scholarly journals When thinking you are better leads to feeling worse: Self-other asymmetries in prosocial behavior and increased anxiety during the Covid-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea Helion ◽  
David V Smith ◽  
Johanna Jarcho
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Psychological Outcomes ◽  
Prosocial Behaviors ◽  
General Anxiety ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Peer Reports ◽  
Better Than

Thinking one is better than peers is generally associated with positive psychological outcomes like increased self-esteem and resilience. However, this tendency may be problematic in the context of collective action problems, wherein individuals are reliant on others' prosocial behaviors to achieve larger goals. We examined this question in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and recruited participants (n = 1022) from a university community in Spring 2020. We found evidence for a self-peer asymmetry, such that participants reported that they were doing more to stop the spread of the disease and were more prosocially motivated than peers. Actual peer reports indicated that these were overestimations. This self-enhancement tendency comes with a cost: the perceived self-peer asymmetry mediated the relationship between Covid-specific worry and general anxiety during the early lockdown period. This indicates that while believing one is doing more than others may be maladaptive in collective action problems.

scholarly journals Emotional Intelligence and Prosocial Behavior in College Students: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiying Wang ◽  
Shuang Wu ◽  
Weichen Wang ◽  
Chao Wei
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
College Students ◽  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Measurement Scale ◽  
Social Support Scale ◽  
Internal And External Factors ◽  
The Relationship

This study examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and prosocial behavior (PSB) and constructed a model for their interaction by examining the mediating effect of social support (SS) and the moderating effect of self-esteem (SE) in this relationship. A total of 742 college students aged from 18 to 20 in Northeast China (Mage =19.42 ± 0.53 years) completed a survey measuring the Emotional Intelligence Scale, Prosocial Tendencies Measurement Scale—Chinese Version, Perceived Social Support Scale, and Self-Esteem Scale. The results showed that: (1) EI positively predicted PSB; (2) SS partially mediated the relationship between EI and PSB; and (3) SE moderated the direct effect of EI on PSB and the relationship between SS and PSB. That is, when the SE of college students was higher, the effect of SS in promoting PSB was enhanced. Therefore, our results suggested that under the influence of both internal and external factors, there is an indirect effect of EI on PSB. This finding may potentially provide a theoretical basis for designing college students' mental health courses and cultivating PSB in college.

Measuring Prosocial Behavior of College Students

1995 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 739-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B. Kosek
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Behavior Analysis ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Five Factor Model ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Prosocial Behaviors ◽  
Fiscal Responsibility ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
The Relationship

This study examined the relationship between prosocial behavior and the five-factor model of personality. 61 undergraduates were given an 80-item Bipolar Adjective Scale to assess five domains of personality and the Prosocial Behavior Inventory to rate prosocial behavior. Analysis suggested that Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Agreeableness showed significant positive correlations with prosocial behaviors, e.g., women were somewhat more compassionate than men whereas men focussed more on fiscal responsibility.

The efficacy of cheap talk in collective action problems

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 370-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenton Kenkel
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Incomplete Information ◽  
No Value ◽  
Cheap Talk ◽  
Joint Project ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
The Relationship

Incomplete information exacerbates the problems inherent in collective action. Participants cannot efficiently coordinate their actions if they do not know each other’s preferences. I investigate when ordinary communication, or cheap talk, may resolve mutual uncertainty in collective action problems. I find that the efficacy of communication depends critically on the relationship between contributions and the value of the joint project. The incentive barriers to honesty are highest when every contribution increases the project’s value. Participants then have a strict incentive to say whatever would induce others to contribute the most, so cheap talk lacks credibility. By contrast, when contributions may be marginally worthless, such as when the project has no value unless contributions hit a certain threshold, communication may help participants avoid wasted effort. Using these findings, I identify which collective action problems in politics might benefit from communication and which require more expensive solutions to overcome uncertainty.

Inequality and Democracy: Why Inequality Harms Consolidation but Does Not Affect Democratization

2009 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Houle
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Probability Of Transition ◽  
The Relationship

Under what conditions do democracies emerge and consolidate? Recent theories suggest that inequality is among the leading determinants of both democratization and consolidation. By contrast, this article argues that inequality harms consolidation but has no net effect on democratization. The author shows that the existing theories that link inequality to democratization suffer from serious limitations: (1) they are useful only for understanding transitions from below and thus do not apply to many other transitions (that is, those from above); (2) even for democratization from below, their predictions are unlikely to hold, since inequality actually has two opposite effects; and (3) they ignore collective action problems, which reduces their explanatory power. However, these objections do not affect the relationship between inequality and consolidation. In particular, while inequality has two opposite effects on the probability of transition to democracy, it unambiguously increases the probability of transition away from democracy. This article conducts the most comprehensive empirical test to date of the relationship between inequality and democracy. It finds no support for the main democratization theories. Contrary to what they predict, estimation suggests neither a monotonic negative nor an inverted U-shaped relationship. Yet inequality increases the probability of backsliding from democracy to dictatorship.

scholarly journals Better Than Rational: A Naturalistic View of Economic Governance

2017 ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
J.W. Stoelhorst
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Economic Governance ◽  
Human Organization ◽  
Naturalistic Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
The Face ◽  
Better Than

The purpose of this paper is to present a recently emerging evolutionary approach to the study of human organization that I will refer to as ‘naturalistic’, and to highlight its integrative potential for the social and administrative sciences. This naturalistic approach considers the various forms of human cooperation as products of gene-culture co-evolutionary processes, and in doing so goes to the heart of the collective action problems that are central to explaining the human condition. Moreover, in building empirically grounded explanations of human behavior and organization, it also offers an alternative to the traditional view of governance in economic theory, with its emphasis on decentralized exchange and rational self-interested choice. The naturalistic approach both explains why human nature has evolved to the point where we often can do ‘better than rational’ in the face of the social dilemmas underlying collective action problems, and why modern forms of social, economic, and political organization are nevertheless always prone to being undermined by these same dilemmas.

scholarly journals Empathy and nonattachment independently predict peer nominations of prosocial behavior of adolescents

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baljinder K. Sahdra ◽  
Joseph Ciarrochi ◽  
Philip Parker ◽  
Sarah Marshall ◽  
Patrick Heaven
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Prosocial Behaviors ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Poisson Models ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Peer Nominations ◽  
Mental Resources

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

The Rise of Trading

2020 ◽  
pp. 83-108
Author(s):  
Sarah Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Secondary Market ◽  
Trading Strategies ◽  
Investment Strategies ◽  
Corporate Reorganization ◽  
Secondary Markets ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Debt Markets ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter explores the second of the changes in logic and practice in the field of finance with which the book is concerned: the shift from hold-to-maturity debt investment strategies to trading strategies. The argument is made that the concept of collective action problems in US corporate reorganization law ought to be replaced by different concepts when the reorganization is among sophisticated, strongly adjusting financial creditors and investors and when debt trades in secondary markets. The chapter further argues that the more recent development of modern corporate reorganization law in England and Wales has enabled terms and concepts to emerge which are better adapted to traded debt markets. Overall, however, the chapter emphasizes the relationship between reduced salience of the collective action concept and a secondary market for distressed debt. It does not suggest a new, universal conceptual framework for corporate reorganization law in which the collective action concept is permanently replaced.

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