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Buying Kindness: Effect of an Extrinsic Incentive for Helping on Perceived Altruism
Abstract
Two experiments were conducted to determine whether an extrinsic incentive would undermine intrinsic, altruistic motivation for helping. In Experiment 1 male undergraduates agreed to help an experimenter code data. Pavment for coding was not mentioned (no-payment), was mentioned prior to agreement to help (paynent-prior), or was mentioned after agreement to help (payment-after). As predicted from Nisbett and Valins' overly sufficient justification hypothesis, subjects in the payment-prior condition rated themselves as less altruistic relative to a comparison other who did not help (a confederate) than did subjects in the no-payment condition. Subjects in the payment-after condition and in the no-request control group responded similarly to those in the no-payment condition. Experiment 2 provided a conceptual replication in a field setting of the payment-prior and no-payment conditions of Experiment 1. Results again indicated that prior payment undermined intrinsic, altruistic motivation for helping.
... Indeed, it can be argued that requirements to volunteer may reduce interest in volunteer activities by altering individuals' perceptions of why they help. If mandated students begin to perceive that they only help when required or rewarded, then their intentions to freely engage in volunteer service in the future may be reduced (e.g., Batson, Coke, Jasnoski, & Hanson, 1978;Kunda & Schwartz, 1983). In keeping with this theory, Piliavin and Callero (1991) report that blood donors who gave blood for the first time under coercion expressed lesser intentions to continue donating in the future. ...
... The findings of this field study demonstrated that, in the context of a "mandatory volunteerism" program, behavioral intentions to engage in volunteer work in the future were "Mandatory Volunteerism" 10 positively related to past histories of volunteerismbut only for students who did not feel that the program had overly controlled their behavior. These results support the findings of earlier research that has demonstrated that external constraints to act, in the form of requirements or rewards, may serve to reduce interest in an activity (e.g., Batson et al., 1978;Kunda & Schwartz, 1983). This research has consistently shown that such decrements in interest result most strongly for those with prior interest in an activity. ...
... Taken together, the field study and the laboratory experiment presented here suggest that, whereas earlier laboratory research found that intentions to help (in more short-term or spontaneous helping situations) were undermined by external inducements (Batson et al., 1978;Kunda & Schwartz, 1983), there may actually be important boundary conditions to this effect. ...
Abstract—With the widespread emergence of required community-service programs comes a new opportunity to examine the effects of requirements on future behavioral intentions. To investigate the consequences of such “mandatory volunteerism” programs, we followed students who were required to volunteer in order to graduate from college. Results demonstrated that stronger perceptions of external control eliminated an otherwise positive relation between prior volunteer experience and future intentions to volunteer. A second study experimentally compared mandates and choices to serve and included a premeasured assessment of whether students felt external control was necessary to get them to volunteer. After being required or choosing to serve, students reported their future intentions. Students who initially felt it unlikely that they would freely volunteer had significantly lower intentions after being required to serve than after being given a choice. Those who initially felt more likely to freely volunteer were relatively unaffected by a mandate to serve as compared with a choice. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding the effects of requirements and constraints on intentions and behavior are discussed.
... Ariely et al. (2009), for instance, found that rewarding prosocial behavior 315 with a gift may positively influence subsequent prosocial behavior. However, rewards have also been found to undermine prosocial self-concept and behavior (Batson et al., 1978;Marr et al., 2005;Zuckerman et al., 1979), as rewards may be seen as an exchange of values (e.g., moral value for monetary value) (Batson & Powell, 2003;Bekkers & Wiepking, 2011). So far, it remains unclear 320 how in-game rewards might affect real-life prosocial decisions outside the game or gaming community. ...
... However, unexpected 365 rewards for prosocial behavior were found to reduce subsequent helping behavior (Warneken & Tomasello, 2008). Other studies suggest that rewards decrease prosocial behavior if participants were promised a reward before participants agreed to help (Batson et al., 1978;Zuckerman et al., 1979). Hence, we manipulated whether participants were informed about a reward prior to their helping Surprise. ...
Recently, researchers have become increasingly interested in the potential of video games to promote real-life prosocial behavior. It has been argued that in-game prosocial acts may transfer to players' real-life behavior. But so far little is known about how video games affect players' in-game as well as future real-life prosocial decisions. To address this research gap, we carried out two experiments. Both studies investigated whether voluntarily choosing to help a game character in the same first-person shooter game affected an ensuing real-life prosocial decision (i.e., donation to a charity). The results of the first study (N = 270) indicate that voluntarily deciding to help in-game subsequently led to increased donating behavior. In study 2 (N = 185) we further analyzed the potential moderating effects of game rewards and players' reasoning for in-game helping. The results of both studies indicate that voluntarily deciding to help in a video game subsequently led to increased donating behavior. Further, results of Study 2 revealed that the absence of a reward for helping in-game affected players’ reasoning for helping and positively influenced prosocial self-concept and donation.
... Moreover, when extrinsically motivated, we have to face other entwined consequences. It has been found many times in literature that when extrinsically motivated, people's moral commitment to help is decreased (Kunda and Schwartz 1983;Batson et al. 1978). In other words, people who are extrinsically motivated, are less likely to help others out of Internal desire and in the absence of rewarding mechanisms. ...
... Once they got the prize, the factor stimulating extrinsic motivation was removed. However, this removal also effected the person's internal desire to participate (Kunda and Schwartz 1983;Batson et al. 1978). Combined with the these psychological facts, we have to face the situation of decreasing participation as discussed in Immorlica et al. (2015), Marder (2015). ...
In recent years, mobile computing has shown so much potential that one can see a boundary-blurring expansion between the physical and the digital world. In this context, one of the most sought after research areas is mobile crowdsensing. To realize the vision of crowdsensing, there is a plethora of work in the literature that focuses on the technical capabilities of a mobile device. However, an important and a critical problem that eludes literature is the issue of human participation. We base this argument on a very simple, yet powerful fact that a mobile device is still a person’s private property. Therefore, considering human mentality, can we expect a person to contribute all the time? In this respect, it is not feasible for a human dependent computational system to ignore the inevitable human factor and focus only on the mechanical properties. In this paper, we look into the often ignored human aspects and will study the problem from a psychological perspective. We take inspiration from the mature paradigm of crowdsourcing and discuss the importance of a few human factors that could teach us how to encourage user participation in mobile crowdsensing. Further, we also explore a person’s habitual characteristics that could help answer the decade’s old question: How to get quality responses from the crowd? We use a psycho-technological approach to observe, understand, and find a few details regarding human behavior in online systems. Lastly, we take inspiration from the analysis to present a roadmap that aids in engineering a better and effective crowdsensing platform.
