scholarly journals The Influence of Social Class on University Students’ Prosocial Behavior Based on the Game Perspective

Complexity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Hao Ding ◽  
Feng Xu ◽  
Jia-Ming Zhu

In the present research, based on the game research paradigm, the research tools are the dictator game and the trust game, and the research objects are Chinese university students. We adopt 2(self-social class: high, low) × 2(target social class: high, low) between-subjects design experiment to investigate the influence of social class on university students’ prosocial behavior. Across the experimental study, we find that (1) in the two situations of dictator game and trust game, self-social class has no significant influence on university students’ prosocial behavior; (2) in the situation of dictator game, target social class has a significant influence on university students’ prosocial behavior, and it is regulated by self-social class. Under the condition of low self-social class, the higher the target social class, the more prosocial behavior of university students, which confirms the perspective of status and negates “if you are poor, you will be good for yourself.” Under the condition of high self-social class, the lower the target social class, the more prosocial the behavior of university students, which confirms the perspective of fairness and echoes “if you are good, you will be good at the world”; (3) in the context of the trust game, target social class has a significant influence on university students’ prosocial behavior, and there is no interaction effect with self-social class.

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 147470491987242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Ian Reed ◽  
Yanal Matari ◽  
Molly Wu ◽  
Revathi Janaswamy

How do our emotional tears affect the way we are treated? We tested whether tears, paired with either a neutral or a sad facial expression, elicited prosocial behavior among perceivers. Participants viewed a video clip depicting a confederate partner with or without tears displaying either a neutral or sad facial expression before making a behavioral decision in one of two economic games. In a Trust game (Experiment 1), participants who played the role of the investor were more likely to share an endowment after viewing a confederate trustee with tears (paired with either a neutral or a sad facial expression) in comparison to a confederate trustee without tears. However, in a Dictator game (Experiment 2), participants who played the role of allocator were no more likely to share an endowment after viewing a confederate recipient with tears (paired with either a neutral or sad facial expression) in comparison to a confederate recipient without tears. Taken together, these findings suggest that tears increase prosocial behavior by increasing trustworthiness as opposed to generally increasing other-regarding altruistic tendencies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Branas-Garza ◽  
Pedro Caldentey ◽  
Antonio M. Espin ◽  
Teresa García ◽  
Ana Hernandez

Children as young as 3-4 years old are already concerned about inequality and 18 declare that equality is a norm that should be followed. At the age of 3 to 8, they develop a strong preference for equality, which is typically reflected in both “envy” and “compassion”, that is, aversion to disadvantageous and advantageous inequality, respectively. Further studies suggest that inequality aversion does not continue increasing after that age, but rather exhibits an inverse-U shape relation with age in childhood and adolescence, with a peak at 8 years old. Since children are particularly 24 sensitive to inequality at the age of 8, it is an open question how exposure to real economic inequality at this age modulates prosocial behavior in adult life. Here, we link generosity in dictator game experiments conducted among Spanish university students (n > 400) with existing macro-level data on income inequality within the region they lived as children. The data show that individuals who were exposed to higher levels of inequality at the age of 8 are more generous in adult life. Interestingly, exposure at older ages has no impact on generosity. Our results extend previous findings on the development of egalitarianism by showing long-lasting effects of childhood inequality experiences in adult life. If prosocial behavior is (partly) developed as a reaction to an unequal environment, then inequality might be counteracted in the 34 future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqian Li ◽  
Fengfei Hu ◽  
Xiao He

University students’ study outcomes, their psychological wellbeing in particular, have been considered closely by both education researchers and practitioners. It is worth exploring ways to improve the quality of life of students, especially during the pandemic period when millions of students around the world have taken online courses at home. This paper tests the influence of playfulness on the levels of life satisfaction and school burnout of college students. To examine our hypotheses, we distributed our survey to 353 Chinese university students (mean age 20.10 years) in their online learning semester in 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Correlation analysis and path analysis were applied to analyze the data. The results show that playfulness positively relates to life satisfaction and negatively correlates to school burnout. Moreover, a sense of control mediates these relationships. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Margoni ◽  
Elena Nava ◽  
Luca Surian

Most cooperative interactions involve the expectation of mutual reciprocation and are based on interpersonal trust. Thus, understanding when and how humans acquire interpersonal trust can help unveiling the origins and development of children’s cooperative behavior. Here, we investigated whether prior socio-moral information about trading partners modulates the choice of preschool- (4-5 years) and school-age children (7-8 years) to share their own goods in a child-friendly version of the Trust Game. In this game, the trustee partner can repay the child’s initial investment or keep everything and betray the trustor. In two studies, we addressed whether trust is modulated by trustees exhibiting prosocial versus antisocial behaviors (Study 1, ‘helpers and hinderers’), or respect-based versus fear-based power (Study 2, ‘leaders and bullies’). Preschoolers trusted the leader more than the bully, and trusted the hinderer less than a neutral agent, but did not yet trust the helper more than the hinderer. The tendency to trust helpers more than hinderers increased with age as a result of the increased propensity to trust the prosocial agent. In Study 3, a group of preschoolers played the Dictator Game, a measure of pure generosity, with the same agents used for Study 1. Sharing rates were reliably lower than in Study 1, suggesting that the rates of investment in the trust game cannot be due solely to altruistic or indirect reciprocity motives. Overall, these findings indicate that, by age five, children understand complex cooperative exchanges and start relying on socio-moral information when deciding whom to trust.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Alonso Diaz ◽  
Nicolás Enrique Arévalo Jaimes ◽  
Sebastian Balcucho ◽  
Daniel Duque ◽  
Tatiana García ◽  
...  

Exposure to violence has lasting effects on economic behavior years after it has ended. Previous literature has proved that there is an increase in altruism, impatience, and risk-seeking. However, it is unknown if regular citizens, not directly involved in the conflict, perceive such economic behavior in post-conflict actors. We asked participants to report, relative to them, how Colombia's post-conflict actors (ex-guerrillas, ex-paramilitaries, and victims) behave in different economic games (dictator game, lotteries, and intertemporal discounting). Our sample of university students believes that victims are less altruistic than current evidence with real victims, not particularly risky, and impatient. Also, that former combatants are risk-seeking, impatient, and altruistic towards victims. These beliefs about post-conflict actors' economic behavior do not consistently coincide with behavioral changes found in actual actors involved in violence and could guide reintegration policies.


Author(s):  
Susan C. Whiston

This chapter explores the research related to whether career counselling is effective for individuals with vocational issues. In particular, there is considerable empirical support for career counselling related to career choice issues and searching for employment. Hence, practitioners can use this evidence to convince administrators, policymakers, parents, students, and other constituencies of the worth of career counselling. In addition, the chapter provides empirical evidence that practitioners can use to improve their effectiveness in working with people with career issues. This discussion mainly focuses on the results from older and newer meta-analyses regarding the ingredients that have a significant influence on effect sizes or the critical ingredients in career counselling. For example, there is considerable evidence that support from individuals, including the counsellor, may play an important role in the effectiveness of career counselling. Other factors that contribute to effective practice are also identified and discussed. The chapter further explores the need for additional research that addresses the most effective methods for providing career counselling. As the world of work becomes increasingly complex, it is important that researchers continue to explore the most effective strategies for assisting people in finding satisfying, meaningful, and productive work.


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