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How do social norms influence prosocial development?
Abstract
Humans are both highly prosocial and extremely sensitive to social norms, and some theories suggest that norms are necessary to account for uniquely human forms of prosocial behavior and cooperation. Understanding how norms influence prosocial behavior is thus essential if we are to describe the psychology and development of prosocial behavior. In this article I review recent research from across the social sciences that provides (1) a theoretical model of how norms influence prosocial behavior, (2) empirical support for the model based on studies with adults and children, and (3) predictions about the psychological mechanisms through which norms shape prosocial behavior. I conclude by discussing the need for future studies into how prosocial behavior develops through emerging interactions between culturally varying norms, social cognition, emotions, and potentially genes.
... Alternatively, people may be directly affected by social norms that continuously provide information on what individuals believe most other people typically do or approve of (Robinson, 2015). Social norms could motivate many forms of costly prosocial behavior (House, 2018). Research has shown that social norms have independent effects on intentions (Rivis & Sheeran, 2003), and prosocial behavior is driven by social norms (Kimbrough & Vostroknutov, 2016). ...
... Social norms are regarded as customary rules that govern behavior in society (House, 2018). Social norms are expectations generally held by members of the society that people will behave in a certain way. ...
Social norms are regarded as customary rules that govern behavior in society but little is known about how social norms affect PSM and prosocial behavior. The purpose of the current study is to figure out the role of social norms on PSM and prosocial behavior through testing two theoretical models: one hypothesizes that social norms moderate the relationship between PSM and prosocial behavior; another predicts that social norms directly affect both PSM and prosocial behavior. Using the two waves of online survey data from Korea (n = 1,519), it confirms only the direct effect model. We can say that social norms may influence PSM and prosocial behavior directly because members of a society have learned from social norms what attitudes and behaviors are expected of them in various situations. This study provides support for the institutional perspective on PSM.
... Researchers have proposed multiple accounts of prosocial behavior, one of which is rooted in social norms, a collection of customary rules informing the prevalence, acceptability, and desirability of behaviors in a group or society (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004;House, 2018). According to social norm theory (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004), observing others' prosocial behavior enhances individuals' likelihood of exhibiting prosocial behavior (Nook et al., 2016). ...
... Social norms can be categorized into two forms: descriptive norms and injunctive norms, with the former referring to perceptions about what is and the latter referring to what ought to be in a given society (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004). Descriptive norms usually inform how a typical societal member looks and what most members think and do, while injunctive norms usually convey what most members approve and disapprove of in their society (House, 2018). Prosocial behavior refers to voluntary, intentional behavior that leads to the benefit of others (Eisenberg & Miller, 1987). ...
Compliance with social norms is deemed one of the important drives for prosocial behavior. However, studies on the bystander effect hint at another possibility of not complying with prosocial norms due to responsibility diffusion. Additionally, little is known about how individuals' susceptibility to normative influences in prosociality varies according to personal attributes. Thus, this study tested the relationship between perceived moral-character norm (i.e., normative moral character) of general peer and prosocial behaviors and moderating roles of personal moral character and sociodemographic variables. Based on a sample of 2474 secondary-school students, we found a significant interplay of normative moral character, personal moral character, and sociodemographic backgrounds. Specifically, among female or poor students who had relatively negative moral characters, the better they evaluated their peer's moral character to be, the less they exhibited prosocial behavior. This study sheds light on a nuanced relationship between normative moral character and prosocial behavior.
... Norms are implicitly negotiated between members of a group and enforced through informal sanctions, such as gossip, censoring, or ostracism (Bicchieri, 2006). They are passed through generations via socialization processes in childhood (House, 2018) and are, in contrast to laws, not necessarily enforced by an institution. Norms come in multiple types, for example, prescriptive norms define behaviors that one should enact (e.g., "offering elderly people a seat on the subway"), while proscriptive norms define undesirable behaviors that one should avoid (e.g., "interrupting people while they speak"). ...
... In this chapter, we are interested in descriptive norms, because they are directly inferred from the observed behavior of others. Injunctive norms can differ from directly observed behavior, and can involve more complex cognitive processes (House, 2018), which are beyond the scope of our model. Therefore, when we are referring to social norms with respect to our model, we are specifically addressing descriptive social norms. ...
Social norms can facilitate societal coexistence in groups by providing an implicitly shared set of expectations and behavioral guidelines. However, different social groups can hold different norms, and lacking an overarching normative consensus can lead to conflict within and between groups. In this chapter, we present an agent-based model that simulates the adoption of norms in two interacting groups. We explore this phenomenon while varying relative group sizes and homophily/heterophily (two features of network structure), and initial group norm distributions. Agents update their norm according to an adapted version of Granovetter’s threshold model, using a uniform distribution of thresholds. We study the impact of network structure and initial norm distributions on the process of achieving normative consensus and the resulting potential for intragroup and intergroup conflict. Our results show that norm change is most likely when norms are strongly tied to group membership. Groups end up with the most similar norm distributions when networks are heterophilic, with small to middling minority groups. High homophilic networks show high potential intergroup conflict and low potential intragroup conflict, while the opposite pattern emerges for high heterophilic networks.
... Yet, young children across societies tend to maximize their own outcomes and only from middle childhood begin to conform to the sharing norms of their respective societies (e.g., Cowell et al., 2017;House et al., 2013;Rochat et al., 2009). Children's sharing behavior is influenced by social information such as explicit normative instructions (House, 2018;McAuliffe, Raihani, & Dunham, 2017) and demonstrations by adult models (Blake, Corbit, Callaghan, & Warneken, 2016;Over & Carpenter, 2013). Whereas children from different societies behave more selfishly if selfish behavior is modeled by an adult, Western children appear to be less flexible in adopting more generous behavior (Blake et al., 2016;Weltzien, Marsh, & Hood, 2018). ...
... Children's abilities to copy others and follow instructions have been widely documented (Blake et al., 2016;House, 2018;McAuliffe et al., 2017;Over & Carpenter, 2013). What remains puzzling is why children from Western societies respond less to social influences aimed to increase generosity compared with children from other populations. ...
Most humans share to some degree. Yet, from middle childhood, sharing behavior varies substantially across societies. Here, for the first time, we explored the effect of self-construal manipulation on sharing decisions in 7- and 8-year-old children from two distinct societies: urban India and urban United Kingdom. Children participated in one of three conditions that focused attention on independence, interdependence, or a control. Sharing was then assessed across three resource allocation games. A focus on independence resulted in reduced generosity in both societies. However, an intriguing societal difference emerged following a focus on interdependence, where only Indian children from traditional extended families displayed greater generosity in one of the resource allocation games. Thus, a focus on independence can move children from diverse societies toward selfishness with relative ease, but a focus on interdependence is very limited in its effectiveness to promote generosity.
... Norms are implicitly negotiated between members of a group and enforced through informal sanctions, such as gossip, censoring or ostracism [4]. They are passed through generations via socialization processes in childhood [5] and are, in contrast to laws, not necessarily enforced by an institution. Norms come in multiple types; for example, prescriptive norms define behaviors that one should enact (e.g. ...
... In this chapter, we are interested in descriptive norms, because they are directly inferred from the observed behavior of others. Injunctive norms can differ from directly observed behavior, and can involve more complex cognitive processes [5], which are beyond the scope of our model. Therefore, when we are referring to social norms with respect to our model, we are specifically addressing descriptive social norms. ...
Social norms can facilitate societal coexistence in groups by providing an implicitly shared set of expectations and behavioral guidelines. However, different social groups can hold different norms, and lacking an overarching normative consensus can lead to conflict within and between groups. In this paper, we present an agent-based model that simulates the adoption of norms in two interacting groups. We explore this phenomenon while varying relative group sizes and homophily/heterophily (two features of network structure), and initial group norm distributions. Agents update their norm according to an adapted version of Granovetter's threshold model, using a uniform distribution of thresholds. We study the impact of network structure and initial norm distributions on the process of achieving normative consensus and the resulting potential for intragroup and intergroup conflict. Our results show that norm change is most likely when norms are strongly tied to group membership. Groups end up with the most similar norm distributions when networks are heterophilic, with small to middling minority groups. High homophilic networks show high potential intergroup conflict and low potential intragroup conflict, while the opposite pattern emerges for high heterophilic networks.
... How we acquire this effortless sense of what is or is not normal is a surprisingly complex question [123][124][125]. As commonly framed in social norms literature, that sense of "normality" is grounded in an interplay between the individual's expectations of others' behavior (e.g., descriptive norms as in [2,126,127]), the individual's beliefs about what others expect them to do (e.g., injunctive norms such as [79,[128][129][130]), and collective beliefs regarding what any member of the group ought to do (e.g., conventions [131][132][133]). When something is normal, it is expected or anticipated. ...
Do social norms really matter, or are they just behavioral idiosyncrasies that become associated with a group? Social norms are generally considered as a collection of formal or informal rules, but where do these rules come from, and why do we follow them? The definition for social norm varies by field of study, and how norms are established and maintained remains substantially open to questions across the behavioral sciences. In reviewing the literature on social norms across multiple disciplines, we found that the common thread appears to be information. Here, we show that norms are not merely rules or strategies, but part of a more rudimentary social process for capturing and retaining information within a social network. We have found that the emergence of norms can be better explained as an efficient system of communicating, filtering, and preserving experiential information. By reconsidering social norms and institutions in terms of information, we show that they are not merely conventions that facilitate the coordination of social behavior. They are, instead, the objective of that social coordination and, potentially, of the evolutionary adaptation of sociality itself.
... Penting juga, mengajarkan tentang konsekuensi akan setiap perbuatan yang dilakukan." (OT5, 2022) Manusia sangat prososial dan sangat sensitif terhadap norma sosial, dan beberapa teori menyatakan bahwa norma diperlukan untuk menjelaskan bentuk perilaku dan kerja sama prososial manusia yang unik (House, 2018). Selama usia prasekolah, anak-anak mulai secara eksplisit merenungkan tindakan mereka sendiri dan tindakan alternatif (yaitu tindakan yang tidak diambil), yang kemudian membantu mereka memahami sejauh mana perilaku prososial mereka perlu diperjuangkan, dipilih secara bebas, dan termotivasi secara internal (Chernyak & Kushnir, 2018). ...
