implicated in prosocial behavior, but are rarely examined together or prospectively. Given the transactional nature of parent-child relationships, the effects of maternal ES strategies on children’s prosocial behavior are likely moderated by children’s individual differences in parasympathetic regulation. As predicted, mothers’ reported use of problem-focused ES strategies predicted prosocial behavior at age 4. Additionally, children who showed parasympathetic reactivity consistent with more effective emotion regulation during a lab-based disappointment task were rated as more prosocial at age 4. Several interactions with maternal ES strategies emerged. Children’s parasympathetic regulation moderated the relations between observed physical comfort or cognitive reframing and prosocial behavior. Observed distraction (either behavioral or cognitive) moderated the link between mothers’ reported use of problem-focused ES strategies and children’s prosocial behavior. Findings suggest that children’s emerging prosocial behavior is shaped by the interactive contributions of inter-personal maternal ES as well as intra-personal intrinsic physiological regulation. PMID:26569566

Prosocial Signalling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kahsay, Goytom Abraha

In contrast to the standard economic theory predictions, it seems clear that people do spend their time and resource to benefit others. Many lab and field experiment studies show that people display prosocial preferences such as altruism, reciprocity and conditional cooperation, fairness, etc....... Policy makers and charity organizations have tried to exploit this prosocial behaviour to foster supply of public goods and donations respectively. However, there is vast literature showing that incentives that aim to foster prosocial behaviour sometimes have reverse reactions, crowding out pre......’ behaviour in these circumstances and how incentives might interact with prosocial behaviour in everyday consumer goods. The aim of this thesis is to address these issues from theoretical and empirical perspectives. It proposes theoretical models to explain consumers’ prosocial behaviour in every day...

Helping the self help others: self-affirmation increases self-compassion and pro-social behaviors.

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Lindsay, Emily K; Creswell, J David

2014-01-01

Reflecting on an important personal value in a self-affirmation activity has been shown to improve psychological functioning in a broad range of studies, but the underlying mechanisms for these self-affirmation effects are unknown. Here we provide an initial test of a novel self-compassion account of self-affirmation in two experimental studies. Study 1 shows that an experimental manipulation of self-affirmation (3-min of writing about an important personal value vs. writing about an unimportant value) increases feelings of self-compassion, and these feelings in turn mobilize more pro-social behaviors to a laboratory shelf-collapse incident. Study 2 tests and extends these effects by evaluating whether self-affirmation increases feelings of compassion toward the self (consistent with the self-compassion account) or increases feelings of compassion toward others (an alternative other-directed compassion account), using a validated storytelling behavioral task. Consistent with a self-compassion account, Study 2 demonstrates the predicted self-affirmation by video condition interaction, indicating that self-affirmation participants had greater feelings of self-compassion in response to watching their own storytelling performance (self-compassion) compared to watching a peer's storytelling performance (other-directed compassion). Further, pre-existing levels of trait self-compassion moderated this effect, such that self-affirmation increased self-compassionate responses the most in participants low in trait self-compassion. This work suggests that self-compassion may be a promising mechanism for self-affirmation effects, and that self-compassionate feelings can mobilize pro-social behaviors.

What is moral about guilt? Acting "prosocially" at the disadvantage of others.

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de Hooge, Ilona E; Nelissen, Rob M A; Breugelmans, Seger M; Zeelenberg, Marcel

2011-03-01

For centuries economists and psychologists have argued that the morality of moral emotions lies in the fact that they stimulate prosocial behavior and benefit others in a person's social environment. Many studies have shown that guilt, arguably the most exemplary moral emotion, indeed motivates prosocial behavior in dyadic social dilemma situations. When multiple persons are involved, however, the moral and prosocial nature of this emotion can be questioned. The present article shows how guilt can have beneficial effects for the victim of one's actions but also disadvantageous effects for other people in the social environment. A series of experiments, with various emotion inductions and dependent measures, all reveal that guilt motivates prosocial behavior toward the victim at the expense of others around-but not at the expense of oneself. These findings illustrate that a thorough understanding of the functioning of emotions is necessary to understand their moral nature. (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved

The impact of perception of consistency and inconsistency in parenting style on pro-social motives of adolescents

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Karmakar R.

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Adolescence is the most dynamic and eventful period of human development. During this crucial period of life, adolescents encounter challenges in life and constantly adapting to the relationship dynamics with friends, family, school and society. There is tendency of adolescents to engage in antisocial or pro-social behaviour. Adolescents’ relationship with parents and guardian significantly influence their antisocial and prosocial behavior. Pro-social behavior is defined as a behavior that is primarily aimed at benefiting others. Some pro-social behaviour is extrinsically motivated whereas some are intrinsically motivated. The present study investigated the nature of prosocial behaviour among adolescents and impact of consistency and inconsistency of parenting style on prosocial behaviour. A group of 610 adolescents (310 boys and 300 girls aged between 16—18 years (mean = 17.07 and standard deviation = 1.02 was selected for the present study. Pro-social Motivation Questionnaire and Parental Authority Questionnaire were used to measure pro-social motive and parenting style, respectively. The results indicate that adolescents generally show higher level of intrinsic pro-social motive. Adolescent girls prefer to display internalised and empathetic pro-social motives whereas adolescent boys tend to gain others’ approval by displaying heroic activities. Consistency in parenting style facilitates intrinsic pro-social motive only when both parents are authoritative in nature. The result interestingly reveals that inconsistent parenting style is not always bad. Authoritative and permissive dyad facilitates intrinsic pro-social motive among adolescents. Implications for parental socialisation in families and pro-social motive among adolescents are discussed.

The Role of Social Status of Parental Family in Forming the Background of Antisocial and Prosocial Behavior of a Person

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Antonov Georgiy Vyacheslavovich

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Some results of the man complex research are presented in this article. Genetic, biophysical, biochemical, physiological, psychological and sociological methods of scientific information obtaining were used. This research reveals the ratio of genetic and psychosocial personality components. These components determine the forming of antisocial and prosocial human behavior. An individual set of phenotypic and genetic characteristics is defined in interrelation with sustainable symptoms of complex behaviors and predisposition to it. Methodic recommendations on revealing predisposition to deviant behavior, including aggressive one, written in the obtained results basis. It described the relationship of standard indicators of parental social status of the family in terms of students exhibiting signs of antisocial and prosocial behavior. To identify human predisposition to a certain type of social behavior, depending on the socio-economic status of the parents and family of origin as a whole was analyzed relations numerical values of a number of empirical indicators of social behavior and social status parameters parent families. Revealed that the level of education and activity of parents, as well as the birthplace of the person have a statistically significant effect on his social behavior.

