Oxford Handbook of Prosocial Behavior, Part 1: Prosocial Behavior at the Micro-Level (i.e., the individual level)

Why I picked it up: see my review of the introduction to this book: "The Field of Prosocial Behavior: An Introduction and Overview"  
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What you need to know: Part 1 focused on prosocial behavior at the individual level. I found the following articles particularly interesting, and have bulleted out my takeaways to make it easier to internalize. It's still a very long post, mostly because I found so much to be relevant. Finally, you'll see I added commentary that I connected with museums, our current state mid-pandemic, and other research (identified at beginning of bullet at "SMW comments"). 

• "The Economics of Prosocial Behavior," Eric van Dijk.
  • Classic economic theory assumes humans are rational, but behaving in prosocial ways isn't always rational and often comes at economic cost (such as giving money to charity). Behavioral economics, however, does begin to describe why people engage in prosocial behavior … and how they benefit from it as well (such as reputationally when they give that money to charity). Generally, when societies support prosocial behavior, they tend to have higher levels of cooperation, to everyone's benefit. And, generally, societies that heavily sanction poor behavior have lower levels of cooperation … and fewer benefits.
    • SMW comments - Think about masks. When we cooperate and wear masks in a pandemic, we all benefit. And when we don't, well, we don't.
  • Most people can be classified as having a prosocial/cooperative personality, a competitive personality, or an individualistic personality. The individualistic one is highly self-interested, while competitors and prosocials consider the outcomes of others … competitors because they want to come out ahead, while prosocials (about half of adults) want to increase everyone's outcomes. Prosocials seem to be more concerned about "true fairness," while individualists and competitors are more likely to use fairness instrumentally, as a means to improve their own outcomes.
    • SMW comments - This is interesting. If this is personality type, then that suggests that, to some extent, it is how individuals are wired. And that doesn't jive so much with American Generosity, which explored how external factors and childhood upbringing and adult peer groups affect generosity (which is, clearly, a prosocial behavior). Taking our behaviors during this pandemic as an example, this suggests that there appears to be a correlation with political persuasion, with conservatives more likely to be individualistic, and liberals more prosocial.
  • People are more generous if they know more details about the people they are helping. That's why appeals that tell stories about those helped tend to do better than appeals that are simply statistics.

 

• "The Development of Prosocial Behavior," Nancy Eisenberg, Natalie D. Eggum-Wilkens, and Tracy L. Spinrad. - Reviews theories around the development of prosocial behavior, especially in childhood.
  • Early childhood. Explores Hoffman's Theoretical Model for empathetic responding, which posits that capacity for empathy begins during infancy. Around two to three years, "veridical empathy" begins, which is the awareness of others' needs and feelings, and responding to them in other-oriented ways (that is, trying to comfort in ways someone may wish to be comforted). By late childhood, the capacity for "empathy for another's life condition" develops, right around when the ability to think abstractly develops, which is a valuable progression as it can develop into broader awareness of issues and prosocial activism.
  • Middle Childhood. Generally, it had been supposed prosocial behavior increases as children get older, but a number of trajectory studies indicates that prosocial behaviors appear to decrease through the elementary-school years, especially in studies of boys.
    • SMW comments - I find this distressing. It is like we set kids up really well, but then we find it difficult to sustain it as kids get older. Is this because we, as parents and caregivers, have shifted our focus from social development to academic pursuits and extracurriculars? Are we doing our children a significant disservice in the process?
  • Adolescence. The research indicates that prosocial behavior in adolescence and early adulthood has some starts and stops, but tends to increase in late adolescence and early adulthood.
  • As individuals, we tend to be consistently prosocial in our lives. That is, those who were highly prosocial as children tend to be highly prosocial as adults, and vice versa.
  • Those with high levels of socio-cognitive and self-regulations skills, including emotion understanding and perspective taking, have higher levels of prosocial behaviors.
    • SMW comments - This makes sense to me. And now we're starting to talk business, because that cognitive bit is where I think museums come into play.
  • Origins of Prosocial Responding
    • Heredity - Some people are more wired for prosocial behaviors than others.
    • Parental Socialization - Through encouragement and modeling of behavior, warm and secure relationships with their children, and exhibiting high levels of emotional intelligence, parents affect the prosocial development of children throughout childhood and into adulthood. Additionally, authoritative parenting is linked with higher prosocial behaviors in children than authoritarian parenting. 
    • Nonparental Socialization - Such as teachers, peers, and siblings. Like with parents, having close, supporting relationships with siblings and peers tends to yield more prosocial behaviors, such as perspective taking. Teachers can also affect prosocial behaviors by the tone they set in their classrooms.
  • Role of Cultural and Subcultural Variation
    • There can be wide variations in prosocial behavior from culture to culture, with different cultures having different social norms. Typically, where prosocial behavior is prized, communal values are as well, and more aggressive and hostile cultures tend not to value prosocial behaviors as much.
    • Cultures that tend to assign children chores from a young age, value extended families, and appreciate the economic contributions of women in the household tend to raise more prosocial-oriented children. More "traditionally" cultured children tended to act more prosocial towards family members, and children raised in more "industrial" cultures tended to be more prosocial towards those who are not relatives. Cultures with more focus on individuals (more "Western") versus those focus more on communal needs (more "Eastern") show mixed differences which yield no conclusions that either is more prosocial.
    • There are some research studies that show that certain school-based programs can affect children's intrinsic motivation as well as prosocial behaviors, indicating that prosocial behavior can be nurtured outside of the home environment.
  • Overall conclusion is that prosocial behaviors are a mixture of nature and nurture, and that some children are more receptive to prosocial intervention than others.