Perilaku prososial merupakan aspek penting dari perkembangan sosial dan psikologis anak. Penelitian ini mengeksplorasi bagaimana upaya orang tua dalam mengembangkan perilaku prososial anak usia dini (AUD). Metode penelitian kualitatif eksploratif digunakan sebagai metode penelitian. Data dikumpulkan melalui wawancara dan pengumpulan dokumen. Sebanyak 22 orang tua dilibatkan dalam penelitian ini. Data menunjukkan bahwa upaya mengembangkan perilaku prososial yang dilakukan orang tua adalah: 1) mencontohkan kepada anak perilaku prososial, 2) membiasakan anak berperilaku prososial, 3) mengajak anak berdikusi tentang perilaku prososial, 4) memberitahu dan menasihati anak untuk berperilaku prososial. Orang tua memegang peranan penting dalam pengembangan perilaku prososial anak. Agar anak menjadi anak yang penuh kasih sayang, sopan santun dan gemar membantu orang lain, maka orang tua dapat menjadi role model bagi anak, membiasakan anak bersosialisasi, berdiskusi dengan anak, dan memberi nasehat kepada anak tentang perilaku yang sesuai ataupun tidak sesuai dengan norma dan aturan kesopanan di masyarakat.
... MYOG includes guided practice activities (e.g., in role plays and games, compliance with social rules is practiced) to teach social-emotional skills and reward positive social behavior in the classroom. It is rooted in Social Learning Theory (MacBlain, 2021) and considers the development of social norms (House, 2018). 2) Teacher-focused intervention component: the main focus is to support daily interactions between teachers and children and construct a supportive educational atmosphere in the kindergarten centers. ...
The development of social-emotional skills is crucial in early childhood. Behavior problems in early childhood are risk factors for difficulties throughout childhood and adolescence and beyond. Considering the importance of developing social and emotional skills during early childhood, this study introduced the Papilio-3to6 program into everyday early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Germany. The program combines measures of developmentally appropriate practice and measures of social-emotional learning with strategies of developmentally appropriate prevention of behavioral and emotional problems. The underlying theory, the components of the program, evaluation results, dissemination, and implementation into ECEC center in Germany are described. A total of 627 children (MAGE = 56.77 months at pretest; 49% girls) from 50 ECEC center groups participated in an effectiveness, randomized controlled trial. At the pre- and posttest, teachers completed questionnaires related to children’s behaviors. Teachers completed questionnaires measuring their levels of job satisfaction, self-efficacy (control variables) and program implementation. A multivariate-multi-level-analysis revealed that children in the intervention groups, compared to the control groups, showed a significant decrease in their hyperactivity/inattention symptoms, as well as emotional, peer relationship problems, and conduct problems. The results also showed a significant increase in children’s prosocial behavior. Teachers’ job satisfaction and self-efficacy had no influence on the effectiveness of the program. Results supported treatment fidelity and usability.
... If gender differences in prosocial preferences are a universal element of human behaviour, then we might expect them to develop in a uniform way across cultures, to emerge early in development, and be predictive of gender differences in adulthood. Alternatively, if gender differences are the product of cultural forces that operate within societies, we might expect them to emerge during middle childhood as children become sensitive to local social norms and begin to develop adult-like patterns of behaviour [30]. Meta-analyses of the influence of gender on prosocial behaviour in adults and children suggest that adult males are generally more prosocial than adult females [31], but some reviews have found this pattern to be inconsistent [32], while other reviews have obtained the reverse pattern for children [33]. ...
Human cooperation varies both across and within societies, and developmental studies can inform our understanding of the sources of both kinds of variation. One key candidate for explaining within-society variation in cooperative behaviour is gender, but we know little about whether gender differences in cooperation take root early in ontogeny or emerge similarly across diverse societies. Here, we explore two existing cross-cultural datasets of 4- to 15-year-old children's preferences for equality in experimental tasks measuring prosociality (14 societies) and fairness (seven societies), and we look for evidence of (i) widespread gender differences in the development of cooperation, and (ii) substantial societal variation in gender differences. This cross-cultural approach is crucial for revealing universal human gender differences in the development of cooperation, and it helps answer recent calls for greater cultural diversity in the study of human development. We find that gender has little impact on the development of prosociality and fairness within these datasets, and we do not find much evidence for substantial societal variation in gender differences. We discuss the implications of these findings for our knowledge about the nature and origin of gender differences in cooperation, and for future research attempting to study human development using diverse cultural samples.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives’.
... These findings become relevant in Latin American countries, in which "significant others" such as family and friends have a transcendental role in decision making and behaviors (e.g., familism, a characteristic of Latin and Asian cultures that involves the prioritization of the family over the self; see Schwartz and Weisskirch [63]). Consequently, to increase the intention to vaccinate in collectivist countries, communication strategies should not only promote the positive consequences that vaccines have [64], but rather, vaccination behavior should be promoted as a way to care for and protect those who belong to the nuclear and extended circle [65,66]; that is, emphasizing it as prosocial behavior [67]. ...
(1) Background: Although the evidence is consistent that vaccines for COVID-19 effectively prevent severe illness or death, the rapid development of vaccines has led to increased beliefs about possible negative consequences and conspiracy theories about the vaccine. Several factors influence whether or not people decide to be vaccinated. Some studies suggest that our perception of what significant others do and think influences our behavior. (2) Methods: This study evaluates the predictive role of beliefs about negative consequences of the COVID-19 vaccine, conspiracy beliefs about this vaccine, and social influence on the intention to vaccinate against COVID-19 in three Latin American and Caribbean countries: Chile, Mexico, and Colombia. Using convenience sampling, 2075 adults from Chile (48.3%), Mexico (27.6%), and Colombia (24.6%) participated by answering an online questionnaire with variables of interest. (3) Results: Despite the differences between countries, the results showed that the proposed model is invariant and explains between 56–66% of the COVID-19 vaccination intent. Specifically, controlling for age, socioeconomic status, political orientation, and educational level, we found that beliefs about the negative consequences of the COVID-19 vaccine were the main predictor followed by social influence. Beliefs in conspiracy theories did not predict vaccination intention (4) Conclusions: Considering these variables in campaigns to boost vaccination intention is discussed.
... Developmental pathways and the expression of prosocial actions are moderated by learning and culture (Henrich, 2015;House, 2018), and variations between cultures are observed (e.g., Cowell et al., 2017;Rochat et al., 2009;Samek et al., 2020). For example, it has been suggested that children in Eastern cultures exhibit greater peer-to-peer sharing than those in Western cultures (Stewart & McBride-Chang, 2000). ...
Previous research has suggested that moral stories depicting realistic characters may better facilitate children’s prosocial behavior than those containing anthropomorphized animal characters. The current study is a conceptual replication with a different sample and an extended age range. We examined the relationships among story character realism (anthropomorphized animal or human), theme (sharing or busyness), age, and prosocial behavior (i.e., resource allocation). Four versions of an illustrated storybook were created: an Animal Sharing book, an Animal Busy book, a Human Sharing book, and a Human Busy book. A total of 179 children aged 3–7 years listened to one of the four versions of the story. Children’s sticker donating behavior was measured prior to hearing the story and again following a story recall task. All groups donated more stickers post-story than pre-story. Younger children were more likely to increase their donation than older children, and children who had made higher human internal state attributions in a previous experimental session donated more stickers post-story. In contrast to previous research, we found that a sharing-themed narrative depicting human characters was no more influential for sticker donation than the other stories.
... Further, longitudinal research has found that peers' tolerance leads to higher tolerance of immigrants, while peers' xenophobia predicts increases in adolescents' xenophobia (Van Zalk et al., 2015). Additionally, (quasi-)experimental research has found that prosocial and inclusive ingroup norms can increase children's ethnic outgroup liking (Nesdale et al., 2005), their positive behavioral tendency toward an outgroup (Cameron et al., 2001), and can stimulate outgroup support and cooperation (House, 2018). In contrast, outgroup dislike occurs when the ingroup has an explicit norm of outgroup rejection versus acceptance (Nesdale et al., 2005). ...
There are various theoretical approaches for understanding intergroup biases among children and adolescents. This article focuses on the social identity approach and argues that existing research will benefit by more fully considering the implications of this approach for examining intergroup relations among youngsters. These implications include (a) the importance of self-categorization, (b) the role of self-stereotyping and group identification, (c) the relevance of shared understandings and developing ingroup consensus, and (d) the importance of coordinated action for positive and negative intergroup relations. These implications of the social identity approach suggest several avenues for investigating children’s and adolescents’ intergroup relations that have not been fully appreciated in the existing literature. However, there are also limitations to the social identity approach for the developmental understanding and some of these are discussed.
... With respect to children, we know that fairness norms governing the distribution of resources are highly dependent on culture, and these norms develop starting from middle childhood (House, 2018;House, Kanngiesser, Clark Barrett, et al., 2020;House et al., 2013;House & Tomasello, 2018;Warneken, 2016Warneken, , 2018. More precisely, it is a universal pattern that before middle childhood, children show no costly altruism House et al., 2013). ...
Many social exchanges produce benefits that would not exist otherwise, but anticipating conflicts about how to distribute these benefits can derail exchange and destroy the gains. Coordination norms can solve this problem by providing a shared understanding of how to distribute benefits, but such norms can also perpetuate group-level inequality. To examine how inequitable norms evolve culturally and whether they generalize from one setting to another, we conducted an incentivized lab-in-the-field experiment among kindergarten (5–6) and second-grade (8–9) children living in Switzerland (4′228 decisions collected from 326 children). In Part 1, we created two arbitrarily marked groups, triangles and circles. We randomly and repeatedly formed pairs with one triangle and one circle, and players in a pair played a simple bargaining game in which failure to agree destroyed the gains from social exchange. At the beginning of Part 1 we suggested a specific way to play the game. In symmetric treatments, this suggestion did not imply inequality between the groups, while in asymmetric treatments it did. Part 2 of the experiment addressed the generalization of norms. Retaining their group affiliations from Part 1, each child had to distribute resources between an in-group member and an out-group member. Children of both age groups in symmetric treatments used our suggestions about how to play the game to coordinate in Part 1. In asymmetric treatments, children followed our suggestions less consistently, which reduced coordination but moderated inequality. In Part 2, older children did not generalize privilege from Part 1. Rather, they compensated the underprivileged. Younger children neither generalized privilege nor compensated the underprivileged.