... We also mention the limitation of rewarding a student for his/her good manners and actions. At this point, we analyzed several studies conducted in this area and found that rewarding a student too much will result in undermining the sense of helpfulness (Batson, et al., 1978) and hindering intrinsic motivation (Kohn, 1993;Deci&Ryan, 1985). Other individual's mind and direct his/her behaviors. ...
... Fakat ödüllendirmenin de sınırlarının çizilmesi gerekmektedir. Nitekim yapılmış olan bazı araştırmalar da göstermektedir ki dışarıdan gelen ödüllendirmeler ve teşvikler, bir süre sonra kişinin içinde daha önce bulunan yardımseverlik duygusunu zedelemekte (Batson ve diğerleri, 1978) ve öğrencinin kendi kendine motive (intrinsic motivation) olmasını bir süre sonra tamamen engellemektedir (Kohn, 1993;Deci & Ryan, 1985). Yapılmış olan diğer araştırmalar da yine göstermektedir ki sürekli olarak ödüllendirilen çocukların bir süre sonra ödüllendirildikleri davranışları yapma sıkllıkları diğer çocuklara oranla düşmektedir (Grusec, 1991;akt. ...
The term ‘value’ has been used in many different meanings until today in different areas and it has been the reason for confusion in values education. In this sense, Weber (1990) has stated that different approaches to the term ‘value’ have played a negative role for the production of values. Kohlberg (1981) has defined ‘value’ as giving moral decisions and acting accordingly while Hill (1991) interpreted values as the beliefs that people care and direct the life of individuals. On the other hand, Veugelers (2000) defined values as the beliefs that help individuals to decide what is good or evil.
International organizations also saw the need to define values in accordance with their missions. In the Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations, it is indicated that education should strengthen human rights and freedom while supporting tolerance among different religious groups, ethnicities and nations (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). UNESCO is another organization that defined the role of values in education. According to the report by UNESCO, education becomes valuable if one learns (a) how to know (b) how to do, (c) how to live together and (d) how to be. In this sense, UNESCO has also claimed that in order to develop intercultural and interfaith dialogue, common values accepted by everyone should be given in schools.
It has been observed that critical thinking and problem solving skills were given in values education programs in western societies while those skills have started to be taught in Turkey recently. In this study, the main values education movements and the processes and principles of teaching values education in real life are analyzed. We looked at the place of values education in 4th and 5th grade Social Studies textbooks in Turkey. After analyzing the basic processes and principles of values education, we looked at the values to be given to the students in the textbooks.
Values education approaches have varied beginning from 1970s. Superka and his colleagues (1976) argue that there are five basic approaches to values education: inculcation, moral development, analysis, values clarification and action learning. On the other hand, Sunal and Haas (2002) identified three approaches to values education: values clarification, value analysis and character education.
While discussing the basic processes and principles of values education, we claim that values education should not be given only as theoretical knowledge. If the students are not supported with real-life examples and experiences, theoretical information will result in reducing the interest in values education. It is also stated that using concrete terms, instead of abstract ones, will help primary school children to get the idea more effectively. We also mention the limitation of rewarding a student for his/her good manners and actions. At this point, we analyzed several studies conducted in this area and found that rewarding a student too much will result in undermining the sense of helpfulness (Batson, et al., 1978) and hindering intrinsic motivation (Kohn, 1993; Deci&Ryan, 1985). Other basic processes and principles of values education discussed in this study are; the role of teachers in values education, group study for effective values education, promoting reasoning and logic while developing empathy, the role of self-esteem, and developing the sense of ‘us’ instead of ‘me’.
Content analysis was conducted to collect data from the 2004 Social Studies program published by Ministry of Education and the 4th and 5th grade Social Studies textbooks. The researchers identified the frequencies of words and references regarding values and then categorized them to provide a meaningful content. After creating the coding frames, collected data was gathered under the relevant codes.
Five main characteristic features of values are defined in the 2004 Social Studies 4th and 5th grade program. Those are: 1- Values are unifying phenomenon accepted by societies and individuals. 2- Values are the benchmarks that meet the needs of societies and are there for the sake of individuals. 3- Values are not only related to conscious but also to feelings and emotions. 4- Values are motives that take place in individual’s mind and direct his/her behaviors. 5- The difference between values and norms is that the former is more general and abstract. In analyzing the textbooks, it is found that generally three approaches have been followed in order to teach students values. Those are value clarification, moral reasoning and value analysis.
Based on the findings, we state that it is good to see the integration of values education in Social Studies programs, however, in order to have an effective and permanent influence, infrastructure should be built accordingly. The first and most important point is to educate our teachers in that way so that they are not alien to the subject. We also claim that using different available resources, instead of just textbooks, can help educators to be more effective in their classrooms while teaching values.
... This finding is not limited only to task satisfaction. Batson, Coke, Jasnoski, and Hanson (1978) found that subjects who were offered payment to help an experimenter rated themselves as less altruistic than those who were not promised payment. ...
... Although the attribution effect held for important attitudes, it should be noted that it is unclear from the present study whether this effect is temporary or likely to persist. 1 Because the subjects in this experiment were dating couples, one might be concerned about potential behavioral side effects of the manipulations, even taking into account our debriefing, which should have eliminated the effects of the manipulations. Did participation in the experiment cause couples to break up? ...
Tested the attribution theory notion that making the extrinsic rewards that individuals provide for their partners salient would decrease the amount of love and, perhaps, liking that the partners actually report for their girlfriends or boyfriends. 19 undergraduate dating couples were induced to adopt either an extrinsic or an intrinsic cognitive set regarding their reasons for associating with their partners. Then their liking and love for each other were assessed. Results indicate that the induced salience of extrinsic rewards led couples to report less love but not less liking. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Though still a nascent area of empirical inquiry, kindness is emerging as a distinct research topic, having previously been subsumed under the larger areas of study of prosocial behaviour, altruism, and compassion (Algoe 2019;Batson et al. 1978;Leahy 1979;Oliner 2005). Varied definitions of kindness have been proffered (for a summary of published definitions see Binfet 2015) and for the purpose of the present investigation we define kindness as 'an act of emotional or physical support that helps build or maintain relationships with others' (Binfet 2015, 36-37). ...