The early emergence of sociomoral evaluation: infants prefer prosocial others.

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Van de Vondervoort, Julia W; Hamlin, J Kiley

2018-04-01

Humans readily evaluate third-parties' prosocial and antisocial acts. Recent evidence reveals that this tendency emerges early in development-even preverbal infants selectively approach prosocial others and avoid antisocial ones. Rather than reflecting attraction toward or away from low-level characteristics of the displays or simple behavioral rules, infants are sensitive to characteristics of both the agents and recipients of prosocial and antisocial acts. Specifically, infants' preferences require that the recipients of positive and negative acts be social agents with clear unfulfilled goals, who have not previously harmed others. In addition, prosocial and antisocial agents must act intentionally, in the service of positive and negative goals. It is an open question whether these prosocial preferences reflect self-interested and/or moral concerns. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The impact of perception of consistency and inconsistency in parenting style on pro-social motives of adolescents

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Karmakar R.

2017-01-01

Adolescence is the most dynamic and eventful period of human development. During this crucial period of life, adolescents encounter challenges in life and constantly adapting to the relationship dynamics with friends, family, school and society. There is tendency of adolescents to engage in antisocial or pro-social behaviour. Adolescents’ relationship with parents and guardian significantly influence their antisocial and prosocial behavior. Pro-social behavior is defined as a behavior that is...

Parental brain-derived neurotrophic factor genotype, child prosociality, and their interaction as predictors of parents' warmth.

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Avinun, Reut; Knafo-Noam, Ariel

2017-05-01

Parental warmth has been associated with various child behaviors, from effortful control to callous-unemotional traits. Factors that have been shown to affect parental warmth include heritability and child behavior. However, there is limited knowledge about which specific genes are involved, how they interact with child behavior, how they affect differential parenting, and how they affect fathers. We examined what affects paternal and maternal warmth by focusing on the child's prosocial behavior and parents' genotype, specifically a Valine to Methionine substitution at codon 66 in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene. Data was available from a sample of 6.5 year-old twins, consisting of 369 mothers and 663 children and 255 fathers and 458 children. Self-reports were used to assess mothers' and fathers' warmth. Child prosociality was assessed with the other-parent report and experimental assessments. Mothers' warmth was not affected by their BDNF genotype, neither as a main effect nor in an interaction with child prosociality. Fathers with the Met allele scored higher on warmth. Additionally, there was a significant interaction between fathers' BDNF genotype and child prosociality. For fathers with the Met allele there was a positive association between warmth and child prosociality. Conversely, for fathers with the Val/Val genotype there was no association between warmth and child prosociality. Results were repeated longitudinally in a subsample with data on age 8-9 years. A direct within family analysis showed that fathers with the Met allele were more likely than Val/Val carriers to exhibit differential parenting toward twins who differed in their prosocial behavior. The same pattern of findings was found with mother-rated and experimentally assessed prosociality. These results shed light on the genetic and environmental underpinnings of paternal behavior and differential parenting.

Aggressive and prosocial children's emotion attributions and moral reasoning.

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Malti, Tina; Gasser, Luciano; Buchmann, Marlis

2009-01-01

Aggressive and prosocial children's emotion attributions and moral reasoning were investigated. Participants were 235 kindergarten children (M=6.2 years) and 136 elementary-school children (M=7.6 years) who were selected as aggressive or prosocial based on (kindergarten) teacher ratings. The children were asked to evaluate hypothetical rule violations, attribute emotions they would feel in the role of the victimizer, and justify their responses. Compared with younger prosocial children, younger aggressive children attributed fewer negative emotions and were more likely to provide sanction-oriented justifications when evaluating rule violations negatively. Furthermore, age-, gender- and context-effects in moral development occurred. The context-effects included both effects of transgression type (i.e., prosocial morality vs. fairness) on emotion attributions and moral reasoning and the effects of the context of moral evaluation and emotion attribution on moral reasoning. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of emotion attributions and moral reasoning as antecedents of children's aggressive and prosocial behavior. Copyright 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Prosocial Behavior and Childhood Trajectories of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems: The Role of Neighborhood and School Contexts

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Flouri, Eirini; Sarmadi, Zahra

2016-01-01

This study investigated the role of the interaction between prosocial behavior and contextual (school and neighborhood) risk in children's trajectories of externalizing and internalizing problems at ages 3, 5, and 7. The sample was 9,850 Millennium Cohort Study families who lived in England when the cohort children were aged 3. Neighborhood…

Dogs do not show pro-social preferences towards humans.

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Mylène Quervel-Chaumette

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Pro-social behaviors are defined as voluntary actions that benefit others. Comparative studies have mostly focused on investigating the presence of pro-sociality across species in an intraspecific context. Taken together, results on both primates and non-primate species indicate that reliance on cooperation may be at work in the selection and maintenance of pro-social sentiments. Dogs appear to be the ideal model when investigating a species’ propensity for pro-sociality in an interspecific context since it has been suggested that as a consequence of domestication, they evolved an underlying temperament encouraging greater propensity to cooperate with human partners. In a recent study, using a food delivery paradigm, dogs were shown to preferentially express pro-social choices towards familiar compared to unfamiliar conspecifics. Using the same set-up and methods in the current study, we investigated dogs’ pro-social preferences towards familiar and unfamiliar human partners. We found that dogs’ pro-social tendencies did not extend to humans and the identity of the human partners did not influence the rate of food delivery. Interestingly, dogs tested with their human partners spent more time gazing at humans, and did so for longer after food consumption had ended than dogs tested with conspecific partners in the initial study. To allow comparability between results from dogs tested with a conspecific and a human partner, the latter were asked not to communicate with dogs in any way. However, this lack of communication from the human may have been aversive to dogs, leading them to cease performing the task earlier compared to the dogs paired with familiar conspecifics in the prior study. This is in line with previous findings suggesting that human communication in such contexts highly affects dogs’ responses. Consequently, we encourage further studies to examine dogs’ pro-social behavior towards humans taking into consideration their

Prosocial Motivation: Inferences From an Opaque Body of Work.