... Perilaku prososial dapat terbentuk salah satunya karena adanya motif internal dalam diri individu sehingga membuat seseorang ingin terus-menerus membantu sesama (House, 2018). Perbedaan motif yang membentuk perilaku prososial pun dapat berbeda-beda antara satu tempat dengan tempat lainnya (Hruschka & Henrich, 2015). ...
The purpose of this study was to find the contribution of religiosity to prosocial behavior on teacher inclusion. This study is a causality study with the respondent of 74 teachers. The measuring instrument used was CRS-15 (The Centrality of Religiosity Scale) adapted by Wardhani (2015) to measure religiosity and The Prosocialness Scale for Adults by Caprara (2005) and adapted by a researcher to measure prosocial. The results showed that there is a significant correlation between religiosity and prosocial. Religiosity contributes 40.7% to the prosocial behavior.
... The literature on normative influence, a powerful tool for bringing about behavioral change, could prove helpful (e.g., Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004). Demonstrating targeted behaviors is socially (un)desirable and (un)common among peers, reduces school bullying, increases environmental conservation, and increases voter turnout (House, 2018). Accordingly, public health officials and policy-makers could craft messages to the public demonstrating social distancing is common and encouraged during pandemics. ...
Humans are an intensely social species with a pervasive need for affiliation and social interaction. However, satisfying this fundamental motive comes with risk, including increased exposure to others' communicable pathogens. Consequently, disease mitigation strategies may require humans to downregulate their interest in socialization when pathogenic threat is elevated. Subsequent unsatisfactorily met affiliation needs can result in downregulation of disease avoidance goals in the service of social inclusion, albeit at the cost of putting individuals at greater risk for pathogen exposure. The current review summarizes past work in social and evolutionary psychology demonstrating affiliation and disease‐avoidance motivation tradeoffs. We then apply this research by articulating strategies to support and maintain social distancing behaviors in the face of loneliness, which is of particular importance during pandemic outbreaks such as COVID‐19. Finally, we propose novel and integrative research questions related to affiliation/pathogen‐avoidance tradeoffs.
... It may instigate social learning ( Bandura, 1977 ) and establish new role models ( Jensen and Oster, 2009;Kosse et al., 2020;La Ferrara et al., 2012;Abel, & Brown ). Extraordinary moral acts of ordinary people may become a source of inspiration and imitation, and the moral standards of political leaders may be seen as signals of social norms ( House, 2018 ). In line with the social heuristics hypothesis ( Gintis et al., 2003;Henrich et al., 2006;Rand et al., 2012;Peysakhovich and Rand, 2016 ), the crisis may make certain behaviors more successful in social interactions, and these behaviors may be internalized as default heuristics and, ultimately, as components of people's moral views. ...
In a large-scale pre-registered survey experiment with a representative sample of more than 8000 Americans, we examine how a reminder of the COVID-19 pandemic causally affects people’s views on solidarity and fairness. We randomly manipulate whether respondents are asked general questions about the crisis before answering moral questions. By making the pandemic particularly salient for treated respondents, we provide causal evidence on how the crisis may change moral views. We find that a reminder about the crisis makes respondents more willing to prioritize society’s problems over their own problems, but also more tolerant of inequalities due to luck. We show that people’s moral views are strongly associated with their policy preferences for redistribution. The findings show that the pandemic may alter moral views and political attitudes in the United States and, consequently, the support for redistribution and welfare policies.
... Harbaugh (1998a, b) combines social and private benefits of donating in a single model to explain the charitable giving. Similarly researchers also advocate that donations are influenced by the social norms (Cardenas & Carpenter, 2008;Helliwell, Wang, & Xu, 2016;House, 2018;Leeds, 1963;Siu, Shek, & Law, 2012), experimenter or surveyor demand effect and peer pressure (Meer, 2011;Reyniers & Bhalla, 2013;Zizzo, 2010), expectations about the recipient's income (Mayo & Tinsley, 2009), beliefs about recipient's expectations from the donor (Dana, Cain, & Dawes, 2006), social pressure (Freeman, 1997), the desire to portray a positive image to the society (Bénabou & T irole, 2006;Tonin & Vlassopoulos, 2013), the desire to engage in moral actions (Freeman, 1997), awareness of need and efficacy (Bekkers & Wiepking, 2011) and the appearance of the recipient (Bhogal, Galbraith, & Manktelow, 2017). Apart from the aforementioned motivations for donations, the effect of religion on the generous behavior is a well explored topic with numerous studies reporting a positive relation between religiosity and donations (for example : Ahmed, 2009;Anderson, 2015;Batson, Floyd, Meyer, & Winner, 1999;Batson, Schoenrade, & Ventis, 1993;Bekkers, 2007;Brooks, 2003;Bryant, Jeon-Slaughter, Kang, & Tax, 2003;Dogan & Tiltay, 2020;Eckel & Grossman, 2003;Havens, O'Herlihy, & Schervish, 2006;Nemeth & Luidens, 2003;Norenzayan & Shariff, 2008;Putnam & Campbell, 2010;Regnerus, Smith, & Sikkink, 1998;Sosis & Ruffle, 2003;Umer, 2020;Vaidyanathan, Hill, & Smith, 2011;Van Tienen, Scheepers, Reitsma, & Schilderman, 2011;Wang & Graddy, 2008;Wiepking & Maas, 2009). ...
The relation between religiosity and generosity is a well explored topic in the literature, however almost no existing study systematically examines the behavioral route through which religiosity influences generosity. This paper proposes a model to systematically study the inter relation between religiosity of the donor and her generosity and hence attempts to fill an important gap in the existing literature pertinent to the religious studies. The behavioral model incorporates religiosity of the donor measured by frequency of prayers in her utility function and predicts a positive relation between religiosity and generosity. The predictions of the model are tested by applying tobit maximum likelihood regressions on real donations data acquired from two controlled lab experiments performed in the United States (Christian majority country; observations = 165) and Pakistan (Muslim majority country; observations = 75). The data from both lab experiments supports the predictions of the behavioral model; ceteris paribus, subjects in the United States who regularly attend religious service donate $0.76 more compared to non-regular attenders, while subjects in Pakistan offering on average four (five) daily prayers donate 31.26 (57.14) rupees more than subjects offering only one prayer a day. The paper extends our understanding by identifying a possible route through which religiosity can influence generosity. Such an understanding can be very useful when designing a mechanism to solicit donations from the religious people.
... As the capacity to form social bonds and parental behavior, general sociality is a cornerstone of human society, deeply rooted in human evolution [1,2]. The way of how prosocial behavior develops through interactions between culturally varying norms, social cognition, emotions, and, potentially, genes, is at the center of attention for numerous theoretical and empirical studies [3]. Through social norms, humans are intrinsically motivated to enforce rules of social co-existence and cooperation, as well as rules of punishment in the direction of those who do not behave prosocially [4], and do not punish violators [5]. ...
Background:
The specific role of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene polymorphisms in emotional support seeking, related to social norms and culturally normative behavior, has been discussed in several studies. Evidence on the association between aggression and OXTR polymorphisms has also been reported. The goal of the current study was to analyze the effect of the OXTR rs53576 polymorphism, prenatal testosterone effect (second-to-fourth digit ratio, or 2D:4D), and culture on aggression assessed with the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ).
Methods:
The data were collected in Russia and Tanzania and included seven ethnic groups of European, Asian, and African origin. The total sample included 1705 adults (837 males, 868 females). All the subjects were evaluated with the BPAQ. As a measure of prenatal androgenization, the second and fourth digits were measured directly from hand, and the digit ratios were calculated. All the participants provided buccal samples, from which genomic DNA was extracted, and the OXTR gene rs53576 polymorphism was genotyped. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 23.0; the alpha level for all analyses was set at 0.05.
Results:
The ethnic group factor was the most significant predictor of ratings on BPAQ (medium effect size for physical aggression, anger and hostility scales, and low for verbal aggression). To study the effect of sex, the OXTR polymorphism, and prenatal androgenization, we conducted the z-score transformation for BPAQ scales and 2D:4D for each ethnic group and pooled these data into new z-score variables. According to the GLM analysis after leveling the effects of culture (z-transformation), all four scales of BPAQ demonstrated association with sex (main effects), with men scoring higher on physical and verbal aggression and women scoring higher on anger and hostility. Anger and hostility scales were also associated with OXTR polymorphism and 2D:4D of the right hand. The lowest levels of anger and hostility were observed in individuals with the AA genotype, especially in men.
Conclusions:
Our data suggest that both oxytocin (OXTR gene polymorphism) and fetal testosterone (2D:4D) may significantly affect emotional (anger) and cognitive (hostility) aggression in humans, given the leveling the role of culture.
... If adults in these societies tend to strongly encourage and enforce normative behaviour at young ages, children may have learned to simply do whatever adults say the right thing to do is. This highlights that the critical developmental change in middle childhood is likely an increasing willingness to pay a cost to behave normatively, and it will be crucial for future studies to investigate how this is shaped by other aspects of psychological development, such as increases in perspective taking or mental state reasoning, emotional development and cognitive inhibition 42 . ...
Recent studies have proposed that social norms play a key role in motivating human cooperation and in explaining the unique scale and cultural diversity of our prosociality. However, there have been few studies that directly link social norms to the form, development and variation in prosocial behaviour across societies. In a cross-cultural study of eight diverse societies, we provide evidence that (1) the prosocial behaviour of adults is predicted by what other members of their society judge to be the correct social norm, (2) the responsiveness of children to novel social norms develops similarly across societies and (3) societally variable prosocial behaviour develops concurrently with the responsiveness of children to norms in middle childhood. These data support the view that the development of prosocial behaviour is shaped by a psychology for responding to normative information, which itself develops universally across societies.
... They even made a self-disadvantageous inequity for efficiency, as suggested by Shaw et al.' (2016) study as well as the current study. All these findings indicated that children displayed social behaviors consistent with social expectations (House, 2018) and that IC helped to fill the gap between what is socially desirable and their actual performance (Diamond, 2013;Liu et al., 2016;Steinbeis et al., 2012). ...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between preschoolers' cognitive abilities and their fairness-related allocation behaviors in a dilemma of equity-efficiency conflict. In Experiment 1, 4- to 6-year-olds (N = 99) decided how to allocate five reward bells. In the first-party condition, preschoolers were asked to choose among giving more to self (self-advantageous inequity), wasting one bell (equity), or giving more to other (self-disadvantageous inequity); in the third-party condition, they chose either to allocate the extra bell to one of two equally deserving recipients or to waste it. Results showed that, compared with the pattern of decision in the third-party condition, preschoolers in the first-party condition were more likely to give the extra bell to other (self-disadvantaging behaviors) and that age, inhibitory control (IC), and theory of mind were positively correlated with their self-disadvantaging choices, but only IC mediated the relationship between age and self-disadvantaging behaviors. Experiment 2 (N = 41) showed that IC still predicted preschoolers' self-disadvantaging behaviors when they could choose only between equity and disadvantageous inequity. These results suggested that IC played a critical role in the implementation of self-disadvantaging behaviors when this required the control over selfishness and envy.
