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Personality and Prosocial Behavior: A Theoretical Framework and Meta-Analysis

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Isabel Thielmann at Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime Security and Law
Isabel Thielmann
  • Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime Security and Law
Giuliana Spadaro at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Giuliana Spadaro
Daniel Balliet
Daniel Balliet
Daniel Balliet
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
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Decades of research document individual differences in prosocial behavior using controlled experiments that model social interactions in situations of interdependence. However, theoretical and empirical integration of the vast literature on the predictive validity of personality traits to account for these individual differences is missing. Here, we present a theoretical framework that identifies four broad situational affordances across interdependent situations (i.e., exploitation, reciprocity, temporal conflict, and dependence under uncertainty) and more specific sub-affordances within certain types of interdependent situations (e.g., possibility to increase equality in outcomes) that can determine when, which, and how personality traits should be expressed in prosocial behavior. To test this framework, we meta-analyzed 770 studies reporting on 3,523 effects of 8 broad and 43 narrow personality traits on prosocial behavior in interdependent situations modelled in six commonly studied economic games (Dictator Game, Ultimatum Game, Trust Game, Prisoner’s Dilemma, Public Goods Game, and Commons Dilemma). Overall, meta-analytic correlations ranged between -.18 ≤ r ≤ .26 and most traits yielding a significant relation to prosocial behavior had conceptual links to the affordances provided in interdependent situations, most prominently the possibility for exploitation. Moreover, for several traits, correlations within games followed the predicted pattern derived from a theoretical analysis of affordances. On the level of traits, we found that narrow and broad traits alike can account for prosocial behavior, informing the bandwidth-fidelity problem. In sum, the meta-analysis provides a theoretical foundation that can guide future research on prosocial behavior and advance our understanding of individual differences in human prosociality.
Decision tree for generation of hypotheses.
Decision tree for generation of hypotheses.
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Meta-analytic correlations (í µí¼Œ ̂) for all traits aggregated across all games, with number of independent samples (k) and broad affordances linked to the traits. Error bars indicate 95% CIs. DE = dependence; EX = exploitation; RE = reciprocity; TC = temporal conflict; FFM = Five-Factor Model; * p < .05.
Meta-analytic correlations (í µí¼Œ ̂) for all traits aggregated across all games, with number of independent samples (k) and broad affordances linked to the traits. Error bars indicate 95% CIs. DE = dependence; EX = exploitation; RE = reciprocity; TC = temporal conflict; FFM = Five-Factor Model; * p < .05.
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Meta-analytic correlations (í µí¼Œ ̂) of selected broad traits from the Five Factor Model (FFM) and the HEXACO model with prosocial behavior in different games. Error bars indicate 95% CIs. Number of independent samples (k) are provided in parentheses. DG = Dictator Game, SDG = Social dilemma games, TG-A = Trust Game as trustor, TG-B = Trust Game as trustee, UG-A = Ultimatum Game as proposer, UG-B = Ultimatum Game as responder.
Meta-analytic correlations (í µí¼Œ ̂) of selected broad traits from the Five Factor Model (FFM) and the HEXACO model with prosocial behavior in different games. Error bars indicate 95% CIs. Number of independent samples (k) are provided in parentheses. DG = Dictator Game, SDG = Social dilemma games, TG-A = Trust Game as trustor, TG-B = Trust Game as trustee, UG-A = Ultimatum Game as proposer, UG-B = Ultimatum Game as responder.
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Meta-analytic correlations (í µí¼Œ ̂) between selected traits and prosocial behavior in the Prisoner's Dilemma and Public Goods Game, separated for games involving high conflict of interests (HC; K < 0.4) and low conflict of interests (LC; K ≥ 0.4). Error bars indicate 95% CIs. * p < .05 (indicating a significant moderation by conflict of interests; one-tailed for traits positively linked to unconditional concern for others, i.e., social value orientation, concern for others, honesty-humility, and FFM agreeableness); k = number of independent samples underlying an effect size; FFM = Five-Factor Model; RWA = right-wing authoritarianism.
Meta-analytic correlations (í µí¼Œ ̂) between selected traits and prosocial behavior in the Prisoner's Dilemma and Public Goods Game, separated for games involving high conflict of interests (HC; K < 0.4) and low conflict of interests (LC; K ≥ 0.4). Error bars indicate 95% CIs. * p < .05 (indicating a significant moderation by conflict of interests; one-tailed for traits positively linked to unconditional concern for others, i.e., social value orientation, concern for others, honesty-humility, and FFM agreeableness); k = number of independent samples underlying an effect size; FFM = Five-Factor Model; RWA = right-wing authoritarianism.
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Meta-analytic correlations (í µí¼Œ ̂) between selected traits and prosocial behavior in social dilemma games, separated for one-shot (one) versus repeated (rep) interaction. Error bars indicate 95% CIs. None of the corresponding moderations tests yielded a significant moderation by repetition of interaction. * p < .05 (indicating a significant moderation by conflict of interests; one-tailed); k = number of independent samples underlying an effect size; FFM = Five-Factor Model
Meta-analytic correlations (í µí¼Œ ̂) between selected traits and prosocial behavior in social dilemma games, separated for one-shot (one) versus repeated (rep) interaction. Error bars indicate 95% CIs. None of the corresponding moderations tests yielded a significant moderation by repetition of interaction. * p < .05 (indicating a significant moderation by conflict of interests; one-tailed); k = number of independent samples underlying an effect size; FFM = Five-Factor Model
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... For example, working individually on a project may particularly allow the expression of conscientiousness but not allow us to detect a person's agreeableness. The effect of situational affordance on the link between personality traits and prosocial behavior has long been recognized (for a review, see Thielmann et al., 2020). There are different types of affordances that are essential for prosocial behaviors, such as the possibility of exploitation (increasing one's own payoffs at the expense of others and Figure 1. ...
... The figure was adapted from Murphy and Ackermann (2014). also the unconditional concern for the welfare of others), the possibility of reciprocity, the conflict between short-and long-term interests, and dependence on others' actions (De Vries et al., 2016;Thielmann et al., 2020). Specifically, the measurements of social value orientation contain the affordance of exploitation, in that it is related to the preference to maximize the relative advantage over others' outcomes. ...
... The idea of situational affordance has been applied in many research fields, such as the situation-personality interaction on behavior (De Vries et al., 2016; Kelley et al., 2003;Thielmann et al., 2020;Van Lange, 2012). Our study, as far as we know, is the first to use the concept of affordance in the measurement of social value orientation. ...
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