• "Morality and Prosocial Judgments and Behavior," by Elliot Turiel
  • Explores the difference between prosocial behavior and moral judgments. Whereas prosocial behavior are actions to benefit others with no expectation of a reward (and often at some degree of sacrifice), moral judgments refer to the cognitive aspects of morality, including conceptualizing and reasoning about moral issues. This isn't to say that they are not connected, or even that there is no overlap in them; there can be. Sometimes, the moral judgments stem from times when prosocial reasoning is necessary to overcome laws, authorities, and potential punishments in order to then proceed to action (civil disobedience would be an example).
  • Overall discussion of how we weigh greater good, with actions against trust and honesty. When is it OK to lie in order to prevent/cause something else to happen that may, on balance, be better? How does that line vary with maturity, or based on the scenario given? What happens when it is a matter of fairness? What happens if exercising one's right to do something negatively affects a different right … or another's rights?

• "The Contextually Grounded Nature of Prosocial Behavior: A Multiscale, Embodied Approach to Morality," by J. Scott Jordan and Eric D. Wesselmann
  • Immediately posits that the world isn't black-and-white, prosocial or antisocial, but instead there is a lot of gray as we inhabit a "multiscale" world of peers, social groups, and cultural groups that influence our behavior and that may affect whether that behavior actually is prosocial or antisocial. For example, ostracism is seen as an antisocial behavior, but when used as a form of correction, it is prosocial, working towards the greater good (though this can be used for ill-purposes as well, such as in cults).
    • SMW comments - I would argue that ostracism can be taken to an extreme with cancel culture as well. That wasn't even a thing when this volume was released.
  • That being said, gives considerable discussion to how we respond prosocially to the actions of others. For example, two people engaged in discussion while sitting in rocking chairs are likely to rock synchronously, while two people ignoring each other don’t. This has repercussions for empathy, of course, and it is also somewhat related to Theory of Mind and how we think about the mental state of others. In so doing, we are constantly in a state of considering that mental state of others, as individuals one-on-one, but also as we operate in the multiscale.

• "Culture and Prosocial Behavior," by Irina Feygina and P.J. Henry 
  • Are some cultures more prosocial than others? Is it a degree of interpretation? Or, are some privately prosocial, and publicly less so (or vice versa)?
  • Prosocial behavior, and its rewards and punishments, has its own 3 Rs: reputation, reciprocation, and retribution. Engaging in prosocial behavior enhances reputation, aids in reciprocation, and failing to do so risks retribution.
  • Individualistic cultures have different types of prosocial expectations than more collective cultures, with the latter making more cooperative choices. That being said, collective cultures tend to be more prosocial within their ingroup, while individualist cultures tend be more even-handed toward both ingroup and outgroup individuals.
    • SMW comments - I get what they are saying, but I think it varies within those cultures as well. For example, the United States tends towards the individualistic side. But if we look at conservative and liberal attitudes, especially during this pandemic (and mask-wearing, as an indicator behavior), we see the opposite of what the authors are suggesting. That is, conservatives tend to be more individualistic, but are more prosocial within their ingroup; liberals are more collective, but are more even-handed toward both ingroup and outgroup.
  • The less wealth someone has, the greater the likelihood that individual will help others. They go on to note that lower SES individuals tend to behave more prosocially. It is hypothesized the lower SES individuals need other people more, which leads to that prosocial behavior, while higher SES are more independent, not putting them into the prosocial frame of mind as much.
    • SMW comments - this has been seen in other studies as well, with lower-income households often giving a higher percentage of their incomes to charity than high-income households.

Full citation:  Schroeder, David A. and Graziano, William G. "The Field of Prosocial Behavior: An Introduction and Overview." The Oxford Handbook of Prosocial Behavior, edited by David A. Schroeder and William G. Graziano, Oxford University Press, 2015.

Have a suggestion for my reading list?  Email it to me at susie (at) wilkeningconsulting (dot) com.

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