... They would even make a self-disadvantageous inequity for efficiency as Shaw and colleagues' study (2016) as well as the current study suggested. All these findings indicated that children would display social behaviors consistent with social expectations (House, 2018), and IC would help to fill the gap between what is socially desirable and their actual performance (Diamond, 2013;Liu et al., 2016;Steinbeis et al., 2012) ...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between preschoolers' cognitive abilities and their fairness-related allocation behaviors in a dilemma of equity-efficiency conflict. Four- to 6-year-olds in Experiment 1 (N = 99) decided how to allocate 5 reward bells. In the first-party condition, preschoolers were asked to choose among giving more to self (self-advantageous inequity), wasting one bell (equity) or giving more to other (self-disadvantageous inequity); while in the third-party condition, they chose to allocate the extra bell to one of two equally deserving recipients or to waste it. Results showed that compared to the pattern of decision in the third-party condition, preschoolers in the first-party condition were more likely to give the extra bell to other (self-disadvantaging behaviors), and age, inhibitory control (IC) and theory of mind (ToM) were positively correlated with their self-disadvantaging choices, but only IC mediated the relationship between age and self-disadvantaging behaviors. Experiment 2 (N = 41) showed that IC still predicted preschoolers' self-disadvantaging behaviors when they could choose only between equity and disadvantageous inequity. These results suggested that IC played a critical role in the implementation of self-disadvantaging behaviors when this required the control over selfishness and envy.
... Children with high resting RSA could improve empathy by cognitively inferring other people's mental states because they may less likely resonate with other people's emotions. As children with high and low resting RSA probably lack sufficient empathy to motive prosocial responses, cultivating other prosocial motivations might be another way to facilitate prosocial behaviors such as enhancing children's understanding and conformity to cooperative social norms (House, 2018). Several limitations of this study need to be considered. ...
The present study examined the mediating role of empathy in the quadratic relationship (an inverted U-shaped curve) between resting RSA and sharing behavior in 7- to 8-year-old children. Sharing behavior was measured using children's allocation of resources in the dictator game; the Griffith Empathy Scale-Chinese version was used to assess children's empathy. Resting RSA was calculated by electrocardiogram (ECG) data collected during a resting period in the laboratory. The results demonstrated a significant mediating effect of empathy in the quadratic association between resting RSA and sharing behavior. Specifically, moderate resting RSA was related to greater empathy and then contributed to more sharing behavior, while high and low resting RSA had a negative impact on empathy, which reduced the children's sharing behavior. The present study is the first to investigate the mediating role of empathy in the quadratic relationship between resting RSA and sharing behaviors. Accordingly, this study contributes to a better understanding of the psychological mechanisms that underlie the quadratic vagal tone-prosociality relationship.
... This type of task was expected to be negatively affected by PRISM. Many studies have suggested that being prosocial to others is consistent with social norms and standards (Schultz et al., 2007;House, 2017; FIGURE 4 | Moderated model: The awe moderates the effect of the exertion of self-control on the prosocial behavior. Paulus, 2017). ...
The exertion of self-control is known to result in subsequent detrimental effects on prosocial behaviors. Moreover, certain studies have demonstrated that positive emotions could drive people to allocate more attentional resources for conducting prosocial behaviors. However, whether and how awe – one important type of positive incidental emotion – moderates the effect of exerting self-control on subsequent prosocial behaviors remains unclear yet. The anonymous economic dictator game is an effective index of prosocial behaviors. We examined the influence of exerting self-control on prosocial behavior and the moderating role of awe on the effect of exerting self-control on prosocial behaviors in two experiments (N = 280). We adopted the incongruent Stroop task to induce the exertion of self-control and participants were required to allocate money to others in the anonymous dictator game (Experiment 1). We used the narrative recall task paradigm to elicit the emotion of awe during the interval between Stroop tasks and the dictator game (Experiment 2). Results indicated that the exertion of self-control was detrimental to prosocial behaviors and awe weakened the detrimental effects of exerting self-control on prosocial behavior. We interpreted these results in terms of the protective inhibition of self-regulation and motivation (PRISM) model.
... In contrast to Fehr et al. (2013) , and highlighted by Observation 2, we observe a later onset of gender differences in altruistic types, as we report the differential emerging in Teenagers rather than in Children . One potential explanation for the observed behaviour is that expectations about what one ought to do (i.e., the injunctive norm) differ across age groups (see House (2018) for a recent discussion of how social norms affect prosocial behaviour). For example, it may be that the 50:50 split is the taught norm in very young children which weakens with age. ...
This paper examines how social preferences develop with age. This is done using a range of mini-dictator games from which we classify 665 subjects into a variety of behavioural types. We expand on previous developmental studies of pro-sociality and parochialism by analysing individuals aged 9–67, and by employing a cross country study where participants from Spain interact with participants from different ethnic groups (Arab, East Asian, Black and White) belonging to different countries (Morocco, China, Senegal and Spain). We identify a ‘U-shaped’ relationship between age and egalitarianism that had previously gone unnoticed, and appeared linear. An inverse “U-shaped” relationship is found to be true for altruism. A gender differential is found to emerge in teenage years, with females becoming less altruistic but more egalitarian than males. In contrast to the majority of previous economic studies of the development of social preferences, we report evidence of increased altruism, and decreased egalitarianism and spite expressed towards black individuals from Senegal.
... Batson (1987) suggests that prosociality emerges because of empathic concerns, which is an inborn characteristic. On the other hand, according to House (2018), prosociality is the result of social dynamics. In particular, social norms shape prosocial behavior. ...
... To enable individuals to constrain their selfish behavior while showing prosocial behavior, social norms should constitute standards of behavior for how individuals should behave in a given situation, particularly when confronting social dilemma (Elster, 1989;Spitzer et al., 2007;Ruff et al., 2013;House, 2018). Everyone should step out of the social dilemma and comply with social norms. ...
Unlike other creatures, humans developed the ability to cooperate with genetically unrelated strangers and a tendency to comply with social norms. However, humans deviate from social norms in various situations. This study used the modified ultimatum game to explore why humans deviate from social norms and how their prosocial behavior can be promoted. In Study 1, participants were asked to imagine working with an anonymous counterpart to complete a task and obtain a certain amount of money (e.g., ¥10). The computer divided the money randomly in favor of the participant (e.g., 9:1 or 8:2). Participants should decide whether to accept or reject such a self-benefiting division. In the non-risk condition, an absolutely fair redivision of money would take place if participants reject self-benefiting division (e.g., 5:5 or 6:4). By contrast, in the risk condition, other-benefiting redivision of money (e.g., 1:9 or 2:8) would take place if participants rejected the self-benefiting division. Results involving 40 college students showed the main effect of condition. The frequency of accepting self-benefiting division in the risk condition was higher than that in the non-risk condition. As such, compliance with social norms is based on the preservation of material resources. In Study 2, we used economic or moral rewards to compensate for economic loss following compliance with the norm. Results involving 28 college students revealed a significant effect of compensation. The rewards, including moral praise, effectively decreased selfish choices. These findings extend previous studies on social norm compliance by emphasizing the importance of internal, fairness-based balance between material and moral needs, as well as the role of moral praise in promoting prosocial behavior.
... Moral norms develop and are transmitted through social interactions and relationships (Ho, MacGlashan, Littman, & Cushman, 2017). The frequency with which these norms are attended and adhered to suggests that they are indoctrinated at an early age (House, 2018). Children as young as three years old can distinguish between legal and social violations (Smetana, 1983). ...
A complex web of social and moral norms governs many everyday human behaviors, acting as the glue for social harmony. The existence of moral norms helps elucidate the psychological motivations underlying a wide variety of seemingly puzzling behavior, including why humans help or trust total strangers. In this review, we examine four widespread moral norms: Fairness, altruism, trust, and cooperation, and consider how a single social instrument—reciprocity—underpins compliance to these norms. Using a game theoretic framework, we examine how both context and emotions moderate moral standards, and by extension, moral behavior. We additionally discuss how a mechanism of reciprocity facilitates the adherence to, and enforcement of, these moral norms through a core network of brain regions involved in processing reward. In contrast, violating this set of moral norms elicits neural activation in regions involved in resolving decision conflict and exerting cognitive control. Finally, we review how a reinforcement mechanism likely governs learning about morally normative behavior. Together, this review aims to explain how moral norms are deployed in ways that facilitate flexible moral choices.
... This is related to the fact that the process of sensing, seizing and transforming is closely related to norms and values in the community where the process is inherent and cannot simply be done (Fernandes, 2017). Each actor involved is always socialized with the surrounding environment so that their behaviour will be influenced by values and norms socialized as social identity (Bicchieri, 2006;House, 2018). Thus, the sensing of the actor in an object or opportunity will be greatly influenced by the knowledge and reference of the object and the ability to interpret those into conclusion whether the opportunity that has been recorded is valuable or not. ...
Small Scale Agribusiness Enterprises (SSAEs) is particularly vulnerable to competition with bigger and more modern business actors because the efforts are at greater risk while the profit margins are relatively small. By taking the case of a vegetable business community in Malang Region, Indonesia through Ethnography approach, the researchers try to answer the question of why entrepreneurs who came from certain communities are relatively stronger in facing competition compared with other local entrepreneurs. The results of this research show that amidst the fierce competition with new entrepreneurs, they are able to do such process of sensing, seizing, and transforming as mediated by the process of developing and transferring knowledge, developing and sharing networks, as well as doing a flexibility of labor management and an inclusiveness of local politics to SSAEs interest so that they have better dynamic capacity. Nevertheless, further research is needed to have a more detail perspective on how a certain community mediates SSAEs to utilize specific resources in order to improve its dynamic capabilities.
... As a majority of norms are prosocial, people predominantly choose prosocial behavior. House (2018), confirmed that the effect of social norms on prosocial behavior occurs in adults as well as in children. Willingness to help is also claimed to be an important factor of shaping interpersonal relations (Kołodziej, 2016). ...