Attending university can present a host of challenges for undergraduate students and the mental health of students has increasingly become a concern as students struggle to meet the demands of new academic and social expectations. Despite several studies assessing the effects of being kind on well-being, there remains a dearth of research identifying how students understand and enact kindness. The aims of this study were to integrate a kindness assignment into undergraduate coursework, to explore how students define and enact kindness, and to examine how being kind impacted students’ perceptions of themselves, their peers, and their campus. Students were asked to complete a series of five kind acts and administered a series of pre- and post-assignment measures and open-ended prompts. Consistent with our hypotheses, participants who completed at least 3 of the 5 planned acts of kindness reported significantly higher scores on measures of in-person kindness (d = 0.46, p = .04) and peer connectedness (d = 0.46, p = .04). Participants did not, however, report significantly higher scores on measures of self-perceived online kindness (d = 0.12, p = .59) or on their perception of the kindness of their campus community (d = 0.09, p = .68). Participants in this study planned a total of 492 acts, which were coded using content analysis. The salient themes in kind acts were Helping Others, Giving, Demonstrating Appreciation, and Communicating. This study demonstrated that a curriculum-based kindness intervention was well received by students and resulted in students performing varied acts of kindness that positively impacted their self-ratings of kindness and peer connectedness.
... Those who reject the existence of altruistic motives should be more likely to believe that good deeds are performed as a means to achieving other goals-such as status or praise (i.e., extrinsically motivated), as opposed to as ends in themselves (i.e., intrinsically motivated, Kruglanski et al., 2018). But many studies suggest that associating prosocial acts with extrinsic motives, as opposed to intrinsic motives, reduces peoples' engagement in those actions (Batson et al., 1978;Heyman & Ariely, 2004;Hornstein, 1970;Kunda & Schwartz, 1983;Lin et al., 2017;Stukas et al., 1999;Uranowitz, 1975). This decline in prosociality may be due to at least three factors. ...
Are humans ever truly altruistic? Or are all actions, however noble, ultimately motivated by self-interest? Psychologists and philosophers have long grappled with this question, but few have considered laypeople’s beliefs about the nature of prosocial motives. Here we examine these beliefs and their social correlates across two experiments (N = 445). We find that people tend to believe humans can be, and frequently are, altruistically motivated—echoing prior work. Moreover, people who more strongly believe in altruistic motives act more prosocially themselves—for instance, sacrificing greater amounts of money and time to help others—a relationship that holds even when controlling for trait empathy. People who believe in altruistic motives also judge other prosocial agents to be more genuinely kind, especially when agents’ motives are ambiguous. Lastly, people independently show a self-serving bias—believing their own motives for prosociality are more often altruistic than others’. Overall, this work suggests that believing in altruistic motives predicts the extent to which people both see altruism and act prosocially, possibly reflecting the self-fulfilling nature of such lay theories.
... Support offered for self-focused reasons may be less effective for several reasons. First, such support may appear to be selfserving (Batson, Coke, Jasnoski, & Hanson, 1978), and targets tend to appreciate and benefit more from support when they perceive it was provided altruistically (Gergen, Ellsworth, Maslach, & Seipel, 1975;Williamson & Clark, 1989; for review, see Hatfield & Sprecher, 1983). Second, support offered for self-focused reasons may be of poorer quality because actors may have fewer resources available and thus provide poorer quality support if they too are affected by the problem (Renjilian, Baum, & Landry, 1998). ...
In this article, we synthesize existing literatures across numerous domains to introduce a novel model—the Relationship Problem Solving (RePS) model—for understanding the process through which romantic partners influence one another to resolve relationship problems. The first section briefly describes the key constructs and stages of the model. The second section details the interpersonal behaviors that influence various intrapersonal factors (e.g., affect, self-efficacy) that ultimately influence partners’ motivation and ability to progress through the stages of the model. The third section uses the model to generate novel predictions that suggest that the effectiveness of these interpersonal behaviors often depends on contextual factors. Finally, the fourth section discusses the implications of this model for understanding relationship problem solving, highlights the need to consider the role of context in the problem-solving process, and offers numerous specific predictions to be addressed by future research.
... The notion that appeals to self-interest can backfire by undermining concern for others is not new. As our opening quote illustrates, scholars have long established that providing money or other incentives for altruistically motivated behaviors may lead people to interpret their motivation as self-interested even when is not -consequently kindness cannot be bought (Batson et al., 1978). In fact, research aimed at examining how the mere presence of money and business-related concepts impact behavior illustrates the incompatibility between social and market logics. ...
The purpose of this research is to develop a model to explain what happens to consumer’s moral identity as they engage in Lateral Exchange Markets (LEMs). Building upon Aquino et al.’s (2009) socio-cognitive model of moral behavior, we utilize a theoretical framework that incorporates identity-based motivation and dynamic self-concept theory to explain the change in moral identity of lateral exchange actors. We posit that the longer actors participate in LEMs, compensation for such activities will conflict with moral values. This conflict will create internal tension that is resolved by shifting one’s self-image to be more congruent with economic exchange. Across two studies, findings reveal that prolonged participation in lateral exchange diminishes the centrality of moral identity to the working self-concept. Moreover, the results show that keeping actors’ moral has positive business outcomes. This research also discerns a boundary condition that determines when actors remain consistent with their moral compasses; namely, when engagement is perceived as effortful, the behavior becomes an informative input in the inference of one's moral disposition reinforcing moral identity.
... Those who reject the existence of altruistic motives should be more likely to believe that good deeds are performed as a means to achieving other goals-such as status or praise (i.e., extrinsically motivated), as opposed to as ends in themselves (i.e., intrinsically motivated, Kruglanski et al., 2018). But many studies suggest that associating prosocial acts with extrinsic motives reduces peoples' engagement in those actions (Batson et al., 1978;Heyman & Ariely, 2004;Hornstein, 1970;Kunda & Schwartz, 1983;Lin et al., 2017;Stukas et al., 1999;Uranowitz, 1975). This decline in prosociality may be due to at least three factors. ...
Are humans ever truly altruistic? Or are all actions, however noble, ultimately motivated by self-interest? Scientists and philosophers have long grappled with this question, but few have considered laypeople’s beliefs about the nature of prosocial motives. Here we examine these beliefs and their social correlates. In line with prior work, we find that people tend to believe humans can be, and frequently are, altruistically motivated. Moreover, people who more strongly believe in altruistic motivation act more prosocially themselves—for instance, sacrificing relatively high levels of money and time to help others—a relationship that holds even when controlling for trait empathy. People who believe in altruism also judge other prosocial agents to be more genuinely kind, especially when agents’ motives are ambiguous. Together, this work suggests that believing in altruism predicts the extent to which people both see altruism and act altruistically, possibly reflecting the self-fulfilling nature of such lay theories.
... Curiously, few authors offer definitions of kindness and few studies have empirically investigated kindness from students' perspectives. Even publications with the term kindness in their title frequently fail to operationally define kindness (e.g., Andersen et al., 2008;Batson et al., 1978;Isen & Levin, 1972;Schachter, 2011;Zeece, 2009). ...