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Eisenberg, Nancy; VanSchyndel, Sarah K; Spinrad, Tracy L

2016-11-01

Because motivations for prosocial actions typically are unclear, sometimes even to actors but especially for observers, it is difficult to study prosocial motivation. This article reviews research that provides evidence regarding children's motives for prosocial behaviors. First, we present a heuristic model to classify motives on the dimension of reflecting altruistic (with the ultimate goal of benefiting another) to egoism (the ultimate goal of benefiting the self) goals; in addition, we briefly discuss classifying motives based on a continuum of morality. Next, we review findings indicating the existence of a number of different motives in our model and briefly discuss developmental issues, when possible. Future directions for the study of prosocial motivation are proposed. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

The Gender Dimension in Children's Learning of Prosocial Competence in Early Educational Settings.

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Hagglund, Solveig

1993-01-01

Examined the development of children's prosocial behavior by following 10 boys and 10 girls, along with their teachers, through their last year of preschool and first 2 years of school. Found that free play tended to be gender segregated, and that teachers, the majority of whom were female, considered girls to exhibit more prosocial behavior than…

Friend versus foe: Neural correlates of prosocial decisions for liked and disliked peers.

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Schreuders, Elisabeth; Klapwijk, Eduard T; Will, Geert-Jan; Güroğlu, Berna

2018-02-01

Although the majority of our social interactions are with people we know, few studies have investigated the neural correlates of sharing valuable resources with familiar others. Using an ecologically valid research paradigm, this functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined the neural correlates of prosocial and selfish behavior in interactions with real-life friends and disliked peers in young adults. Participants (N = 27) distributed coins between themselves and another person, where they could make selfish choices that maximized their own gains or prosocial choices that maximized outcomes of the other. Participants were more prosocial toward friends and more selfish toward disliked peers. Individual prosociality levels toward friends were associated negatively with supplementary motor area and anterior insula activity. Further preliminary analyses showed that prosocial decisions involving friends were associated with heightened activity in the bilateral posterior temporoparietal junction, and selfish decisions involving disliked peers were associated with heightened superior temporal sulcus activity, which are brain regions consistently shown to be involved in mentalizing and perspective taking in prior studies. Further, activation of the putamen was observed during prosocial choices involving friends and selfish choices involving disliked peers. These findings provide insights into the modulation of neural processes that underlie prosocial behavior as a function of a positive or negative relationship with the interaction partner.

Effects of prosocial, neutral, and violent video games on college students' affect.

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Saleem, Muniba; Anderson, Craig A; Gentile, Douglas A

2012-01-01

Recent research reveals that playing prosocial video games increases prosocial cognitions and helpful behaviors [Gentile el al., 2009; Greitemeyer and Osswald, 2009; 2010; 2011]. These results are consistent with social-cognitive models of social behavior [e.g., the "General Learning Model," Buckley and Anderson, 2006]. The social-cognitive learning models suggest that in addition to influencing cognitions, media content may also influence affect. However, past studies on prosocial video games have failed to find a significant effect on affective measures [Greitemeyer and Osswald, 2010]. The present research examined the effects of prosocial, neutral, and violent video games on state hostility and positive affect. Also examined were moderating effects of trait aggressiveness, trait altruistic helping, and trait egoistic helping. Prosocial games reduced state hostility and increased positive state affect. Violent video games had the opposite effects. These effects were moderated by trait physical aggression. Altruistic participants reported relatively more positive affect and less state hostility. Egoistic participants reported relatively more aggravated and mean feelings. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Helping the self help others: Self-affirmation increases self-compassion and pro-social behaviors

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Emily K Lindsay

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Reflecting on an important personal value in a self-affirmation activity has been shown to improve psychological functioning in a broad range of studies, but the underlying mechanisms for these self-affirmation effects are unknown. Here we provide an initial test of a novel self-compassion account of self-affirmation in two experimental studies. Study 1 shows that an experimental manipulation of self-affirmation (3-minutes of writing about an important personal value versus writing about an unimportant value increases feelings of self-compassion, and these feelings in turn mobilize more pro-social behaviors to a laboratory shelf-collapse incident. Study 2 tests and extends these effects by evaluating whether self-affirmation increases feelings of compassion toward the self (consistent with the self-compassion account or increases feelings of compassion toward others (an alternative other-directed compassion account, using a validated storytelling behavioral task. Consistent with a self-compassion account, Study 2 demonstrates the predicted self-affirmation by video condition interaction, indicating that self-affirmation participants had greater feelings of self-compassion in response to watching their own storytelling performance (self-compassion compared to watching a peer’s storytelling performance (other-directed compassion. Further, pre-existing levels of trait self-compassion moderated this effect, such that self-affirmation increased self-compassionate responses the most in participants low in trait self-compassion. This work suggests that self-compassion may be a promising mechanism for self-affirmation effects, and that self-compassionate feelings can mobilize pro-social behaviors.

Adolescent Resilience in Northern Uganda: The Role of Social Support and Prosocial Behavior in Reducing Mental Health Problems

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Haroz, Emily E.; Murray, Laura K.; Bolton, Paul; Betancourt, Theresa; Bass, Judith K.

2013-01-01

We investigated relations between prosocial behavior, perceived social support, and improvement in depression and anxiety symptoms over 6 months among 102 Acholi adolescent (14-17 years, 58% female adolescents) survivors of war and displacement in Northern Uganda. Adolescents were assessed using a locally developed screener. Regression analyses…

Spontaneous cooperation for prosocials, but not for proselfs: Social value orientation moderates spontaneous cooperation behavior

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Mischkowski, Dorothee; Glöckner, Andreas

2016-01-01

Cooperation is essential for the success of societies and there is an ongoing debate whether individuals have therefore developed a general spontaneous tendency to cooperate or not. Findings that cooperative behavior is related to shorter decision times provide support for the spontaneous cooperation effect, although contrary results have also been reported. We show that cooperative behavior is better described as person × situation interaction, in that there is a spontaneous cooperation effect for prosocial but not for proself persons. In three studies, one involving population representative samples from the US and Germany, we found that cooperation in a public good game is dependent on an interaction between individuals’ social value orientation and decision time. Increasing deliberation about the dilemma situation does not affect persons that are selfish to begin with, but it is related to decreasing cooperation for prosocial persons that gain positive utility from outcomes of others and score high on the related general personality trait honesty/humility. Our results demonstrate that the spontaneous cooperation hypothesis has to be qualified in that it is limited to persons with a specific personality and social values. Furthermore, they allow reconciling conflicting previous findings by identifying an important moderator for the effect. PMID:26876773

Like the Good or Bad Guy—Empathy in antisocial and prosocial games

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Happ, Christian(*); Melzer, André(*); Steffgen, Georges

2014-01-01

Evidence suggests that violent media influence users’ cognitions, affect, and behavior in a negative way, whereas prosocial media have been shown to increase the probability of prosocial behavior. In the present study, it was tested whether empathy moderates these media effects. In two experiments (N = 80 each), inducing empathy by means of a text (Study 1) or a video clip (Study 2) before playing a video game caused differential effects on cognitions and behavior depending on the nature of t...