Although the majority of people value the idea of helping others, they often take no particular action. In two field studies we investigated the impact of differently justified requests for spontaneous charity donations and for antisocial behavior like stealing. In the experiments, unwatched stands with cookies and money jars were placed on a crowded city square with one of three different notes: (1) detailed prosocial justification, (2) general justification or (3) no justification. After testing almost 500 participants, we show that mere general arguments can both increase prosocial behavior and decrease antisocial behavior. Additionally, detailed prosocial justification augments generosity, causing people voluntarily to pay more than required. We conclude that prosocial (compliance with request) and antisocial (stealing) behavior is guided by automatic processes that track that there is any reason for the request, while generosity is guided by reflective assessment of the justification of the request.
... This shapes their reputation and own moral identity. Middle childhood also marks an important change in prosocial behavior because children become increasingly attentive to social norms, with cross-cultural comparisons revealing divergent developmental trajectories that reflect differences in adult norms about fair resource division (Callaghan & Corbit, 2018;House, 2018). These newly emerging cognitive abilities shift how children view their own actions in terms of social partnerships and social norms. ...
The research methods we use to assess prosociality in young children are the ultimate arbiter for our understanding of prosocial development. The theoretical conclusions we base on empirical data are nested, if not entirely rooted, in the ways in which we measure and statistically model children’s prosociality. This chapter focusses on early ontogeny and systematizes the landscape of research methodologies currently used to study prosocial development. It offers a critical reflection on some of the methodological and statistical constraints under which current research on prosocial development is being conducted. The chapter closes by arguing that new technological advances have paved the way for a more inclusive and systematic study of prosociality in the early years of development. Embracing these ongoing efforts will require a new kind of discussion about the ways in which we statistically model development and how we draw inferences about ‘significant’ effects in early
ontogeny.
Prosociality is a multifaceted concept referring to the many ways in which individuals care about and benefit others. Human prosociality is foundational to social harmony, happiness, and peace; it is therefore essential to understand its underpinnings, development, and cultivation. This handbook provides a state-of-the-art, in-depth account of scientific, theoretical, and practical knowledge regarding prosociality and its development. Its thirty chapters, written by international researchers in the field, elucidate key issues, including: the development of prosociality across infancy, childhood, adolescence, and beyond; the biological, cognitive, emotional, and motivational mechanisms that underlie and influence prosociality; how different socialization agents and social contexts can affect children's prosociality; and intervention approaches aimed at cultivating prosociality in children and adolescents. This knowledge can benefit researchers, students, practitioners, and policy makers seeking to nurture socially responsible, caring youth.
Cooperation often coexists with defection in social interactions. Individuals may choose non‐cooperation in social dilemmas either out of fear (fear of being exploited by a non‐cooperative player) or out of greed (the desire to increase private payoff by defecting from a cooperative player). However, the developmental trajectories of such motives in social interactions remain unclear. In order to find out how fear and greed influence children's cooperative behaviors differentially, children aged 7 to 11 were tested in Study 1 using a modified repeated one‐shot prisoner's dilemma game (PDG) in which the incentives to be greedy or fearful were parametrically and independently manipulated. Results showed that children were sensitive to the greed effect at age 7 and their sensitivity was stable across middle childhood, while only 11‐year‐old children were significantly affected by fear when the greed level was low. These findings suggest that in the context of PDG, sensitivity to social threat increases with age across middle childhood especially under low temptation to exploit others, and the greed motive may be less influenced by age in this period. By continuing to use the same experiment with young adults, Study 2 revealed that young adults also demonstrated a diminished fear motive when the greed level was low in the PDG. Moreover, the sensitivity to social motives of 11‐year‐olds was comparable to the levels of young adults. Together, the present findings confirm that two different social motives underlie the development of cooperation in middle childhood.
Introduction. The urgency of the problem is caused by the importance of formation of ability to non-violent interaction in students of socionomic (helping) sphere as the most important professional competence that assumes study of factors and conditions of its formation and development. The aim of the research is to identify the relationship between neuropsychological and personal factors with the choice of students ‒ future medical, psychological, pedagogical psychologists in the process of interaction strategies of coercion or nonviolence.
Materials and Methods. The study involved students from a number of universities in the Russian Federation: Moscow, Cherepovets, Vologda region, Ivanovo, Ivanovo region. In total – 334 people. As a diagnostic tool, the authorʼs questionnaire was used to identify the positions of interaction among students, the Carver ‒ White questionnaire in the adaptation of G. G. Knyazev, the questionnaire for the diagnosis of five personality factors in the adaptation of L. F. Burlachuk and D. K. Korolev, the scale “Moral normativity” questionnaire “Adaptability” Maklakov – Chermyanin. Mathematical processing was carried out with the help of correlation analysis; Spearman ʼs rank correlation coefficient was also used.
Results. It was established that the choice of coercion strategy by students in the process of interaction is associated with a high level of behavioral activation, low levels of benevolence, conscientiousness and moral normativity. The choice of manipulation strategy, in addition to this, is correlated with high neuroticism. Nonviolence is positively associated with benevolence, conscientiousness, and moral normativity, and negatively to neuroticism. Noninterference correlates negatively with the Behavioral Inhibition System and positively with the Behavioral Inhibition System, as well as with neuroticism, introversion and closeness to experience and low conscientiousness.
Discussion and Conclusion. The obtained results make a certain contribution to understanding of the problem of the relationship between students’ choice in the process of interaction of strategies of coercion or nonviolence with neuropsychological and personal factors, which makes it possible to develop special programs aimed simultaneously at teaching methods of nonviolent interaction, and at the development of certain personal qualities, taking into account individual severity. systems of activation and inhibition of behavior.
We examined children’s distinct positive emotions (pride vs. joy) following sharing decisions while manipulating the recipient’s neediness. Whereas both emotions are positive and desirable, pride is experienced when adhering to social goals and expectations. Therefore, we hypothesized that, with age, as children become more aware of their society’s norms and internalize them, pride would be more positively related to sharing situations that highlight social norms and expectations (i.e., sharing with a poor child). We examined this hypothesis between two age groups (7–9 and 10–12 years) while assessing children’s predictions of others’ emotions following a decision to share in hypothetical scenarios (Study 1) and their self-reports following actual sharing decisions (Study 2). We found that older children (10–12 years), but not younger children (7–9 years), predicted more intense pride for protagonists who had decided to share their endowment with a needy other (recipient in poverty) than with a not-needy other. This effect was mediated by older children’s perception of the motivation to share with a needy other (what one should do). A similar pattern was found for overall positive feelings (pride and joy) in children’s self-reports following an actual sharing decision.
Introduction. Modern general and specific pedagogical trends, mega-trends and challenges in the future education system make it necessary to change the professional training programmes of future teachers, to clarify the competency-based model of a pedagogical university graduate. To achieve pedagogical aims of not only subject, but also of metasubject, educational, social, team-building, helpand project-based character, it is important to form prosocial competencies of future teachers that allow building “person to person help itinerary”.
The aim of the article is to provide theoretical justification and empirical verification of the significant prosocial competencies and individual mindsets of future teachers in the structure of the competency-based model of a pedagogical university graduate according to the future education challenges and priorities.
Methodology, methods and techniques. The present research is done in accordance with the methodological principles of integrative, competency-based, culturological and prosocial approaches. An online survey for 582 students of the Institute of Pedagogy of the Belgorod State National Research University was used as a research method. The survey is based on the content-analysis and the content-generalisation of some employment diagnostics for future teachers, as well as the Russian education current regulatory framework.
Results. As a result, 36 leading elements in the competency-based model of a future teacher were identified; and the most popular prosocial competencies quartiles (Q1 – “most important”, Q2 – “highly important”, Q3 – “solicited”, Q4 – “most desirable”) were highlighted. Such pedagogical competencies as “subject proficiency” and “humanism, respect for the individual, humanity” are among the leading ones. In the light of priorities within the competency-based model of a future teacher, the flexibility of the specific university training programmes is also revealed. Moreover, the students’ responses allow determining “the ability to develop the other people’s talents and skills” and “the ability to help the other people” as the competencies of the prosocial vector of the competency-based model of a future teacher.
The scientific novelty lies in the development of the prosocial competency-based model of a future teacher and in the allocation of 3 clusters of regulatory (stability and adaptability), affective (empathy and communication skills) and stimulating (time management and planning skills) competencies in its structure.
The practical significance lies in the use of the materials as starting points for improving the competency-based model of a pedagogical university graduate.
As children grow and develop, they are faced with an array of different social norms. The current study aimed to determine whether 4- to 8-year-old children (N = 249) from Scotland, UK would vary their donating behavior after first viewing a prosocial or an egalitarian sharing norm. Sharing norms were conveyed via a video demonstration in which a majority of child models (three from four) opted for either a reward of equal value for themselves and a receiver (egalitarian norm) or a reward of greater value for the receiver (prosocial norm). The results showed that viewing a prosocial, but not an egalitarian, norm led to a change in the participants donating behavior relative to a control group. However, the increase in prosocial donating elicited by the prosocial norm was relatively small, suggesting that the influence of the norm was somewhat constrained by a strong preference for egalitarianism. These results indicate that descriptive sharing norms are both socially learnt and flexibly employed, and that the influence of such norms may be limited by an aversion to disadvantageous inequity.
亲社会行为是社会关系的润滑剂, 从众心理会影响亲社会行为的出现。亲社会从众行为包括利他从众、公平偏好从众、信任从众、慷慨从众等。亲社会从众行为的心理机制包括模仿理论与动机改变理论。亲社会从众行为的神经机制包括奖赏加工与错误加工神经回路。社会价值取向、人际信任水平与人际敏感性对亲社会从众行为有一定的调节作用。未来的研究方向可以从亲社会从众效应的稳定性、个体差异、儿童及青少年的亲社会从众行为研究、临床研究以及跨文化角度入手。
The twenty-first century is witnessing a rapid rise in concern regarding wealth inequality and the fairness of our economic systems. Alongside this concern, research is uncovering the detrimental effects of high inequality on human behavior. However, comparatively little effort is spent understanding how these economic factors may be influencing children as they age. This is particularly important as examining child development can reveal fascinating insights into human nature. Here we provide a review of research from developmental psychology about how children’s understanding of fairness develops as they age, from a concern for equality to a concern for equity, merit and need. Furthermore, we highlight how these concerns evolve from a concern for the self to a concern for the self and others. Finally, we chart research shedding light on how diverse cultural backgrounds may be shaping children’s perceptions of inequality differently, and how economic inequality may be influencing the way children treat others.