... In addition, organizations pro-vide a variety of rewards and incentives for helping behaviors, including bonuses, public recognition, special project assignments, promotions, and development opportunities (Allen & Rush, 1998;Podsakoff et al., 2000). Although these rewards can increase the instrumentality and valence of helping behaviors (Haworth & Levy, 2001), and although individuals are more likely to model and engage in these behaviors when they feel that they will receive recognition for them (Ariely, Bracha, & Meier, 2009;Fisher & Ackerman, 1998;Simpson & Willer, 2008), such rewards can provide an external attribution for helping behaviors, reducing the likelihood of internalizing and sustaining an intrinsic desire to engage in them (Batson, Coke, Jasnoski, & Hanson, 1978;Deckop, Mangel, & Cirka, 1999;Kunda & Schwartz, 1983). It is worth exploring whether this risk may be circumvented by the use of small rewards. ...
Although helping behaviors can increase the effectiveness of work units, when task interdependence is low, units often develop norms of self-interest that inhibit helping. Little research has explained how these norms can be changed by a work unit member. We present a minority influence framework that specifies how norms can shift in response to a challenger's consistent modeling, advocating, or inquiring about helping behavior, contingent on prosocial impact, status, similarity, work unit agreeableness and openness, and timing. We also examine how normative conflict motivates efforts to initiate and sustain challenges, depending on identification, status, and small wins. Our model provides a novel theoretical account of how helping norms emerge in work units to support caring and compassion.
... Andreoni (1995), Berg, Dickhaut and McCabe (1995), Ledyard (1995), Glaeser et al. (2000), Egas and Riedl (2008), Fischbacher and Gächter (2010)). However, it is not clear from previous research whether true pro-social behavior exists, or whether pro-social behavior only occurs if it also benefits individuals' own monetary pay-off (Batson et al. (1997), Leviit and List (2007), Gneezy et al. (2012)). Pro-social behavior can be both strategic and non-strategic. ...
We investigate pro-social behavior by linking unique administrative investor data to a survey and to fully-incentivized artefactual field experiments. We find that a large majority of the individual investors behaves non-strategically pro-social in an anonymous one-shot trust game. However, pro-social behavior in the experiment is uncorrelated to investments in socially responsible mutual funds in the field, because a significant group of investors buys these funds for strategic (financial) reasons. We find that strategic socially responsible investors are significantly less pro-social in the anonymous trust game than conventional investors. Non-strategic investors donate more to charity, do more voluntary work and are more often registered as an organ donor. Our results have important consequences for understanding the motivations behind pro-social behavior in the field. They also show that studies that ignore the distinction between strategic and non-strategic pro-social behavior underestimate the correlation between pro-social behavior in experiments and in the field.
... This undesirable side-effect appears to be more pronounced for participants that perceive the activity to be inherently interesting from the outset (Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett, 1973). Similarly, if an individual begins to identify his participation in a service activity with being required to participate or being rewarded for his involvement, his intention to choose future involvement may be diminished (Batson, Coke, Jasnoski, & Hanson, 1978;Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, 1998;Kunda & Schwartz, 1983). ...
... In the competitive youth sport arena in some cultures where punishment is generally accepted and a coach can exert coercive power, the coach may force student-athletes to perform certain activities, for example, to volunteer for neighborhood sport programs. Thus, volunteers with primitive commitment would stop volunteering if the requirement or punishment were waived (Planty et al., 2006), and this may reduce their intention for future volunteering as well (Batson, Coke, Jasonski, & Hanson, 1978;Kunda & Schwartz, 1983). It is difficult to expect positive and direct outcomes related to volunteering at this level of commitment. ...
The present study was an attempt to understand sport volunteers' commitment to an organization from a developmental perspective and propose a hierarchical model of volunteer commitment based on Kohlberg's moral development model. The proposed model includes five stages of attitudinal commitment which are developmental and distinct in nature with the following hierarchical sequence: primitive commitment, continuance commitment, external commitment, normative commitment, and affective commitment. By comparing Kohlberg's moral development model with the three components of Allen and Meyer's organizational commitment, we contend that the external commitment and the primitive commitment need to be included to view sport volunteers' commitment from the developmental perspective. Along with these two new commitment concepts, the characteristics and theoretical reasoning related to each stage of sport volunteers' organizational commitment were addressed.
... Extrinsic requirements or incentives to engage in behavior that was once intrinsically motivated are thought to undermine intentions to act (e.g., Batson, Coke, Jasnoski, & Hanson, 1978). demonstrated that students who were required to perform 40 hours of community service to graduate were more likely to report lower future intentions to volunteer to the extent that they had volunteered more in the past (thereby demonstrating earlier intrinsic motivation) and perceived the requirement to serve as particularly controlling of their participation in this service. ...
Volunteerism is a form of prosocial behavior that involves a freely chosen decision to commit a sustained amount of time and effort to helping another person, group, or cause, typically through a nonprofit organization. We provide a thorough review of social-psychological theory and research on volunteering by examining its antecedents, experiences, and consequences, both personal and situational. In doing so, we address various questions: Who volunteers and why? What organizational practices lead to committed and satisfied volunteers? What are the benefits of volunteerism for volunteers, the recipients of their services, and for society at large?
... Previous studies have established the so-called overjustification effect (Condry, 1977), namely that behavior performed for money weakens the attribution of the behavior to intrinsic reasons, even when the behavior is consistent with the actor's initial intrinsic interest in performing the behavior. For example, participants who are offered payment to help others rate themselves as less altruistic than those who are not offered such payment (Batson, Coke, Jasnoski, & Hanson, 1978). Likewise, the present findings suggest that justifying behaviors with money deprives people not only of their internal motivation and altruistic tendency, but also of taking moral responsibility. ...
Two experiments tested participants’ attributions for others’ immoral behaviors when conducted for more versus less money. We hypothesized and found that observers would blame wrongdoers more when seeing a transgression enacted for little rather than a lot of money, and that this would be evident in observers’ hand-washing behavior. Experiment 1 used a cognitive dissonance paradigm. Participants (N = 160) observed a confederate lie in exchange for either a relatively large or small monetary payment. Participants blamed the liar more in the small (versus large) money condition. Participants (N = 184) in Experiment 2 saw images of someone knocking over another to obtain a small, medium, or large monetary sum. In the small (versus large) money condition, participants blamed the perpetrator (money) more. Hence, participants assigned less blame to moral wrong-doers, if the latter enacted their deed to obtain relatively large sums of money. Small amounts of money accentuate the immorality of others’ transgressions.