Different effects of religion and God on prosociality with the ingroup and outgroup.

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Preston, Jesse Lee; Ritter, Ryan S

2013-11-01

Recent studies have found that activating religious cognition by priming techniques can enhance prosocial behavior, arguably because religious concepts carry prosocial associations. But many of these studies have primed multiple concepts simultaneously related to the sacred. We argue here that religion and God are distinct concepts that activate distinct associations. In particular, we examine the effect of God and religion on prosociality toward the ingroup and outgroup. In three studies, we found that religion primes enhanced prosociality toward ingroup members, consistent with ingroup affiliation, whereas, God primes enhanced prosociality toward outgroup member, consistent with concerns of moral impression management. Implications for theory and methodology in religious cognition are discussed.

Use of Behavioral Disciplinary Techniques with the Implementation of SWPBIS and Its Impact on Students' Prosocial Motivation

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Blank, Jessica C.

2013-01-01

This study was aimed to investigate the potential negative impact that positive (e.g., praise and rewards) and punitive (e.g., sending students to the office) disciplinary techniques, commonly used within the Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) approach, have on students' prosocial motivation, and how aspects of…

Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: a meta-analytic review of the scientific literature.

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Anderson, C A; Bushman, B J

2001-09-01

Research on exposure to television and movie violence suggests that playing violent video games will increase aggressive behavior. A metaanalytic review of the video-game research literature reveals that violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults. Experimental and nonexperimental studies with males and females in laboratory and field settings support this conclusion. Analyses also reveal that exposure to violent video games increases physiological arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings. Playing violent video games also decreases prosocial behavior.

Playing prosocial video games increases the accessibility of prosocial thoughts.

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Greitemeyer, Tobias; Osswald, Silvia

2011-01-01

Past research has provided abundant evidence that playing violent video games increases aggressive tendencies. In contrast, evidence on possible positive effects of video game exposure on prosocial tendencies has been relatively sparse. The present research tested and found support for the hypothesis that exposure to prosocial video games increases the accessibility of prosocial thoughts. These results provide support to the predictive validity of the General Learning Model (Buckley & Anderson, 2006) for the effects of exposure to prosocial media on social tendencies. Thus, depending on the content of the video game, playing video games can harm but may also benefit social relations.

Can Text Messages Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior? The Development and Initial Validation of Text to Connect

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Konrath, Sara; Falk, Emily; Fuhrel-Forbis, Andrea; Liu, Mary; Swain, James; Tolman, Richard; Cunningham, Rebecca; Walton, Maureen

2015-01-01

To what extent can simple mental exercises cause shifts in empathic habits? Can we use mobile technology to make people more empathic? It may depend on how empathy is measured. Scholars have identified a number of different facets and correlates of empathy. This study is among the first to take a comprehensive, multidimensional approach to empathy to determine how empathy training could affect these different facets and correlates. In doing so, we can learn more about empathy and its multifaceted nature. Participants (N = 90) were randomly assigned to receive either an empathy-building text message program (Text to Connect) or one of two control conditions (active versus passive). Respondents completed measures of dispositional empathy (i.e. self-perceptions of being an empathic person), affective empathy (i.e. motivations to help, immediate feelings of empathic concern), and prosocial behavior (i.e. self-reports and observer-reports) at baseline, and then again after the 14 day intervention period. We found that empathy-building messages increased affective indicators of empathy and prosocial behaviors, but actually decreased self-perceptions of empathy, relative to control messages. Although the brief text messaging intervention did not consistently impact empathy-related personality traits, it holds promise for the use of mobile technology for changing empathic motivations and behaviors. PMID:26356504

Flustered and faithful: embarrassment as a signal of prosociality.

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Feinberg, Matthew; Willer, Robb; Keltner, Dacher

2012-01-01

Although individuals experience embarrassment as an unpleasant, negative emotion, the authors argue that expressions of embarrassment serve vital social functions, signaling the embarrassed individual's prosociality and fostering trust. Extending past research on embarrassment as a nonverbal apology and appeasement gesture, the authors demonstrate that observers recognize the expression of embarrassment as a signal of prosociality and commitment to social relationships. In turn, observers respond with affiliative behaviors toward the signaler, including greater trust and desire to affiliate with the embarrassed individual. Five studies tested these hypotheses and ruled out alternative explanations. Study 1 demonstrated that individuals who are more embarrassable also reported greater prosociality and behaved more generously than their less embarrassable counterparts. Results of Studies 2-5 revealed that observers rated embarrassed targets as being more prosocial and less antisocial relative to targets who displayed either a different emotion or no emotion. In addition, observers were more willing to give resources and express a desire to affiliate with these targets, and these effects were mediated by perceptions of the targets as prosocial.

Gene-Environment Interplay between Number of Friends and Prosocial Leadership Behavior in Children

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Rivizzigno, Alessandra S.; Brendgen, Mara; Feng, Bei; Vitaro, Frank; Dionne, Ginette; Tremblay, Richard E.; Boivin, Michel

2014-01-01

Enriched environments may moderate the effect of genetic factors on prosocial leadership (gene-environment interaction, G × E). However, positive environmental experiences may also themselves be influenced by a genetic disposition for prosocial leadership (gene-environment correlation, rGE). Relating these processes to friendships, the present…

Assessment of the Prosocial Behaviors of Young Children with Regard to Social Development, Social Skills, Parental Acceptance-Rejection and Peer Relationships

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Gulay, Hulya

2011-01-01

The aim of the study was prosocial behaviors of 5-6 years old children were investigated with regard to parental acceptance-rejection, peer relationships, general social development and social skills. The participants of the study included 277 5-6-year-old Turkish children and their parents. The Child Behavior Scale, Social Skills Form, Marmara…

Comportamiento agresivo y prosocial de escolares residentes en entornos con altos niveles de pobreza

OpenAIRE

William Martínez, José; Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira. Pereira, Colombia. Médico cirujano, PhD; Tovar Cuevas, José Rafael; Escuela de Estadística, Universidad del Valle Santiago de Cali, Colombia. PhD en estadística; Ochoa Muñoz, Andrés Felipe; Grupo de Investigación Salud y Calidad de Vida, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Cali, Colombia. estadístico.