Social norms play an important role in individual decision making. We argue that two different expectations influence our choice to obey a norm: what we expect others to do (empirical expectations) and what we believe others think we ought to do (normative expectations). Little is known about the relative importance of these two types of expectation in individuals' decisions, an issue that is particularly important when normative and empirical expectations are in conflict (e.g., systemic corruption, high crime cities). In this paper, we report data from Dictator game experiments where we exogenously manipulate dictators' expectations in the direction of either selfishness or fairness. When normative and empirical expectations are in conflict, we find that empirical expectations about other dictators' choices significantly predict a dictator's own choice. However, dictators' expectations regarding what other dictators think ought to be done do not have a significant impact on their decisions after controlling for empirical expectations. Our findings about the crucial influence of empirical expectations are important for designing institutions or policies aimed at discouraging undesirable behavior.
Morality is an evolved aspect of human nature, yet is heavily influenced by cultural environment. This developmental study adopted an integrative approach by combining measures of socioeconomic status (SES), executive function, affective sharing, empathic concern, theory of mind, and moral judgment in predicting sharing behavior in children (N = 999) from the age of 5 to 12 in five large-scale societies: Canada, China, Turkey, South Africa, and the USA. Results demonstrate that age, gender, SES, culture, and social cognitive mechanisms explain over 20% of the variance worldwide in children's resource allocation. These findings are discussed in reference to standard cultural comparisons (individualist/collectivist), as well as the degree of market integration, and highlight continuities and discontinuities in children's generosity across urban contexts.
Previous research in cultural psychology shows that cultures vary in the social orientations of independence and interdependence. To date, however, little is known about how people may acquire such global patterns of cultural behavior or cultural norms. Nor is it clear what genetic mechanisms may underlie the acquisition of cultural norms. Here, we draw on recent evidence for certain genetic variability in the susceptibility to environmental influences and propose the norm sensitivity hypothesis, which holds that people acquire culture, and rules of cultural behaviors, through reinforcement-mediated social learning processes. One corollary of the hypothesis is that the degree of cultural acquisition should be influenced by polymorphic variants of genes involved in dopaminergic neural pathways, which have been widely implicated in reinforcement learning. We review initial evidence for these predictions and discuss challenges and directions for future research.
Human behaviour is influenced by social norms but norms can entail two types of information. Descriptive norms refer to what others do in this context, while injunctive norms refer to what ought to be done to ensure social approval. In many real-world situations these norms are often presented concurrently meaning that their independent effects on behaviour are difficult to establish. Here we used an online Dictator Game to test how descriptive and injunctive norms would influence dictator donations when presented independently of one another. In addition, we varied the cost of complying with the norm: By stating that $0.20 or $0.50 cent donations from a $1 stake were normal or suggested, respectively. Specifying a higher target amount was associated with increased mean donation size. In contrast to previous studies, descriptive norms did not seem to influence giving behaviour in this context, whereas injunctive norms were associated with increased likelihood to give at least the target amount to the partner. This raises the question of whether injunctive norms might be more effective than descriptive norms at promoting prosocial behaviour in other settings.
Significance
Humans are unique among animals in their willingness to cooperate with friends and strangers. Costly punishment of unfair behavior is thought to play a key role in promoting cooperation by deterring selfishness. Importantly, adults sometimes show in-group favoritism in their punishment. To our knowledge, our study is the first to document this bias in children. Furthermore, our results suggest that from its emergence in development, children’s costly punishment shows in-group favoritism, highlighting that group membership provides critical context for understanding the enforcement of fairness norms. However, 8-y-old children show attenuated bias relative to 6-y-olds, perhaps reflecting a motivation for impartially. Our findings thus demonstrate that in-group favoritism has an important influence on human fairness and morality, but can be partially overcome with age.
Trust is essential for a secure and flourishing social life, but many economic and philosophical approaches argue that rational people should never extend it, in particular to strangers they will never encounter again. Emerging data on the trust game, a laboratory economic exchange, suggests that people trust strangers excessively (i.e., far more than their tolerance for risk and cynical views of their peers should allow). What produces this puzzling "excess" of trust? We argue that people trust due to a norm mandating that they show respect for the other person's character, presuming the other person has sufficient integrity and goodwill even if they do not believe it privately. Six studies provided converging evidence that decisions to trust follow the logic of norms. Trusting others is what people think they should do, and the emotions associated with fulfilling a social duty or responsibility (e.g., guilt, anxiety) account for at least a significant proportion of the excessive trust observed. Regarding the specific norm in play, trust rates collapse when respect for the other person's character is eliminated as an issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
Prior research suggests that cultural groups vary on an overarching dimension of independent versus interdependent social orientation, with European Americans being more independent, or less interdependent, than Asians. Drawing on recent evidence suggesting that the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) plays a role in modulating cultural learning, we predicted that carriers of DRD4 polymorphisms linked to increased dopamine signaling (7- or 2-repeat alleles) would show higher levels of culturally dominant social orientations, compared with noncarriers. European Americans and Asian-born Asians (total N = 398) reported their social orientation on multiple scales. They were also genotyped for DRD4. As in earlier work, European Americans were more independent, and Asian-born Asians more interdependent. This cultural difference was significantly more pronounced for carriers of the 7- or 2-repeat alleles than for noncarriers. Indeed, no cultural difference was apparent among the noncarriers. Implications for potential coevolution of genes and culture are discussed.
Although developmental psychologists traditionally explore morality from a learning and development perspective, some aspects of the human moral sense may be built-in, having evolved to sustain collective action and cooperation as required for successful group living. In this article, I review a recent body of research with infants and toddlers, demonstrating surprisingly sophisticated and flexible moral behavior and evaluation in a preverbal population whose opportunity for moral learning is limited at best. Although this work itself is in its infancy, it supports theoretical claims that human morality is a core aspect of human nature.
Humans are an exceptionally cooperative species, but there is substantial variation in the extent of cooperation across societies. Understanding the sources of this variability may provide insights about the forces that sustain cooperation. We examined the ontogeny of prosocial behavior by studying 326 children 3-14 y of age and 120 adults from six societies (age distributions varied across societies). These six societies span a wide range of extant human variation in culture, geography, and subsistence strategies, including foragers, herders, horticulturalists, and urban dwellers across the Americas, Oceania, and Africa. When delivering benefits to others was personally costly, rates of prosocial behavior dropped across all six societies as children approached middle childhood and then rates of prosociality diverged as children tracked toward the behavior of adults in their own societies. When prosocial acts did not require personal sacrifice, prosocial responses increased steadily as children matured with little variation in behavior across societies. Our results are consistent with theories emphasizing the importance of acquired cultural norms in shaping costly forms of cooperation and creating cross-cultural diversity.
It is theorised that guilt‐ and shame‐related appraisals vary on two separate dimensions. Guilt implies an appraisal that one has either committed a moral transgression or that one has otherwise been involved in the creation of a morally wrong outcome. Shame implies one's appraisal that the current event or condition reflects negatively on one's identity. To test these claims, 206 7‐ to 16‐year‐old children gave shame and guilt ratings of three types of events that were drawn from the domain of physical illness and that were designed to elicit primarily guilt, primarily shame, or both emotions. The 12‐year‐olds and older children's ratings were fully consistent with our hypothesis. Younger children's greatest difficulty was in not attributing shame to protagonists who were involved in causing a moral wrong without there being the threat of an unwanted identity.
This chapter examines cognitive and social processes underlying the development of self-conscious emotions. We focus on how early concepts about self, mind, and others result in feelings of pride, shame, guilt, and embarrassment in infancy and early childhood. We also review developmental changes in how children come to understand the causes and consequences of these different emotions. Because self-conscious emotions involve relationships between self and other, we also explore how individual differences in the expression, recognition, and understanding of self-conscious emotions arise from the quality and type of interactions children have with significant others in their everyday lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Past research has generated mixed support among social scientists for the utility of social norms in accounting for human behavior. We argue that norms do have a substantial impact on human action; however, the impact can only be properly recognized when researchers (a) separate 2 types of norms that at times act antagonistically in a situation—injunctive norms (what most others approve or disapprove) and descriptive norms (what most others do)—and (b) focus Ss' attention principally on the type of norm being studied. In 5 natural settings, focusing Ss on either the descriptive norms or the injunctive norms regarding littering caused the Ss' littering decisions to change only in accord with the dictates of the then more salient type of norm. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
From an evolutionary perspective, morality is a form of cooperation. Cooperation requires individuals either to suppress their own selfinterest or to equate it with that of others. We review recent research on the origins of human morality, both phylogenetic (research with apes) and ontogenetic (research with children). For both time frames we propose a two-step sequence: first a second-personal morality in which individuals are sympathetic or fair to particular others, and second an agent-neutral morality in which individuals follow and enforce group-wide social norms. Human morality arose evolutionarily as a set of skills and motives for cooperating with others, and the ontogeny of these skills and motives unfolds in part naturally and in part as a result of sociocultural contexts and interactions. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 64 is November 30, 2012. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
In order to mobilise action against a social problem, public service communicators often include normative information in their persuasive appeals. Such messages can be either effective or ineffective because they can normalise either desirable or undesirable conduct. To examine the implications in an environmental context, visitors to Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park were exposed to messages that admonished against the theft of petrified wood. In addition, the messages conveyed information either about descriptive norms (the levels of others' behaviour) or injunctive norms (the levels of others' disapproval) regarding such thievery. Results showed that focusing message recipients on descriptive normative information was most likely to increase theft, whereas focusing them on injunctive normative information was most likely to suppress it. Recommendations are offered for optimising the impact of normative messages in situations characterised by objectionable levels of undesirable conduct. After decades of debate concerning their causal impact, (e.g.
Situational antecedents and experiential correlates of shame and guilt in children were examined by having 6-11-year-olds give ratings of the extent to which two types of situations would elicit a protagonist's feelings of shame and guilt. It was predicted that one type of situation should elicit both shame and guilt, because the protagonist caused harm to another person by behaving incoherently or incompetently. The other type of situation was predicted to elicit more shame than guilt, because the protagonist behaved incoherently or incompetently without causing harm to anyone. Two types of questions were used to elicit children's ratings: in term-based questions the emotion terms ‘guilt’ and ‘shame’ were used, while in correlate-based questions guilt and shame were alluded to by citing experiential correlates of these emotions. Children aged 9 and upward differentiated between both types of situations and between judgments of shame vs. guilt, both when giving term-based and when giving correlate-based ratings. There were no systematic differences in children's performance depending on whether they gave correlate-based or term-based judgments.