... Once participants had familiarized themselves with the first set of instructions, a second envelope was passed out. To assess whether our costliness manipulation impacted participants' self-perceptions, as our account predicts, Senders in all three treatments then completed two items on 5-point scales (1: not at all to 5: very much) assessing the extent to which they saw themselves as "helpful" and "selfish"measuring their perceived prosocial identity (Aquino and Reed 2002, Batson et al. 1978, Grant et al. 2008). The two items were significantly correlated, r 168 = −0 32, p < 0 001; we therefore reverse-coded "selfish" and averaged the two items to create a composite measure of prosocial identity. ...
Building on previous research in economics and psychology, we propose that the costliness of initial prosocial behavior positively influences whether that behavior leads to consistent future behaviors. We suggest that costly prosocial behaviors serve as a signal of prosocial identity and that people subsequently behave in line with that self-perception. In contrast, costless prosocial acts do not signal much about one's prosocial identity, so subsequent behavior is less likely to be consistent and may even show the reductions in prosocial behavior associated with licensing. The results of a laboratory experiment and a large field experiment converge to support our account.
This paper was accepted by Brad Barber, Teck Ho, and Terrance Odean, special issue editors.
... Andreoni (1995), Berg, Dickhaut and McCabe (1995), Ledyard (1995), Glaeser et al. (2000), Egas and Riedl (2008), Fischbacher and Gächter (2010)). However, there is a debate whether observed pro-social behavior is based on intrinsic pro-social preferences or whether people behave pro-socially for strategic reasons in the hope and expectation that it increases their own immediate or future well-being (Batson et al. (1997), Levitt and List (2007), Gneezy et al. (2012)). In particular, as pointed out by Sobel (2005), pro-social behavior can be both strategic (instrumental) and intrinsic (non-strategic). ...
... Among the most compelling theories is the Empathy-Altruism hypothesis (e.g. Batson et al., 1978Batson et al., , 1979Batson, 1992Batson, , 1994, which contends that "empathy evokes motivation directed towards the ultimate goal of reducing the needy person's suffering; the more empathy felt for a person in need, the more altruistic motivation to have that need reduced" (Batson, 1992, 72). ...
... Other researchers have argued that mandatory community service may well reduce interest in such activities by undermining the self-perception that tends to sustain future volunteering. That is, those who come to see service as something done only when required or rewarded will be less likely to continue to volunteer when the requirement or the reward is removed (Batson, Jasnoski, & Hanson, 1978;Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, 1998;Kunda & Schwartz, 1983). Along these lines, Stukas, Snyder, and Clary (1999) report that mandatory volunteer programs had the greatest negative effect on students who had previously been active volunteers. ...
... These findings are consistent with the notion that the small-request situation rapidly got participants thinking about how helpful they were and subsequently directed them to the conclusion that they possessed a relative abundance of the trait. Our data confirm previous findings indicating that recipients label themselves as helpful soon after consenting to a favor, especially when the favor is not trivial and when consent is freely chosen (e.g., Batson et al., 1978; Smith et al., 1979; Williamson & Clark, 1989). Our measures of self-perception were also more extensive than in past studies; indeed, we know of no previous demonstrations in which exposure to a small request produced faster self-ratings of helpfulness. ...
Consent to perform a small favor increases a respondent's susceptibility to perform a relatively large favor. This phenomenon, known as the foot-in-the-door effect, is considered to result from induced self-perception changes: the respondent comes to feel helpful for doing the small favor and complies again later out of a desire to maintain the instilled self-view. This study did not find a link between self-perception changes and large-request compliance in 2 experiments, although manipulations successfully altered self-rated helpfulness. Specifically, self-rated helpfulness increased (in Experiments 1 & 2) if participants' consent to a small favor brought social approval, and the ratings decreased (in Experiment 2) when social feedback for the small favor contained consensus information (i.e., indicated everyone else was also doing the favor). However, the ratings failed to predict either foot-in-the-door effects actually observed or compliance generally. Preexperimental gender differences in self-perceived helpfulness, in which women construed themselves to be more helpful than men, did successfully predict compliance with the large request. Implications for a theory of foot-in-the-door are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Im Jahr 1997 wurde in Hamburg ein 17-jähriges Mädchen in der S-Bahn vergewaltigt. Das Opfer rief um Hilfe, aber keiner der anderen Fahrgäste griff ein oder rief die Polizei. Angesichts solcher Vorfälle sind wir entsetzt, nicht nur ob der Grausamkeit der Verbrechen an sich, sondern insbesondere deshalb, weil die Zeugen – obwohl sie gekonnt hätten – den Opfern nicht zu Hilfe kamen. Warum haben sie es nicht getan? Waren die Zeugen alle Egoisten, die sich nicht für ihre Umwelt interessierten? Wie sich gezeigt hat, ist dies nicht der Fall, sondern es sind insbesondere situative Faktoren bedeutsam dafür, ob Menschen helfen oder nicht (Abschn. 6.1). Unsere Bestürzung angesichts unterlassener Hilfeleistung spiegelt wider, dass wir grundsätzlich erwarten, dass Menschen anderen helfen, die ihrer Hilfe bedürfen. Weshalb? Liegt prosoziales Verhalten in der Natur des Menschen? Welche Motive für prosoziales Verhalten gibt es? Diesen Fragen ist Abschn. 6.2 gewidmet.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of LEM participation on moral identity. Lateral exchange markets (LEMs) enable ordinary people to monetize idle personal resources such as cars, homes, gadgets and skills. Despite its champions portraying actors in these exchange as moral citizens of society, recent findings suggest that egoistic motives drive participation. A salient moral identity motivates behaviors that show social sensitivity to others and enable cooperative actions. Given that platform-providing firms rely on users’ cooperative behaviors to facilitate lateral exchange, understanding factors that affect moral identity can have important implications for the success of such business models.
Design/methodology/approach
In this research, the authors move away from the ideological discourse behind actors’ motivations, to provide a pragmatic explanation of how participation erodes moral identity. The authors apply a social cognitive framework to examine how the environment in LEMs impacts behaviors and personal factors in a recursive fashion.
Findings
Across two studies, findings reveal that prolonged participation in lateral exchange diminishes the centrality of moral identity to the working self-concept. Moreover, the results show that keeping puritan peers moral has positive business outcomes. This research also discerns a boundary condition that determines when peers remain consistent with their moral compasses. Specifically, when engagement is perceived as effortful, the behavior becomes an informative input in the inference of one’s moral disposition reinforcing moral identity.
Originality/value
Marketers can use this research to design business models in ways that mitigate the decay of moral identity.
