scholarly journals Neural Responses of Benefiting From the Prosocial Exchange: The Effect of Helping Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Olivo ◽  
Andrea Di Ciano ◽  
Jessica Mauro ◽  
Lucia Giudetti ◽  
Alan Pampallona ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Temporal Pole ◽  
Visual Cortices

Prosocial behavior is critical for the natural development of an individual as well as for promoting social relationships. Although this complex behavior results from gratuitous acts occurring between an agent and a recipient and a wealth of literature on prosocial behavior has investigated these actions, little is known about the effects on the recipient and the neurobiology underlying them. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify neural correlates of receiving prosocial behavior in the context of real-world experiences, with different types of action provided by the agent, including practical help and effort appreciation. Practical help was associated with increased activation in a network of regions spanning across bilateral superior temporal sulcus, temporoparietal junction, temporal pole, and medial prefrontal cortex. Effort appreciation was associated with activation and increased task-modulated connectivity of the occipital cortex. Prosocial-dependent brain responses were associated with positive affect. Our results support the role of the theory of mind network and the visual cortices in mediating the positive effects of receiving gratuitous help. Moreover, they indicate that specific types of prosocial behavior are mediated by distinct brain networks, which further demonstrates the uniqueness of the psychological processes underlying prosocial actions.

scholarly journals Neural mechanisms underlying regulation of empathy and altruism by beliefs of others' pain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Yu ◽  
Shihui Han
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Altruistic Behavior ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Subjective Estimation ◽  
Show Evidence

Perceived cues signaling others' pain induce empathy that in turn motivates altruistic behavior toward those who appear suffering. This perception-emotion-behavior reactivity is the core of human altruism but does not always occur in real life situations. Here, by integrating behavioral and multimodal neuroimaging measures, we investigate neural mechanisms underlying the functional role of beliefs of others' pain in modulating empathy and altruism. We show evidence that decreasing (or enhancing) beliefs of others' pain reduces (or increases) subjective estimation of others' painful emotional states and monetary donations to those who show pain expressions. Moreover, decreasing beliefs of others' pain attenuates neural responses to perceived cues signaling others' pain within 200 ms after stimulus onset and modulate neural responses to others' pain in the frontal cortices and temporoparietal junction. Our findings highlight beliefs of others' pain as a fundamental cognitive basis of human empathy and altruism and unravel the intermediate neural architecture.

Gender and Intergroup Helping: Forms of Prosocial Behavior as Differential Social Control Mechanisms for Women and Men

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Abad-Merino ◽  
John F. Dovidio ◽  
Carmen Tabernero ◽  
Ignacio González
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Support Interaction ◽  
Group Hierarchy

AbstractThe present research, drawing on the Intergroup Helping as Power Relations Model (Nadler, 2002), investigated the ways in which different forms of helping behavior can strategically affect responses to women and men who display socially valued or devalued characteristics. Participants read scenarios about concrete problems faced by a woman or man in need, who displayed positive (i.e., prosocial) or negative (i.e., antisocial) characteristics, and indicated the extent to which they would be willing to support small tax increases if that money were used to help address the target’s issues. The predicted Target Gender × Target History × Type of Support interaction, controlling for political orientation, was obtained, F(1, 149) = 6.49, p = .012, ηp2 = .04. Participants tended to give less autonomy-oriented (i.e., empowering) help to a man displaying antisocial (vs. prosocial) characteristics, F(1, 36) = 3.39, p = .074, ηp2 = .09.; they also tended to off more dependency-oriented (i.e., disempowering) help to a woman women exhibiting prosocial (vs. antisocial) qualities, F(1, 38) = 3.42, p = .072, ηp2 = .08. The role of seemingly positive forms of social behavior as a mechanism for social control and the relation of helping to processes of group-hierarchy and system-justifying processes are considered.

Positive effects of promoting prosocial behavior in early adolescence

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 386-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gian Vittorio Caprara ◽  
Bernadette Paula Luengo Kanacri ◽  
Maria Gerbino ◽  
Antonio Zuffianò ◽  
Guido Alessandri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Early Adolescence ◽  
Intervention Group ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Verbal Aggression ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Growth Curve Analysis ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Pilot School

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a pilot school-based intervention called CEPIDEA, designed to promote prosocial behavior in early adolescence. The study took place in a middle school located in a small city near Rome. The intervention group included 151 students (52.3% males; Mage = 12.4), and the control group 173 students (50.3% females; Mage = 13.0). Both groups were assessed at three time points, each 6 months apart. A Latent Growth Curve analysis revealed that the intervention group, compared to the control group, showed an increase of helping behavior along with a decrease of physical and verbal aggression across time. Current results also showed that the increase of helping behavior mediated the decline of verbal aggression in adolescents who had attended the intervention. Participants of CEPIDEA also attained higher grades than the control group at the end of middle school. Overall, findings suggest that promoting prosocial behavior may serve to counteract aggressive conduct and enhance academic achievement during adolescence.