Theory of mind – the ability to attribute independent mental states and processes to others – plays an important role in our social lives. For one, it facilitates social cooperation, for two, it enables us to manipulate others in order to reach our own goals. In our study, we intend to analyze some basic aspects of the complex relationship between adult theory of mind and social behavior that had not been researched in depth so far. Our results show (1) a strong negative correlation between Machiavellianism and social cooperative skills; (2) a connection between the extent of cooperative tendency and the level of mindreading; and (3) a lack of significant correlation between theory of mind and Machiavellianism. For the interpretation of the results – especially for our third finding – we used the concepts of “hot” and “cold” empathy, the lack of representation of moral emotions, as well as other cognitive explanatory models.
Mentalising is assumed to be involved in decision-making that is necessary to social interaction. We investigated the relationship between mentalising and three types of strategic games – Prisoners’ Dilemma, Dictator and Ultimatum – in children with and without autistic spectrum disorders. Overall, the results revealed less dramatic differences than expected among the normally developing age groups and the children with autism, suggesting that in these laboratory tasks, mentalising skills are not always necessary. There were, nonetheless, some important findings. Young children were more cautious about initiating cooperation than their older peers and, in bargaining situations, they were less generous in their opening unilateral grants and over-solicitous of an empowered receiver. Participants with autism did have a harder time shifting strategy between versions of the Prisoners’ Dilemma, and they were much more likely to accept low initial offers in the Ultimatum game and to refuse fair proposals. In addition, participants’ measured mentalising abilities explain intentional and strategic behaviour within the prisoners’ dilemma and the avoidance of unsuccessful ultimatum proposals.
Building on gene–environment interaction (G × E) research, this study examines how the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene interacts
with a situational prime of religion to influence prosocial behavior. Some DRD4 variants tend to be more susceptible to environmental
influences, whereas other variants are less susceptible. Thus, certain life environments may be associated with acts of prosociality
for some DRD4 variants but not others. Given that religion can act as an environmental influence that increases prosocial
behavior, environmental input in the form of religion priming may have G × E effects. Results showed that participants with
DRD4 susceptibility variants were more prosocial when implicitly primed with religion than not primed with religion, whereas
participants without DRD4 susceptibility variants were not impacted by priming. This research has implications for understanding
why different people may behave prosocially for different reasons and also integrates G × E research with experimental psychology.
Strong reciprocity is considered here as the propensity to sacrifice resources to be kind or to punish in response to prior acts, a behavior not simply reducible to self-interest and a likely force behind human cooperation and sociality. The aim was to capture emerging signs of strong reciprocity in human ontogeny and across highly contrasted cultures. Three- and 5-year-old middle class American children (N = 162) were tested in a simple, multiple round, three-way sharing game involving the child, a generous puppet, and a stingy puppet. At the end of the game, the child was offered an opportunity to sacrifice some of her personal gains to punish one of the puppets. By 3 years, American children demonstrate a willingness to engage in costly punishment. However, only 5-year-olds show some evidence of strong reciprocity by orienting their punishment systematically toward the stingy puppet. Further analyses and three additional control conditions demonstrate that such propensity is not simply reducible to (a) straight imitation, or (b) inequity aversion. To assess the relative universality of such development, a group of 5- to 6-year-old children from rural Samoa (N = 14) were tested and compared to age and gender-matched American children. Samoan children did not manifest the same propensity toward strong reciprocity. The results are interpreted as pointing to (1) the developmental emergence of an ethical stance between 3 and 5 years of age, and (2) that the expression of such stance by young children could depend on culture.
In the current paper we present new empirical data and meta-analytic evidence for the role of dopamine-related genes as a susceptibility factor interacting with the rearing environment for better and for worse, that is, increasing children's susceptibility to both the adverse effects of unsupportive environments and the beneficial effects of supportive rearing. In Study 1 we examined the readiness of 91 7-year-old children to donate their money to a charity (UNICEF). We tested whether the association between attachment and donating behavior was moderated by the presence of the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) 7-repeat allele. The attachment story completion task was used to assess attachment as an index of the quality of the rearing environment. Children with secure attachment representations donated more but only if they had the DRD4 7-repeat allele. In Study 2 we present the results of a meta-analysis of gene-environment studies on children up to 10 years of age involving dopamine-related genes (dopamine receptor D2, DRD4, dopamine transporter). The cumulative negative effects of these "risk genes" and adverse rearing environments have been stressed, but potentially cumulative positive effects of these same genes interacting with positive rearing environments remained largely unnoticed. We examined the associations between negative and positive rearing environments and developmental outcomes as moderated by dopamine-related gene polymorphisms. Children with the less efficient dopamine-related genes did worse in negative environments than the comparisons without the "genetic risk," but they also profited most from positive environments. Findings are discussed in light of evolutionary theory, and illustrated with some practical implications of differential susceptibility.
People tend to grossly underestimate the trustworthiness of other people. We tested whether this cynicism grows out of an asymmetry in the feedback people receive when they decide to trust others. When people trust others, they painfully learn when other people prove to be untrustworthy; however, when people refrain from trusting others, they fail to learn of instances when the other person would have honored their trust. Participants saw short videos of other people and had to decide whether to trust each person in an economic game. Participants overall underestimated the trustworthiness of the people they viewed, regardless of whether they were given financial incentives to provide accurate estimates. However, people who received symmetric feedback about the trustworthiness of others (i.e., who received feedback regardless of their own decision to trust) exhibited reduced cynicism relative to those who received no feedback or asymmetric feedback (i.e., who received feedback only after they trusted the other person).
Large-scale societies in which strangers regularly engage in mutually beneficial transactions are puzzling. The evolutionary
mechanisms associated with kinship and reciprocity, which underpin much of primate sociality, do not readily extend to large
unrelated groups. Theory suggests that the evolution of such societies may have required norms and institutions that sustain
fairness in ephemeral exchanges. If that is true, then engagement in larger-scale institutions, such as markets and world
religions, should be associated with greater fairness, and larger communities should punish unfairness more. Using three behavioral
experiments administered across 15 diverse populations, we show that market integration (measured as the percentage of purchased
calories) positively covaries with fairness while community size positively covaries with punishment. Participation in a world
religion is associated with fairness, although not across all measures. These results suggest that modern prosociality is
not solely the product of an innate psychology, but also reflects norms and institutions that have emerged over the course
of human history.
Human cooperation is an evolutionary puzzle. Unlike other creatures, people frequently cooperate with genetically unrelated strangers, often in large groups, with people they will never meet again, and when reputation gains are small or absent. These patterns of cooperation cannot be explained by the nepotistic motives associated with the evolutionary theory of kin selection and the selfish motives associated with signalling theory or the theory of reciprocal altruism. Here we show experimentally that the altruistic punishment of defectors is a key motive for the explanation of cooperation. Altruistic punishment means that individuals punish, although the punishment is costly for them and yields no material gain. We show that cooperation flourishes if altruistic punishment is possible, and breaks down if it is ruled out. The evidence indicates that negative emotions towards defectors are the proximate mechanism behind altruistic punishment. These results suggest that future study of the evolution of human cooperation should include a strong focus on explaining altruistic punishment.
Understanding the fundamental patterns and determinants of human cooperation and the maintenance of social order in human
societies is a challenge across disciplines. The existing empirical evidence for the higher levels of cooperation when altruistic
punishment is present versus when it is absent systematically ignores the institutional competition inherent in human societies.
Whether punishment would be deliberately adopted and would similarly enhance cooperation when directly competing with nonpunishment
institutions is highly controversial in light of recent findings on the detrimental effects of punishment. We show experimentally
that a sanctioning institution is the undisputed winner in a competition with a sanction-free institution. Despite initial
aversion, the entire population migrates successively to the sanctioning institution and strongly cooperates, whereas the
sanction-free society becomes fully depopulated. The findings demonstrate the competitive advantage of sanctioning institutions
and exemplify the emergence and manifestation of social order driven by institutional selection.
Norms in the Wild takes a unique look at social norms, answering questions about diagnosis (how can we tell that a shared practice is a social norm?), measurement (how do we measure expectations and preferences?), and change (which tools can we adopt to effect norm change?). The theories developed in the book are brought to life by examining real-life cases of norm creation and abandonment, the rationale behind policy interventions, and how change can be spearheaded by various types of trendsetters, be they individuals, groups, or the media. By exploring how a range of problems, from poor sanitation to child marriage, can be addressed, the book shows how social norms can have a causal impact on collective behavior, and which interventions may succeed in creating new norms or abandoning harmful ones. In laying the theoretical groundwork for implementing social changes in a contextually sensitive and empirically based way, it also diagnoses why some less culturally attuned attempts to eliminate negative practices have failed.
People across societies engage in costly sharing, but the extent of such sharing shows striking cultural variation, highlighting the importance of local norms in shaping generosity. Despite this acknowledged role for norms, it is unclear when they begin to exert their influence in development. Here we use a Dictator Game to investigate the extent to which 4- to 9-year-old children are sensitive to selfish (give 20%) and generous (give 80%) norms. Additionally, we varied whether children were told how much other children give (descriptive norm) or what they should give according to an adult (injunctive norm). Results showed that children generally gave more when they were exposed to a generous norm. However, patterns of compliance varied with age. Younger children were more likely to comply with the selfish norm, suggesting a licensing effect. By contrast, older children were more influenced by the generous norm, yet capped their donations at 50%, perhaps adhering to a pre-existing norm of equality. Children were not differentially influenced by descriptive or injunctive norms, suggesting a primacy of norm content over norm format. Together, our findings indicate that while generosity is malleable in children, normative information does not completely override pre-existing biases.
Social comparison nudges that employ descriptive norms were found to increase charitable giving. This paper finds that individuals who receive a descriptive norm donate significantly more when they have to guess the descriptive norm beforehand. We argue that guessing draws attention to the norm and therefore increases its effectiveness. Our results suggest that the effectiveness of nudges that use descriptive norms depends on how the a priori beliefs about the descriptive norm are updated.