The aim of this exploratory study was to examine fourth to eighth graders’ conceptualizations of kindness at school (i.e., their definition of kindness, an example of an act of kindness they have done, who they see as the most salient adult agent of kindness, and which location they deem that kindness happens most). To date, kindness research has focused predominantly on assessing the effects of being kind on student well-being and little is known about how students understand kindness and are kind in school. Across definitions and examples of kindness, the themes of helping others, showing respect, and encouraging others were prevalent. Teachers and principals were identified as the main adult agents of kindness; the classroom and outside/playground were identified as the two main kindness locations. Understanding how students conceptualize kindness within the school context holds implications for educators seeking to foster prosocial behavior among students.
This article examines the evolving nature of volunteering among American youth, ages 12 to 17, focusing on emergent pressures to volunteer, as required by high schools or to improve one's employment or education prospects after graduation. Using survey data (N = 736, mean age = 14.78, 75.1% white, 49.1% female), it finds these pressures are prevalent, related to a desire to volunteer, and both of these motivations are positively associated with volunteering. It further concludes that volunteering supplements, rather than replaces or subsumes both online and offline political behaviors among youth. This has important implications for how we understand the role of volunteering in the youngest American age cohorts, and practical implications for educators and civic proponents in terms of determining what actually increases volunteering activity.
This research delineates and critically examines extant empirical research on marketplace morality within the context of transformative consumer research. The authors identify how public policy can be leveraged to promote moral consumption in the marketplace in line with the transformative consumer research objectives of personal and collective well-being. They conduct a systematic review of the last decade of marketing literature and find that the definition of what is considered "marketplace morality" has been rather narrow. Subsequently, the authors propose a broader definition and develop a typology of moral consumption behaviors based on the valence of moral judgment/behavior (moral or immoral) and moral content (harm, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity). The authors find that most research has focused on understanding one-time (im)moral behaviors in narrow domains, which have local implications and short-term impact. This research proposes that there is untapped potential in investigating repeated (im)moral behaviors associated with lifestyle choices and habits and that these have wider, long-term moral implications (e.g., wastefulness, overindulgence, pollution, authenticity, discrimination). Finally, the authors consider the underlying motivations for (im)moral behaviors and offer recommendations for policy development and research.
In the past few years interest in the development of prosocial behavior has increased dramatically. Numerous researchers have examined the socialization antecedents and situational determinants of prosocial behaviors, as well as the personality characteristics of those most likely to engage in prosocial action (Bar-Tal, 1976; Müssen & Eisenberg-Berg, 1977; Rushton, 1976, 1980; Staub, 1978, 1979). As this research has accumulated, it has become increasingly clear that the prosocial domain of behavior (as any other domain of social behavior) can be best understood from an interactional perspective, that is, with an approach that neglects neither the role of the individual’s personal characteristics nor situational determinants.
Purpose
– Building on trait activation theory, theory of other orientation, and self-perception theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine how employees’ perceptions of helping efficacy and instrumentality influence the relationship between their prosocial motive and helping behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
– Data from 304 supervisor-subordinate dyads in South Korea were analyzed. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression.
Findings
– The results show that prosocial motive had a stronger positive influence on helping behavior among employees with high levels of helping efficacy. However, contrary to our expectation, prosocial motive was more positively related to helping behavior when employees had high levels of helping instrumentality.
Practical implications
– Organizations need to present employees with effective, standardized work procedures to make them feel efficacy in helping others. It is also necessary for organizations to consider helping behavior an important factor in performance evaluation and to signify to employees that helping behavior will be rewarded.
Social implications
– Helping behavior is critical for the effectiveness of both organizations and society at large; voluntarily helping people can enhance various kinds of performance at the societal level and can contribute to people’s welfare. Thus, it is necessary to teach people how to help others and to recognize helping behavior.
Originality/value
– This study contributes to the understanding of when the influence of prosocial motive on helping is more strongly activated by incorporating employees’ perceptions of the contexts in which helping behavior operates – efficacy and instrumentality.
In recent decades in the United States, the field of youth community service has burgeoned. In K-12 schools and on college campuses, community service programs are now commonplace and many classrooms use service-learning as an academic intervention. On the national level, federal programs and nonprofit organizations lead large-scale initiatives to engage youth in volunteerism. And in recent years, full-time service programs for recent high school and college graduates are seeing record numbers of applications and enrollments. Given this infrastructure and the willingness of young people to get involved if asked to do so, it is not surprising that today’s youth are serving at historically high rates. Despite the promise, youth community service has yet to reach its potential. Researchers and practitioners have highlighted a gap between what are known to be the key elements for effective service – and how programs are actually carried out. On a national policy level, the field has not gained traction in mainstream education circles, partially because findings from rigorous research studies of national service programs have yielded inconsistent or null results. This chapter in the Handbook of Child Well-Being provides an overview of, and describes the current landscape for, youth community service in the United States.
For us, altruism refers to self-sacrificial acts intended to benefit others regardless of material or social outcomes for the actor. Crucial to this definition is an emphasis on the actor’s motivation: An act is altruistic only to the extent that it is motivated by concern for the welfare of others. In other words, altruistic behavior is motivated by the desire to affirm one’s own moral values (Schwartz & Howard, 1981). The more general notion of prosocial behavior points to the outcomes of action rather than to the intentions that underlie action (Wispe, 1972). Prosocial behavior usually entails a mixture of altruistic and other types of motivation. An adult may stop children who are fighting, for instance, both because of her own value-based concern for their welfare and because this act may elicit social approval and enhance her sense of competence.
This book takes a hard-science look at the possibility that we humans have the capacity to care for others for their sakes (altruism) rather than simply for our own (egoism). The look is based not on armchair speculation, dramatic cases, or after-the-fact interviews, but on an extensive series of theory-testing laboratory experiments conducted over the past 35 years. Part I details the theory of altruistic motivation that has been the focus of this experimental research. The theory centers on the empathy-altruism hypothesis, which claims that other-oriented feelings of sympathy and compassion for a person in need (empathic concern) produce motivation with the ultimate goal of having that need removed. Antecedents and consequences of empathy-induced altruistic motivation are specified, making the theory empirically testable. Part II offers a comprehensive summary of the research designed to test the empathy-altruism hypothesis, giving particular attention to recent challenges. Overall, the research provides remarkably strong and consistent support for this hypothesis, forcing a tentative conclusion that empathy-induced altruism is within the human repertoire. Part III considers the theoretical and practical implications of this conclusion, suggesting that empathy-induced altruism is a far more pervasive and powerful force in human affairs than has been recognized. Failure to appreciate its importance has handicapped attempts to understand why we humans act as we do and wherein our happiness lies. This failure has also handicapped efforts to promote better interpersonal relations and create a more caring, humane society.