scholarly journals Going the Extra Mile: Effects of Discourse Context on Two Late Positivities During Language Comprehension

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Brothers ◽  
Eddie W. Wlotko ◽  
Lena Warnke ◽  
Gina R. Kuperberg
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Prior Context ◽  
Preceding Context

During language comprehension, online neural processing is strongly influenced by the constraints of the prior context. Although the N400 event-related potential (ERP) response (300–500 ms) is known to be sensitive to a word’s semantic predictability, less is known about a set of late positive-going ERP responses (600–1,000 ms) that can be elicited when an incoming word violates strong predictions about upcoming content (late frontal positivity) or about what is possible given the prior context (late posterior positivity/P600). Across three experiments, we systematically manipulated the length of the prior context and the source of lexical constraint to determine their influence on comprehenders’ online neural responses to these two types of prediction violations. In Experiment 1, within minimal contexts, both lexical prediction violations and semantically anomalous words produced a larger N400 than expected continuations ( James unlocked the door/laptop/gardener), but no late positive effects were observed. Critically, the late posterior positivity/P600 to semantic anomalies appeared when these same sentences were embedded within longer discourse contexts (Experiment 2a), and the late frontal positivity appeared to lexical prediction violations when the preceding context was rich and globally constraining (Experiment 2b). We interpret these findings within a hierarchical generative framework of language comprehension. This framework highlights the role of comprehension goals and broader linguistic context, and how these factors influence both top-down prediction and the decision to update or reanalyze the prior context when these predictions are violated.

scholarly journals Brand’s CSR Influence on Consumers’ Prosocial Behavior in Unrelated Domains

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-149
Author(s):  
Angela Negrão ◽  
Danielle Mantovani ◽  
Lucas Magalhães De Andrade
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Social Outcomes ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Social Cause ◽  
The One ◽  
Corporate Social

This study proposes that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity may positively influence consumers prosocial behavior. However, this effect is moderated by the consumer-brand social distance. In two experiments, we show that consumers close to the brand become more prosocial in situations unrelated to the cause supported by the company when they are exposed to the brands prosocial communication, compared to those who are distant from the brand. This paper contributes to furthering CSR theory by showing the positive effects of brand CSR initiatives on secondary social outcomes, such as consumers volunteering and donating money to a social cause not closely related to the one promoted by the company. Besides, this paper also contributes theoretically by showing the moderation role played by consumer-brand social distance. Important implications for the role of CSR are useful for companies and society in general, since the paper demonstrates that brands prosocial behavior can influence consumers prosocial behavior beyond the brand context only.

On the Methodology of Cartel agreements analysis

2014 ◽  
pp. 53-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Andreyashchenko ◽  
A. Zazdravnykh
Keyword(s):  
Economic Models ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Industrial Markets

This article is an attempt of summarizing key economic approaches to cartel agreements analysis, its stability, ways of estimating social consequences of cartel agreements. It is alleged that the traditional way of understanding the cartels’ role as completely negative is not accurate; this type of inter-corporate agreements may also bring positive effects on industrial markets. Typical limits of analytical apparatus, contradictions that appear while interpreting results of specific economic models are also represented in the article, as well as substantiation of a discrete role of pricing factor within the analysis of anti-competitive agreements.

Peranan Negara dalam Liberalisasi Ekonomi Vietnam: Analisis Terhadap Dasar Doi Moi 1986

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhamad Helmy Sabtu ◽  
◽  
Khairul Azman Mohamad Suhaimy ◽  
Nurul Aimi Razali
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Doi Moi ◽  
The People ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Economic Landscape

This article analyses the role of state in the policy of economic liberalisation in Vietnam. Doi Moi, which was launched in 1986, is a very influential and effective policy in changing the socio-economic landscape of the people in the country. The results of this study prove that there are positive effects on the increase of foreign investment inflows, the eradication of starvation and unruly poverty, the increase of level of education, the improvement of gender equality and women's rights as well as the sustainability of the environment after Doi Moi is implemented. Through Doi Moi, Vietnam is moving towards a developing country status with good economic performance both at the Southeast Asian and global.

Helping when desire is low: The role of Expectancy in helping

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Kossowska
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Perceived Effectiveness ◽  
Do So

One might assume that the desire to help (here described as Want) is the essential driver of helping declarations and/or behaviors. However, even if desire to help is low, helping behavior may still occur if the expectancy regarding the perceived effectiveness of helping is high. We tested these predictions in a set of three experimental studies. In all three, we measured the desire to help (Want) and the Expectancy that the aid would be impactful for the victim; in addition, we manipulated Expectancy in Study 3. In Studies 1 and 3, we measured the participants’ declaration to help while in Study 2, their helping behavior was examined. In all three studies, we used variations of the same story about a victim. The results supported our hypothesis. Thus, the studies help to tease apart the determinants of helping behavior under conditions of lowered desire to do so, an issue of great importance in public policymaking.

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