Contingent reciprocity is an important foundation of human cooperation, but we know little about how reciprocal behavior develops across diverse societies, nor about how the development of reciprocal behavior is related to the development of prosocial behavior more broadly. Three- to 16-year-old children were presented with the opportunity to control the allocation of real food rewards in a binary-choice cooperative dilemma. Within dyads children alternated making choices across multiple trials, and reciprocal behavior emerged in three diverse populations (rural Fijian villages, and urban communities in both Fiji and the United States) by age 7–8. There was more societal variation in prosocial behavior than in reciprocal behavior, and there were more substantial differences between Fijians and Americans than between rural and urban populations. This suggests that the development of prosocial behavior is not driven entirely by the development of reciprocity, and differences in prosocial behavior across rural Fijians and urban Americans may not be due only to differences across rural and urban populations.
This paper presents a survey on contemporary RC accounts of norms. The characteristic common feature of these accounts is that norms are understood as equilibrium selection devices. The most sophisticated positions driven by this idea are Herbert Gintis’ theory of norms as choreographers and Cristina Bicchieri’s theory of norms as solutions to mixed motive games. In order to give a comprehensive account of social norms, though, RC theory needs to be substantially extended. In particular, it seems to be impossible in principle to fully understand the concept of normativity and the motivating power of norms within a traditional, pure RC framework.
Human social life depends heavily on social norms that prescribe and proscribe specific actions. Typically, young children learn social norms from adult instruction. In the work reported here, we showed that this is not the whole story: Three-year-old children are promiscuous normativists. In other words, they spontaneously inferred the presence of social norms even when an adult had done nothing to indicate such a norm in either language or behavior. And children of this age even went so far as to enforce these self-inferred norms when third parties “broke” them. These results suggest that children do not just passively acquire social norms from adult behavior and instruction; rather, they have a natural and proactive tendency to go from “is” to “ought.” That is, children go from observed actions to prescribed actions and do not perceive them simply as guidelines for their own behavior but rather as objective normative rules applying to everyone equally.
Generosity is contagious: People imitate others’ prosocial behaviors. However, research on such prosocial conformity focuses on cases in which people merely reproduce others’ positive actions. Hence, we know little about the breadth of prosocial conformity. Can prosocial conformity cross behavior types or even jump from behavior to affect? Five studies address these questions. In Studies 1 to 3, participants decided how much to donate to charities before learning that others donated generously or stingily. Participants who observed generous donations donated more than those who observed stingy donations (Studies 1 and 2). Crucially, this generalized across behaviors: Participants who observed generous donations later wrote more supportive notes to another participant (Study 3). In Studies 4 and 5, participants observed empathic or non-empathic group responses to vignettes. Group empathy ratings not only shifted participants’ own empathic feelings (Study 4), but they also influenced participants’ donations to a homeless shelter (Study 5). These findings reveal the remarkable breadth of prosocial conformity.
In a field experiment, we examined whether conveying descriptive social norms (e.g., “this is what most people do”) increases charitable giving. Additionally, we examined whether people are more likely to conform to the local norms of one’s immediate environment than to more global norms extending beyond one’s local environment. University students received a charity organization’s information brochure and were asked for a monetary contribution. An experimental descriptive norm manipulation was embedded in the brochure. We found that providing people with descriptive norms increased charitable giving substantially compared with industry standard altruistic appeals (control condition). Moreover, conveying local norms were more effective in increasing charitable giving than conveying global norms. Practical implications for charity organizations and marketing are proposed.
Decision-making theories in psychology and economics that include emotions almost all work within a consequentialist framework, asserting that risky decisions are predicted by anticipated emotions, that is, those people forecast what they will feel once the outcomes of their decisions are known. We argue instead that risky decisions are not so much predicted by anticipated emotions as they are by immediate ones, feelings people attach directly to the decision options they consider at the cusp of making a choice. In two experiments, both trust decisions and nonsocial gambles (i.e., on a coin flip) were predicted more strongly by immediate emotions than by anticipated ones. Moreover, immediate emotions explained why participants took more risks in the trust game than they did with a coin flip. Together with previous findings, these results cast further doubt on whether a socially risky choice like trust is exclusively or even primarily driven by consequentialist concerns.
A sense of fairness plays a critical role in supporting human cooperation. Adult norms of fair resource sharing vary widely across societies, suggesting that culture shapes the acquisition of fairness behaviour during childhood. Here we examine how fairness behaviour develops in children from seven diverse societies, testing children from 4 to 15 years of age (n = 866 pairs) in a standardized resource decision task. We measured two key aspects of fairness decisions: disadvantageous inequity aversion (peer receives more than self) and advantageous inequity aversion (self receives more than a peer). We show that disadvantageous inequity aversion emerged across all populations by middle childhood. By contrast, advantageous inequity aversion was more variable, emerging in three populations and only later in development. We discuss these findings in relation to questions about the universality and cultural specificity of human fairness.
Human cooperation is highly unusual. We live in large groups composed mostly of non-relatives. Evolutionists have proposed a number of explanations for this pattern, including cultural group selection and extensions of more general processes such as reciprocity, kin selection, and multi-level selection acting on genes. Evolutionary processes are consilient; they affect several different empirical domains, for example patterns of behavior and the proximal drivers of that behavior. In this paper we sketch the evidence from five domains that bear on the explanatory adequacy of cultural group selection and competing hypotheses to explain human cooperation. Does cultural transmission constitute an inheritance system that can evolve in a Darwinian fashion? Are the norms that underpin institutions among the cultural traits so transmitted? Do we observe sufficient variation at the level of groups of considerable size for group selection to be a plausible process? Do human groups compete, and does success and failure in competition depend upon cultural variation? Do we observe adaptations for cooperation in humans that most plausibly arose by cultural group selection? If the answer to one of these questions is "no", then we must look to other hypotheses. We present evidence, including quantitative evidence, that the answer to all the questions is "yes" and argue that we must take the cultural group selection hypothesis seriously. If culturally transmitted systems of rules (institutions) that limit individual deviance organize cooperation in human societies, then it is not clear that any extant alternative to cultural group selection can be a complete explanation.
Evolutionary theorists argue that cultural evolution has harnessed various aspects of our evolved psychology to create a variety of different mechanisms for sustaining social norms, including those related to large-scale cooperation. One of these mechanisms, costly punishment, has emerged in experiments as an effective means to sustain cooperation in some societies. If this view is correct, individuals’ willingness to engage in the costly punishment of norm violators should be culturally transmittable, and applicable to both prosocial and anti-social behaviors (to any social norm). Since much existing work shows that norm-based prosocial behavior in experiments develops substantially during early and middle childhood, we tested 245 3- to 8-year olds in a simplified Third Party Punishment Game to investigate whether children would imitate a model’s decision to punish, at a personal cost, both unequal and equal offers. Our study showed that children, regardless of their age, imitate the costly punishment of both equal and unequal offers, and the rates of imitation increase (not decrease) with age. However, only older children imitate not-punishing for both equal and unequal offers. These findings highlight the potential role of cultural transmission in the stabilization or de-stabilization of costly punishment in a population.
Significance
Cooperation among humans depends upon the willingness of others to take costly action to enforce the social norm to cooperate. Such behavior is often coined third-party punishment. Here we show that third-party punishment is already effective as means to increase cooperation in children. Most importantly, we identify why this is the case. First, children expect (mistakenly) third parties to punish quite often and therefore they become more cooperative. Second, the presence of third parties lets children become (rightfully) more optimistic about the cooperation levels of the interaction partner in a simple prisoner’s dilemma game. As a reaction to more optimistic expectations, children cooperate more themselves. The experiment has been run with about 1,100 children aged 7 to 11 y.
Children's lives are governed by social norms. Since Piaget, however, it has been assumed that they understand very little about how norms work. Recent studies in which children enforce social norms indicate a richer understanding, but the children are still relating to pre-existing adult norms. In the current study, triads of 5-year-old children worked on an instrumental task without adult guidance or instruction. The children spontaneously created social norms for how the game “should” be played, and they transmitted these with special force (using more generic and objective language) to novices. The fact that they created their own norms suggests that young children understand, at least to some degree, the conventional nature and special force of social norms in binding all who would participate.
This article offers a critical assessment of Cristina Bicchieri and Jon Elster’s recent attempt to distinguish between social, moral, and quasi-moral norms. Although their typologies present interesting differences, they both distinguish types of norms on the basis of the way in which context, and especially other agents’ expectations and behavior, shapes one’s preference to comply with norms. We argue that both typologies should be abandoned because they fail to capture causally relevant features of norms. We nevertheless emphasize that both Bicchieri and Elster correctly draw attention to important and often neglected characteristics of the psychology of norm compliance.
We explore the idea that prosocial behavior in experimental games is driven by social norms imported into the laboratory. Under this view, differences in behavior across subjects is driven by heterogeneity in sensitivity to social norms. We introduce an incentivized method of eliciting individual norm-sensitivity, and we show how it relates to play in public goods, trust, dictator and ultimatum games. We show how our observations can be rationalized in a stylized model of norm-dependent preferences under reasonable assumptions about the nature of social norms. Then we directly elicit norms in these games to test the robustness of our interpretation.
Two hundred and ninety-four participants aged between 7 and 17 years of age were asked to share out money between themselves and another, imaginary group. Individual responses were recorded as well as responses after discussion in a group with two other participants. The distribution task took place in two different experimental conditions that either gave participants a free choice about how much to offer to the other group or involved making a strategic offer to avoid the other group rejecting an offer and losing all the money. From 10 years of age onwards, when allowed to choose freely how much to share, boys made progressively less generous offers than girls whereas girls’ offers remained the same with age. However, when inter-group strategic constraints were present, there were few gender differences from 10 years of age. The order in which games were presented was a powerful influence on the offers that participants made.
We measure beliefs in an experimental game. Player 1 may take x < 20 Dutch guilders, or leave it and let player 2 split 20 guilders between the players. We find that the higher is x (our treatment variable), the more likely is player 1 to take the x. Out of those who leave the x, many expect to get back less than x. There is no positive correlation between x and the amount y that 2 allocates to 1. However, there is positive correlation between y and 2's expectation of 1's expectation of y. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, C92.
Diverse lines of theoretical and empirical research are converging on the notion that human evolution has been substantially influenced by the interaction of our cultural and genetic inheritance systems. The application of this culture-gene coevolutionary approach t