The effects of loss versus gain of reward on altruistic responding and subsequent self-ratings of altruism were examined for 46 male subjects. Subjects who lost reward were told they would lose experimental credit for helping. Subjects who gained reward were told they would receive full credit and do less work for helping. Control subjects were not asked for assistance. Subjects who lost reward were significantly less likely to help than subjects who gained reward. Subjects who lost reward and helped rated themselves significantly higher in altruism than all other subjects who did not differ.
For the last six years People United has been exploring how the arts can create the conditions for kindness, and from that a sense of community and social change. Our approach is motivated by a belief in the power of the arts and is rooted in a strong theoretical framework and academic research.
This paper is a starting point for a conversation with all those who are interested in the role of the arts in bringing about social change. We want to share some of what we know, and more of what we don’t know but suspect might be true, about the potential of the arts to help create kinder, more caring communities.
Much is claimed for the transformative power of the arts. We want to explore those claims and examine them more closely. We are driven by a curiosity to discover how our work can be more effective through understanding and learning from academic research across a range of disciplines. In this paper we use research on prosocial behaviours and altruism to propose a model for how the arts might inspire kindness. We examine the evidence and suggest what further research is needed to improve the model, and explore the implications for those of us interested in the arts and social change.
This paper is for practitioners, arts professionals, policy makers, researchers, funders, and all those who have a passion for building kinder, more caring communities, whether that is in a school, a high street, an estate or a neighbourhood, a town, a city, online and off.
In 1999, the Canadian province of Ontario joined a number of other jurisdictions in requiring its high school students to complete volunteer service before graduating. The primary objective of this program, and others like it around the world, was to address declining civic engagement within society. Using a quasi-experimental design, we explore the impact of mandatory volunteering on its stated aims. Our findings suggest that volunteering in high school has positive impacts on the political dimensions of a student's subsequent civic engagement, measured here as political involvement, political activism, political interest, and political efficacy. However, those impacts are largely conditional on two features of the volunteering experience: sustained commitment to one placement and a positive experience as evaluated by the student. High school community service seems to be unrelated to social dimensions of civic engagement, measured here as involvement in a variety of social, cultural, and religious organizations.
This article examines whether the motive behind community service performed during high school—either voluntary or required—influences engagement in volunteer work during the young adult years. Using a sample of students from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (N= 9,966), service work in high school is linked with community service in young adulthood. The findings show that participation in community service declines substantially in the 2 years following high school graduation but then rebounds slightly once members of the sample reach their mid-20s. In general, community service participation in high school was related to volunteer work both 2 and 8 years after high school graduation. However, those who were required to participate in community service while in high school were only able to sustain involvement 8 years after graduation if they reported that their participation was voluntary. Strengths and limitations of the analysis as well as implications for youth policy are discussed.
Donors' reactions to choosing and being required to help were examined. Among subjects led to desire a communal relationship with the recipient, both choosing and being required to help elevated positive affect and alleviated negative affect relative to not being asked to help. Changes in affect as a result of choosing to help did not differ from changes as a result of being required to help. Among subjects led to desire an exchange relationship with the recipient, choosing to help caused positive affect to deteriorate, relative to being required to help or to not helping. Changes in affect in the required condition did not differ from those in the no-help condition. Psychological processes that may underlie these effects are discussed.
Cialdini has proposed a reciprocal concessions explanation of the door-in-the-face technique for inducing compliance. We wish to propose an alternative explanation, that this technique increases compliance because it induces concern about self-presentation. A field experiment was designed to determine whether the manipulations used in previous door-in-the-face studies led to assumptions of a negative self-presentation. Fifty male university students were presented with either a moderately large request for help (similar to those used in the door-in-the-face studies) or an extremely large request. After refusing the request subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire. Responses to this questionnaire indicated that subjects believed an observer of their refusal would rate them as significantly less helpful, less friendly, and less concerned after they refused the moderately large as opposed to the extremely large request. These results were predicted by our selfpresentation explanation of the door-in-the-face technique.
Two studies illustrate the importance of a distinction between communal and exchange relationships in understanding reactions to helping and refusing to help. In Study 1, refusing to help caused declines in positive affect when a communal (but not an exchange) relationship with the help seeker was desired. In Study 2, recalling a refusal to help a communal (but not an exchange) partner caused declines in positive affect. Recalling when some-one else helped or refused to help did not produce analogous changes. Results demonstrate that there are differential reactions to refusing to help in communal and exchange relationships, differential reactions apply to naturally occurring relationships as well as desired relationships created by laboratory manipulations, and affective reactions in communal relationships are not due to merely knowing the other has (or has not) been helped. The authors suggest that they reflect the impact that helping or failing to help may have on communal relationships.
This study examined the operation of the Jones-Nisbett actor-observer effect—i.e. the tendency for persons to see their actions as due to situational causes while observers of the same actions ascribe them to the actor's personal dispositions—in the natural, non-laboratory environment of everyday interactions over an extended period of time. Subjects were asked to provide trait descriptions of themselves and a close acquiantance over a 3 week period by choosing five adjectives each, for the self and the other person, from a large list comprised of 200 words which had been rated high on meaningfulness from Anderson's (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 272–279, 1968) list of 555 words scaled for likeableness, on 4 days each week. We assumed that the use of a relatively homogeneous set of trait-adjectives would reflect a more dispositional,trait-like, attribution since it describes the person as relatively consistent over time and, presumably, situations. Conversely, the use of a more heterogeneous set of adjectives would represent attributions to the diversity of situations that the person would likely find himself or herself in over the duration of the study. We thus expected the actor-observer effect to manifest itself in greater trait variability in descriptions of the self than of an acquaintance. Neither a measure of evaluative consistency nor of descriptive consistency yielded greater variability in self-descriptions than in other-descriptions. Because individual differences in a tendency toward the actor-observer attributional effect was a salient feature of our findings, we explored a possible personality correlate of this tendency—self-esteem—and found that those who conformed more to the effect were lower in self-esteem than those conforming to it less. Also, on the measure of descriptive consistency, we found variability in descriptions of the self and of the other person to be positively correlated. The implications of our findings regarding the limiting conditions of the Jones-Nisbett effect were discussed.
In our fast-paced, high pressure society we are encouraged to take care of ourselves and not worry about our fellows. This has become such routine, that we have forgotten how to be kind to strangers for the sheer pleasure of helping a fellow human being. In today’s world people are very skeptical when strangers perform random acts of kindness. We observed reactions to a random act of kindness. We gave 122 people a flower. We did not find significant differences in reactions to kindness by age of the receiver. However, we did find that women responded more positively to kindness than did men. Also people tended to respond more positively to kindness when the giver was white regardless of the race of the receiver.