2016-01-01

Objetives. To assess the levels of direct and indirect aggression and prosocial behaviors among schoolchildren at public schools located in 13 municipalities of an intermediate region of Colombia. Materials and Methods. A total of 2,785 children aged 3–11 years were assessed using an instrument validated for the Colombian population that measures aggression and prosocial behavior via direct observations of schoolteachers. Results. Boys predominantly exhibited behaviors associated with direct ...

Increased neural responses to empathy for pain might explain how acute stress increases prosociality

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Tomova, L.; Majdand?i?, J.; Hummer, A.; Windischberger, C.; Heinrichs, M.; Lamm, C.

2016-01-01

Abstract Recent behavioral investigations suggest that acute stress can increase prosocial behavior. Here, we investigated whether increased empathy represents a potential mechanism for this finding. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we assessed the effects of acute stress on neural responses related to automatic and regulatory components of empathy for pain as well as subsequent prosocial behavior. Stress increased activation in brain areas associated with the automatic sharing of...

Clock gene modulates roles of OXTR and AVPR1b genes in prosociality.

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Haipeng Ci

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The arginine vasopressin receptor (AVPR and oxytocin receptor (OXTR genes have been demonstrated to contribute to prosocial behavior. Recent research has focused on the manner by which these simple receptor genes influence prosociality, particularly with regard to the AVP system, which is modulated by the clock gene. The clock gene is responsible for regulating the human biological clock, affecting sleep, emotion and behavior. The current study examined in detail whether the influences of the OXTR and AVPR1b genes on prosociality are dependent on the clock gene. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study assessed interactions between the clock gene (rs1801260, rs6832769 and the OXTR (rs1042778, rs237887 and AVPR1b (rs28373064 genes in association with individual differences in prosociality in healthy male Chinese subjects (n = 436. The Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM-R was used to assess prosociality. Participants carrying both the GG/GA variant of AVPR1b rs28373064 and the AA variant of clock rs6832769 showed the highest scores on the Emotional PTM. Carriers of both the T allele of OXTR rs1042778 and the C allele of clock rs1801260 showed the lowest total PTM scores compared with the other groups. CONCLUSIONS: The observed interaction effects provide converging evidence that the clock gene and OXT/AVP systems are intertwined and contribute to human prosociality.

Clock gene modulates roles of OXTR and AVPR1b genes in prosociality.

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Ci, Haipeng; Wu, Nan; Su, Yanjie

2014-01-01

The arginine vasopressin receptor (AVPR) and oxytocin receptor (OXTR) genes have been demonstrated to contribute to prosocial behavior. Recent research has focused on the manner by which these simple receptor genes influence prosociality, particularly with regard to the AVP system, which is modulated by the clock gene. The clock gene is responsible for regulating the human biological clock, affecting sleep, emotion and behavior. The current study examined in detail whether the influences of the OXTR and AVPR1b genes on prosociality are dependent on the clock gene. This study assessed interactions between the clock gene (rs1801260, rs6832769) and the OXTR (rs1042778, rs237887) and AVPR1b (rs28373064) genes in association with individual differences in prosociality in healthy male Chinese subjects (n = 436). The Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM-R) was used to assess prosociality. Participants carrying both the GG/GA variant of AVPR1b rs28373064 and the AA variant of clock rs6832769 showed the highest scores on the Emotional PTM. Carriers of both the T allele of OXTR rs1042778 and the C allele of clock rs1801260 showed the lowest total PTM scores compared with the other groups. The observed interaction effects provide converging evidence that the clock gene and OXT/AVP systems are intertwined and contribute to human prosociality.

Environmentalism as a trait: gauging people's prosocial personality in terms of environmental engagement.

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Kaiser, Florian G; Byrka, Katarzyna

2011-02-01

According to Hardin (1968), environmental deterioration stems from self-interest undermining people's resource conservation in the collective interest. Not surprisingly, selfless prosocial motives, such as personal feelings of moral obligation, have often been recognized as a key force behind people's environmentalism. In our research, we anticipated that environmentalists-people with an inclination for pro-environmental engagement-would possess a propensity to generally act prosocially. In an extension of previous work, we expected that a well-established self-report measure of past conservation behavior would predict people's active participation in a psychological experiment. Based on subjects' degree of environmental engagement, originally established in 2003, we re-contacted a sample of 502 persons in 2005. Of these 502 (68.5% low, 31.5% high in environmentalism), 131 showed up for the announced experiment. Among those participants, we found that environmentalists' prosocial personalities were additionally reflected in their social value orientations. Ninety percent of the environmentalists turned out to be prosocials, whereas only 65% of the less environmentally engaged subjects were prosocials. Overall, our findings lend credit to a notion of environmentalism as an indicator of even subtle quantitative differences in a person's prosocial trait level. By and large, environmentalists acted more prosocially even in mundane activities unrelated to environmental conservation. Additional evidence comes from the commons dilemma experiment in which the participants partook. There, we generally found comparatively more cooperation with others for the collective good from people high in environmentalism. Our findings represent circumstantial evidence for a prosocial propensity dimension along which people differ, and which is also reflected in people's pro-environmental behavioral performance. If, however, environmentalism has to be regarded as indicative of a

The collective benefits of feeling good and letting go: positive emotion and (dis)inhibition interact to predict cooperative behavior.

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Rand, David G; Kraft-Todd, Gordon; Gruber, June

2015-01-01

Cooperation is central to human existence, forming the bedrock of everyday social relationships and larger societal structures. Thus, understanding the psychological underpinnings of cooperation is of both scientific and practical importance. Recent work using a dual-process framework suggests that intuitive processing can promote cooperation while deliberative processing can undermine it. Here we add to this line of research by more specifically identifying deliberative and intuitive processes that affect cooperation. To do so, we applied automated text analysis using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software to investigate the association between behavior in one-shot anonymous economic cooperation games and the presence inhibition (a deliberative process) and positive emotion (an intuitive process) in free-response narratives written after (Study 1, N = 4,218) or during (Study 2, N = 236) the decision-making process. Consistent with previous results, across both studies inhibition predicted reduced cooperation while positive emotion predicted increased cooperation (even when controlling for negative emotion). Importantly, there was a significant interaction between positive emotion and inhibition, such that the most cooperative individuals had high positive emotion and low inhibition. This suggests that inhibition (i.e., reflective or deliberative processing) may undermine cooperative behavior by suppressing the prosocial effects of positive emotion.

Behavioral inhibition and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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Coles, Meredith E; Schofield, Casey A; Pietrefesa, Ashley S

2006-01-01

Behavioral inhibition is frequently cited as a vulnerability factor for development of anxiety. However, few studies have examined the unique relationship between behavioral inhibition and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Therefore, the current study addressed the relationship between behavioral inhibition and OCD in a number of ways. In a large unselected student sample, frequency of current OC symptoms was significantly correlated with retrospective self-reports of total levels of childhood behavioral inhibition. In addition, frequency of current OC symptoms was also significantly correlated with both social and nonsocial components of behavioral inhibition. Further, there was evidence for a unique relationship between behavioral inhibition and OC symptoms beyond the relationship of behavioral inhibition and social anxiety. In addition, results showed that reports of childhood levels of behavioral inhibition significantly predicted levels of OCD symptoms in adulthood. Finally, preliminary evidence suggested that behavioral inhibition may be more strongly associated with some types of OC symptoms than others, and that overprotective parenting may moderate the impact of behavioral inhibition on OC symptoms. The current findings suggest the utility of additional research examining the role of behavioral inhibition in the etiology of OCD.

Moderate Baseline Vagal Tone Predicts Greater Prosociality in Children

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Miller, Jonas G.; Kahle, Sarah; Hastings, Paul D.

2016-01-01

Vagal tone is widely believed to be an important physiological aspect of emotion regulation and associated positive behaviors. However, there is inconsistent evidence for relations between children’s baseline vagal tone and their helpful or prosocial responses to others (Hastings & Miller, 2014). Recent work in adults suggests a quadratic association (inverted U-shape curve) between baseline vagal tone and prosociality (Kogan et al., 2014). The present research examined whether this nonlinear association was evident in children. We found consistent evidence for a quadratic relation between vagal tone and prosociality across 3 samples of children using 6 different measures. Compared to low and high vagal tone, moderate vagal tone in early childhood concurrently predicted greater self-reported prosociality (Study 1), observed empathic concern in response to the distress of others and greater generosity toward less fortunate peers (Study 2), and longitudinally predicted greater self-, mother-, and teacher-reported prosociality 5.5 years later in middle childhood (Study 3). Taken together, our findings suggest that moderate vagal tone at rest represents a physiological preparedness or tendency to engage in different forms of prosociality across different contexts. Early moderate vagal tone may reflect an optimal balance of regulation and arousal that helps prepare children to sympathize, comfort, and share with others. PMID:27819463

Deconstructing empathy: Neuroanatomical dissociations between affect sharing and prosocial motivation using a patient lesion model.

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Shdo, Suzanne M; Ranasinghe, Kamalini G; Gola, Kelly A; Mielke, Clinton J; Sukhanov, Paul V; Miller, Bruce L; Rankin, Katherine P

2017-02-14

Affect sharing and prosocial motivation are integral parts of empathy that are conceptually and mechanistically distinct. We used a neurodegenerative disease (NDG) lesion model to examine the neural correlates of these two aspects of real-world empathic responding. The study enrolled 275 participants, including 44 healthy older controls and 231 patients diagnosed with one of five neurodegenerative diseases (75 Alzheimer's disease, 58 behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), 42 semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), 28 progressive supranuclear palsy, and 28 non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA). Informants completed the Revised Self-Monitoring Scale's Sensitivity to the Expressive Behavior of Others (RSMS-EX) subscale and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index's Empathic Concern (IRI-EC) subscale describing the typical empathic behavior of the participants in daily life. Using regression modeling of the voxel based morphometry of T1 brain scans prepared using SPM8 DARTEL-based preprocessing, we isolated the variance independently contributed by the affect sharing and the prosocial motivation elements of empathy as differentially measured by the two scales. We found that the affect sharing component uniquely correlated with volume in right>left medial and lateral temporal lobe structures, including the amygdala and insula, that support emotion recognition, emotion generation, and emotional awareness. Prosocial motivation, in contrast, involved structures such as the nucleus accumbens (NaCC), caudate head, and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), which suggests that an individual must maintain the capacity to experience reward, to resolve ambiguity, and to inhibit their own emotional experience in order to effectively engage in spontaneous altruism as a component of their empathic response to others. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Prosocial preferences do not explain human cooperation in public-goods games.

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Burton-Chellew, Maxwell N; West, Stuart A

2013-01-02

It has become an accepted paradigm that humans have "prosocial preferences" that lead to higher levels of cooperation than those that would maximize their personal financial gain. However, the existence of prosocial preferences has been inferred post hoc from the results of economic games, rather than with direct experimental tests. Here, we test how behavior in a public-goods game is influenced by knowledge of the consequences of actions for other players. We found that (i) individuals cooperate at similar levels, even when they are not informed that their behavior benefits others; (ii) an increased awareness of how cooperation benefits others leads to a reduction, rather than an increase, in the level of cooperation; and (iii) cooperation can be either lower or higher than expected, depending on experimental design. Overall, these results contradict the suggested role of the prosocial preferences hypothesis and show how the complexity of human behavior can lead to misleading conclusions from controlled laboratory experiments.

Social perspective taking is associated with self-reported prosocial behavior and regional cortical thickness across adolescence

OpenAIRE

Dumontheil, Iroise; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne; Ferschmann, Lia; Walhovd, Kristine; Tamnes, Christian; Fjell, Anders; Overbye, Knut

2018-01-01

Basic perspective taking and mentalising abilities develop in childhood, but recent studies indicate that the use of social perspective taking to guide decisions and actions has a prolonged development that continues throughout adolescence. Here, we aimed to replicate this research and investigate the hypotheses that individual differences in social perspective taking in adolescence are associated with real-life prosocial and antisocial behavior and differences in brain structure. We employed...

Task Design Influences Prosociality in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

House, Bailey R; Silk, Joan B; Lambeth, Susan P

2014-01-01

Chimpanzees confer benefits on group members, both in the wild and in captive populations. Experimental studies of how animals allocate resources can provide useful insights about the motivations underlying prosocial behavior, and understanding the relationship between task design and prosocial...... and the methods used, and in most cases employ procedures that reduce critical features of naturalistic social interactions, such as partner choice. The focus of the current study is on understanding the link between experimental methodology and prosocial behavior in captive chimpanzees, rather than on describing...... these animals' social motivations themselves. We introduce a task design that avoids isolating subjects and allows them to freely decide whether to participate in the experiment. We explore key elements of the methods utilized in previous experiments in an effort to evaluate two possibilities that have been...