Because of their expertise in working with volunteers, social workers may be called on to provide consultation to organizations that are not traditional social service agencies. Unpaid volunteer donors provide the vast majority of this country’s blood supply; however, many donors give only once, and few think of themselves as regular, committed donors. The purpose of this study was to determine if special letters of request or incentives would increase blood donations during a 14-month study period. One thousand first-time donors were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups or the control condition. On average, first-time donors gave 1.89 donations, and there were no statistically significant differences among the groups. The conclusion was drawn that the interventions were too passive.
Two studies examine the role of motivation and trust in the relationship between safety-specific transformational leadership and employees' safety behavior. Study 1 tested the prediction that intrinsic and identified regulation motivations mediate the relationship between safety-specific transformational leadership and employees' safety behaviors. Study 2 further explored this relationship by testing the prediction that the mediating role of intrinsic motivation is dependent on employees' level of trust in their leader. Survey data from the U.K. construction industry supported both predictions. However, the mediating role of intrinsic motivation was found only for challenge safety citizenship behaviors (i.e., voice) and not for affiliative safety citizenship behaviors (i.e., helping). These findings suggest that employees' intrinsic motivation is important to the effectiveness of leaders' efforts to promote some but not all forms of safety behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
A comparison of two motivations for engaging in work organizations suggests that people are motivated by both the resources they receive from their organizations and by the role that the organization plays in creating and sustaining a favorable view of ones status. Status issues are especially central as motivators of voluntary behavior within the organization.
Conducted a field experiment with 3-5 yr old nursery school children to test the "overjustification" hypothesis suggested by self-perception theory (i.e., intrinsic interest in an activity may be decreased by inducing him to engage in that activity as an explicit means to some extrinsic goal). 51 Ss who showed intrinsic interest in a target activity during baseline observations were exposed to 1 of 3 conditions: in the expected-award condition, Ss agreed to engage in the target activity in order to obtain an extrinsic reward; in the unexpected-award condition, Ss had no knowledge of the reward until after they had finished with the activity; and in the no-award condition, Ss neither expected nor received the reward. Results support the prediction that Ss in the expected-award condition would show less subsequent intrinsic interest in the target activity than Ss in the other 2 conditions. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
80 preschool 4-5 yr olds participated in a novel activity in individual sessions. In the expected reward conditions, Ss expected to win a chance to play with highly attractive toys by engaging in the activity; in the unexpected reward conditions, Ss had no prior knowledge of this reward. Orthogonally, Ss in the surveillance conditions were told that their performance would be monitored via a TV camera; Ss in the nonsurveillance conditions were not monitored. 2 wks later, unobtrusive measures of the Ss' intrinsic interest in the activity were obtained in their classrooms. 2 significant main effects were obtained reproducing and expanding findings from earlier studies. Ss who had undertaken the activity expecting an extrinsic reward showed less subsequent interest in the activity than those who had not expected a reward, and Ss who had been placed under surveillance showed less subsequent interest than those not previously monitored. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated the effects of external reinforcement on intrinsic motivation in a puzzle-solving task in 96 undergraduates. Results support previous findings that money decreases intrinsic motivation while verbal reinforcements tend to enhance it. The beginning of a cognitive evaluation theory is discussed. It is concluded that although there is an apparently discrepant prediction between this theory and J. Adam's inequity theory, the theories are not conceptually discrepant. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A field experiment was conducted to test the self-perception explanation of the "foot-in-the-door" phenomenon of increased compliance with a substantial request after prior compliance with a smaller demand. In this study, some subjects were first approached with a small request (answer 8 questions in a telephone survey) the size of which was virtually certain to guarantee compliance. Other subjects were first approached with a request sufficiently large to guarantee noncompliance (answer 50 questions). Subjects in both of these conditions were subsequently approached with a moderately sized request (30 questions sponsored by a different public service organization). As predicted by self-perception theory, subjects in the small-initial-request condition showed a higher rate of compliance to the second request (.519), whereas subjects in the large-initial-request condition showed a lower rate of compliance (.219) than subjects in the no-initial-request control condition (.333).
A field experiment tested four separate procedures for influencing compliance to the second of two requests. Two factors--size of initial request and timing of the second request--were included in a 2 X 2 factorial design. Subjects were induced either to comply with a small initial request or to refuse a large initial request. They then received a moderate request either immediately (no delay) or 7--10 days later (delay). Compliance to the second request was the dependent measure. The results in the two delay conditions and the small-request--no delay condition supported a self-perception position in that the induction of one kind of behavior (compliance or noncompliance) carried over to affect subsequent behavior similarly. The large-request--no dealy condition supported a bargaining explanation, as initial refusal to comply led to an increase in subsequent compliance. Possible processes that could account for these results are discussed.
Conducted a field experiment to test the derivations of D. J. Bem's (1973) self-perception theory as described by M. R. Lepper (see record
1973-26734-001), who investigated the behavioral effects of self-attributions formed as a result of previous behavior. 60 women in a shopping center were asked by an E to watch his packages while he retrieved either his wallet (high justification) or a dollar (low justification). It was hypothesized that low justification Ss would make self-attributions of "helpfulness," while high justification Ss would attribute their behavior to external factors and would thereby make no such self-attribution. To test this hypothesis, Ss were given the opportunity to help a 2nd E, who crossed the Ss' path and dropped a package, apparently unnoticed. The prediction was that low justification Ss would show more subsequent helping behavior than high justification Ss or control Ss, who had no initial contact. This prediction was confirmed, thereby lending additional support to the self-perception analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Defined egotism as the tendency to make attributions that put oneself in the best possible light (e.g., the attribution of good outcomes to one's skill rather than to luck). An experiment was designed to demonstrate egotism, using 55 male undergraduates. To rule out alternative explanations, attributions of actors and observers for both good and bad outcomes were compared. Theoretical considerations suggested that egotism might be especially likely at the conclusion of competition. Hence, Ss competed, won, or lost and then made attributions for their own and their opponents' outcomes. Evidence for egotism was clear. In addition, Ss made predictions of their opponents' attributions, which often turned out to be fairly accurate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Preschool children were asked, in individual sessions, to engage in an activity of high initial interest, either for its own sake or in order to obtain an extrinsic reward. Subsequently, children who had undertaken the target activity as a means to some ulterior end showed less intrinsic interest in this activity, as measured unobtrusively several weeks later in the children's classrooms, than control subjects who had either received the same reward unexpectedly or had engaged in the activity without expectation or receipt of extrinsic rewards.