Pretty as a Princess: Longitudinal Effects of Engagement with Disney Princesses on Gender Stereotypes, Body Esteem, and Prosocial Behavior in Children

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Coyne, Sarah M.; Linder, Jennifer Ruh; Rasmussen, Eric E.; Nelson, David A.; Birkbeck, Victoria

2016-01-01

This study examined level of engagement with Disney Princess media/products as it relates to gender-stereotypical behavior, body esteem (i.e. body image), and prosocial behavior during early childhood. Participants consisted of 198 children (M[subscript age] = 58 months), who were tested at two time points (approximately 1 year apart). Data…

Social power facilitates the effect of prosocial orientation on empathic accuracy.

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Côté, Stéphane; Kraus, Michael W; Cheng, Bonnie Hayden; Oveis, Christopher; van der Löwe, Ilmo; Lian, Hua; Keltner, Dacher

2011-08-01

Power increases the tendency to behave in a goal-congruent fashion. Guided by this theoretical notion, we hypothesized that elevated power would strengthen the positive association between prosocial orientation and empathic accuracy. In 3 studies with university and adult samples, prosocial orientation was more strongly associated with empathic accuracy when distinct forms of power were high than when power was low. In Study 1, a physiological indicator of prosocial orientation, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, exhibited a stronger positive association with empathic accuracy in a face-to-face interaction among dispositionally high-power individuals. In Study 2, experimentally induced prosocial orientation increased the ability to accurately judge the emotions of a stranger but only for individuals induced to feel powerful. In Study 3, a trait measure of prosocial orientation was more strongly related to scores on a standard test of empathic accuracy among employees who occupied high-power positions within an organization. Study 3 further showed a mediated relationship between prosocial orientation and career satisfaction through empathic accuracy among employees in high-power positions but not among employees in lower power positions. Discussion concentrates upon the implications of these findings for studies of prosociality, power, and social behavior.

Links between Preschool Children's Prosocial Skills and Aggressive Conduct Problems: The Contribution of ADHD Symptoms

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Hay, Dale F.; Hudson, Kathryn; Liang, Wentao

2010-01-01

The aim was to examine the relationship between prosocial behavior and conduct problems, especially aggression, in early childhood. In Phase 1 of the study, teachers reported on 93 3-5-year-old children's prosocial behavior and psychological problems, using a screening instrument, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). In Phase 2, 65…

Early socialization of prosocial behavior: Patterns in parents’ encouragement of toddlers’ helping in an everyday household task

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Waugh, Whitney; Brownell, Celia; Pollock, Brianna

2015-01-01

Patterns in parents’ socialization of prosocial behavior in 18- and 24-month-olds (n=46) were investigated during an everyday household chore that parents were asked to complete with their toddlers. Two socialization approaches were distinguished, one focused on specific requests for concrete actions needed to complete an immediate, concrete goal (“action-oriented”), and a second focused on the more abstract needs and emotions of the parent and the child's role as a helper (“need-oriented’). Parents were equally active at both ages in trying to elicit children's help but used different strategies with younger and older toddlers. With 18-month-olds they used more action-oriented approaches, whereas with 24-month-olds they increased their use of needoriented approaches. They also regulated the attention of younger toddlers more, and more often socially approved older toddlers’ helping. Thus, how parents prompt, support, and encourage prosocial behavior changes over the second year from utilizing primarily concrete, goal-directed requests in the service of the immediate task, to increasingly emphasizing more abstract needs and emotions of the recipient and the child's role as a helper. PMID:25682218

The Early Emergence of Guilt-Motivated Prosocial Behavior

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Vaish, Amrisha; Carpenter, Malinda; Tomasello, Michael

2016-01-01

Guilt serves vital prosocial functions: It motivates transgressors to make amends, thus restoring damaged relationships. Previous developmental research on guilt has not clearly distinguished it from sympathy for a victim or a tendency to repair damage in general. The authors tested 2- and 3-year-old children (N = 62 and 64, respectively) in a…

Links between Self-Reported Media Violence Exposure and Teacher Ratings of Aggression and Prosocial Behavior among German Adolescents

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Krahe, Barbara; Moller, Ingrid

2011-01-01

The relations between adolescents' habitual usage of media violence and their tendency to engage in aggressive and prosocial behavior in a school setting were examined in a cross-sectional study with 1688 7th and 8th graders in Germany who completed measures of violent media exposure and normative acceptance of aggression. For each participant,…

Examination of the Prosocial and Aggressive Tendencies of Preservice Teachers

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Özlem GÖZÜN KAHRAMAN

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between gender and the witnessed interparental violence during childhood and the prosocial and aggressive tendencies of 586 senior class students enrolled at the faculty of education of a university at the Eastern Anatolian Region. The research is a survey model and a socio-demographic survey, and ‘Prosocial Behavior Tendency Scale' and ‘Aggressiveness Scale' were applied to the participants. The applied statistical techniques included descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and t test for independent groups. In conclusion, it is stated that gender and witnessed interparental violence were to affect the prosocial and aggressive tendencies of the participants.

Joint Rhythmic Movement Increases 4-Year-Old Children's Prosocial Sharing and Fairness Toward Peers.

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Rabinowitch, Tal-Chen; Meltzoff, Andrew N

2017-01-01

The allocation of resources to a peer partner is a prosocial act that is of fundamental importance. Joint rhythmic movement, such as occurs during musical interaction, can induce positive social experiences, which may play a role in developing and enhancing young children's prosocial skills. Here, we investigated whether joint rhythmic movement, free of musical context, increases 4-year-olds' sharing and sense of fairness in a resource allocation task involving peers. We developed a precise procedure for administering joint synchronous experience, joint asynchronous experience, and a baseline control involving no treatment. Then we tested how participants allocated resources between self and peer. We found an increase in the generous allocation of resources to peers following both synchronous and asynchronous movement compared to no treatment. At a more theoretical level, this result is considered in relation to previous work testing other aspects of child prosociality, for example, peer cooperation, which can be distinguished from judgments of fairness in resource allocation tasks. We draw a conceptual distinction between two types of prosocial behavior: resource allocation (an other-directed individual behavior) and cooperation (a goal-directed collaborative endeavor). Our results highlight how rhythmic interactions, which are prominent in joint musical engagements and synchronized activity, influence prosocial behavior between preschool peers.

Endogenous vasopressin, innate anxiety, and the emission of pro-social 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations during social play behavior in juvenile rats.

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Lukas, Michael; Wöhr, Markus

2015-06-01

Although the involvement of the neuropeptide arginine vasopressin (AVP) in rodent social interaction is already extensively characterized, little is known about its role in social communication. Rats communicate in the ultrasonic range by means of ultrasonic vocalizations (USV). Depending on developmental stage and affective state, rats emit various distinct types of USV, with appetitive 50-kHz USV being induced by positive social interactions, like juvenile social play, probably serving an affiliative communicative function, namely to (re)establish or induce social proximity. In rats and mice selectively bred for low (LAB) and high (HAB) anxiety-related behavior, the emission of isolation-induced distress USV during maternal deprivation as pups correlates with innate high levels of hypothalamic AVP availability. Moreover, male LAB and HAB rats express deficits in social approach towards conspecifics, together with high and/or abnormal forms of aggression when confronted with harmless opponents, possibly due to a lack of social communication skills. The aim of this study was therefore (1) to investigate and characterize social play behavior and concomitant pro-social 50-kHz USV emission in male and female, juvenile LAB and HAB rats and to compare them to non-selected Wistar (NAB) rats; and (2) to link these findings pharmacologically to the central AVP system via applying an AVP 1a receptor (V1aR) antagonist (0.75 μg; Manning compound) or synthetic AVP (1 ng) into the lateral ventricle of male juvenile NAB rats. Our results show that reduced social play behavior in highly anxious male and female, juvenile HAB rats is accompanied by low amounts of pro-social 50-kHz USV, as compared to respective LAB and NAB rats, possibly reflecting a lack of positive affective states in expectation of or following social interactions in these individuals. Secondly, although synthetic AVP did not alter social play behavior and pro-social 50-kHz USV, we demonstrated for the first

Mesotocin influences pinyon jay prosociality.

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Duque, J F; Leichner, W; Ahmann, H; Stevens, J R

2018-04-01

Many species exhibit prosocial behaviour, in which one individual's actions benefit another individual, often without an immediate benefit to itself. The neuropeptide oxytocin is an important hormonal mechanism influencing prosociality in mammals, but it is unclear whether the avian homologue mesotocin plays a similar functional role in birds. Here, we experimentally tested prosociality in pinyon jays ( Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus ), a highly social corvid species that spontaneously shares food with others. First, we measured prosocial preferences in a prosocial choice task with two different pay-off distributions: Prosocial trials delivered food to both the subject and either an empty cage or a partner bird, whereas Altruism trials delivered food only to an empty cage or a partner bird (none to subject). In a second experiment, we examined whether administering mesotocin influenced prosocial preferences. Compared to choices in a control condition, we show that subjects voluntarily delivered food rewards to partners, but only when also receiving food for themselves (Prosocial trials), and administration of high levels of mesotocin increased these behaviours. Thus, in birds, mesotocin seems to play a similar functional role in facilitating prosocial behaviours as oxytocin does in mammals, suggesting an evolutionarily conserved hormonal mechanism for prosociality. © 2018 The Author(s).

Effects of mimicking: Acting prosocially by being emotionally moved

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Stel, M.; Baaren, R.B. van; Vonk, R.

2008-01-01

Mimicry is functional for empathy and bonding purposes. Studies on the consequences of mimicry at a behavioral level demonstrated that mimicry increases prosocial behavior. However, these previous studies focused on the mimickee. In the present paper, we investigated whether mimickers also become

Why Be Moral? Children's Explicit Motives for Prosocial-Moral Action

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Sonia eSengsavang

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Recent research on young children's morality has stressed the autonomous and internal nature of children's moral motivation. However, this research has mostly focused on implicit moral motives, whereas children's explicit motives have not been investigated directly. This study examined children’s explicit motives for why they want to engage in prosocial actions and avoid antisocial behavior. A total of 195 children aged 4 to 12 years were interviewed about their motives for everyday prosocial-moral actions, as well as reported on their relationship with their parents. Children's explicit motives to abstain from antisocial behavior were found to be more external and less other-oriented than their motives for prosocial action. Motives that reflected higher levels of internal motivation became more frequent with age. Moreover, positive parent-child relationships predicted more other-oriented motives and greater explication of moral motives. Overall, the study provides evidence that children’s explicit moral motivation is far more heterogeneous than prominent theories of moral development (past and present suggest.

Why be moral? Children's explicit motives for prosocial-moral action.

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Sengsavang, Sonia; Willemsen, Kayleen; Krettenauer, Tobias

2015-01-01

Recent research on young children's morality has stressed the autonomous and internal nature of children's moral motivation. However, this research has mostly focused on implicit moral motives, whereas children's explicit motives have not been investigated directly. This study examined children's explicit motives for why they want to engage in prosocial actions and avoid antisocial behavior. A total of 195 children aged 4-12 years were interviewed about their motives for everyday prosocial-moral actions, as well as reported on their relationship with their parents. Children's explicit motives to abstain from antisocial behavior were found to be more external and less other-oriented than their motives for prosocial action. Motives that reflected higher levels of internal motivation became more frequent with age. Moreover, positive parent-child relationships predicted more other-oriented motives and greater explication of moral motives. Overall, the study provides evidence that children's explicit moral motivation is far more heterogeneous than prominent theories of moral development (past and present) suggest.

Religious Priming: A Meta-Analysis With a Focus on Prosociality.

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Shariff, Azim F; Willard, Aiyana K; Andersen, Teresa; Norenzayan, Ara

2016-02-01

Priming has emerged as a valuable tool within the psychological study of religion, allowing for tests of religion's causal effect on a number of psychological outcomes, such as prosocial behavior. As the literature has grown, questions about the reliability and boundary conditions of religious priming have arisen. We use a combination of traditional effect-size analyses, p-curve analyses, and adjustments for publication bias to evaluate the robustness of four types of religious priming (Analyses 1-3), review the empirical evidence for religion's effect specifically on prosocial behavior (Analyses 4-5), and test whether religious-priming effects generalize to individuals who report little or no religiosity (Analyses 6-7). Results across 93 studies and 11,653 participants show that religious priming has robust effects across a variety of outcome measures-prosocial measures included. Religious priming does not, however, reliably affect non-religious participants-suggesting that priming depends on the cognitive activation of culturally transmitted religious beliefs. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Adverse Life Events and Psychopathology and Prosocial Behavior in Late Adolescence: Testing the Timing, Specificity, Accumulation, Gradient, and Moderation of Contextual Risk

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Flouri, Eirini; Kallis, Constantinos

2007-01-01

A study examines the role of contextual risk in psychopathology and prosocial behavior in adolescents. The results show that risk accumulation matters instead of specificity and that the number of adverse life events is nonmultiplicative with psychopathology.