Does Empathy Promote Helping by Activating Altruistic Motivation or Concern About Social Evaluation? A Direct Replication of Fultz et al. (1986)

Empathy motivates people to help needy others. Does it do so by activating genuine concern, or by activating more self-interested goals that helping needy others might enable them to fulfill? The empathy-altruism hypothesis claims that empathic concern reflects a non-instrumental desire to improve the welfare of a person in need. To rule out the alternative hypothesis that empathy motivates prosocial behavior by first generating fear of appearing selfish, Fultz et al. (1986) manipulated empathy for a needy target using perspective-taking instructions; they also manipulated whether the subject’s opportunity to help was subject to social evaluation. However, Fultz et al.’s (1986) experiments were underpowered. Here, we conducted a large-N pre-registered replication of Experiment 2 in Fultz et al. (1986). We also administered self-report measures of moral identity and endorsement of the principle of care to test whether these traits reflect altruistic desires or desires to avoid disapprobation. We found that volunteering did not differ between the high and low social evaluation conditions, and that volunteering was not significantly higher in the high-empathy condition. These results sit uneasily with Fultz et al. (1986)’s evidence in support of the empathy-altruism hypothesis. We also failed to find evidence that the principle of care or moral identity internalization reflect altruistic motivation. Consistent with the empathy-altruism hypothesis, however, we did find that self-reported empathic concern predicted helping.

Motivations To Join And Stay A Member Of A Village For Older Adults

People join a customer-driven organization with motivations that may not be static over time, an important issue for long-term organizational viability. In this study, we examined motivations among members of ShareCare, the first Village for older adults in the U.S. Using qualitative data from a random sample of 91 members, we compared motivations for becoming a member and for continuing membership. Motivations to join and continue membership are not necessarily the same. Motivations were categorized as: instrumental, social, and altruistic motivation. We categorized length of membership as short-term: 8-years or less (51.63%) and long-term: 9-years and more (49.37%). While 36% of members joined only for instrumental motivation, 59% continued membership only for instrumental motivation. While about 52% joined with multiple motivations, only 35% of members mentioned multiple motivations when continuing their membership. Finally, 18% of short-term members mentioned altruistic motivation when continuing their membership, while 28% of long-term members mentioned altruistic motivation when continuing their membership. While people’s motivation might change over time, altruistic motivation may be the greatest motivating factor for long-term memberships. Long-term members may identify themselves as supporters rather than users of the organization and cultivate stronger connections with other members over time. Our findings inform how to recruit and retain members in Villages, and customer-driven organizations for older adults more broadly.

Psychological Factors: Meaning and Motivation

People are predominantly but not entirely selfish. However, they do generally have strong degrees of altruistic motivation in certain situations. Good management strategies must be careful not to crowd out intrinsic motivation—in which people do what things for their own sake—for extrinsic motivation—in which people are motivated primarily by rewards and punishments. It is important to structure work environments so that people find their work meaningful. Too much focus on extrinsic motivation can not only cause people to behave morally worse, but to perform worse in general.

Are Hotel Guests Altruistic? How Positive Review Disconfirmation Affects Consumers’ Online Review Behavior

The research aims to examine how positive review disconfirmation (i.e., a positive deviance between a hotel consumer’s poststay evaluation and the average review rating by prior consumers) affects subsequent consumers’ willingness to post online reviews and their own review ratings. By employing an experimental research method, this study reveals that positive review disconfirmation increases hotel guests’ willingness to post online reviews, and increases their online review ratings through the mechanism of concern for others, demonstrating an act of altruism. In addition, comparatively the positive review disconfirmation effects are stronger when the variance of prior review ratings is smaller. This study enhances the online review social influence literature, and the consumer’s altruistic motivation of posting online reviews.

Self-Esteem dan Motivasi Altruistik Siswa yang Mengikuti Kegiatan Pramuka di Sekolah

The study aims to uncover a self-esteem relationship with the altruistic motivations of students who participate in scouting activities. This research method uses a quantitative approach with a correlational descriptive method with a population of 104 people who come from students of State Junior High School 7 Sungai Penuh who participated in Scout activities, then samples were taken using a simple random sampling formula then obtained a sample of 83 people. The tool reveals self-esteem data in an adaptation of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (CSEI) and the altruistic motivation data researchers developed themselves, namely the Altruistic Motivation Scale (SMAL). The data of the study results were processed and analyzed descriptively to see the distribution of frequencies and then conducted a correlation test using Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The results of this study revealed that the self-esteem and altruistic motivation of students who participated in scouting activities in school were on average in the world

Preschoolers' Helping Motivations: Altruistic, Egoistic or Diverse?

Based on Eisenberg et al.'s model of prosocial motivations, the present study examined what motivates preschoolers to display instrumental helping and how various motivations develop during the preschool years. The participants were 477 preschoolers aged 3–5 years assigned to one of five groups. In each experimental group, the experimenter emphasized an altruistic or egoistic helping motivation, namely, empathic concern, moral rules, praise or rewards. In the control group, no helping motivations were emphasized. Their instrumental helping was then measured by sorting cards for a sick child to play a game. The results show that each helping motivation had a positive effect on instrumental helping. Most of the motivational effects were similar across age, but the motivational effect of empathic concern increased obviously at the age of 5 years. Therefore, the present study reveals that both altruistic and egoistic motivations motivate preschoolers to help others. Most of the motivations develop steadily during the preschool years, but empathic concern as an altruistic motivation increases greatly at the end of the preschool years. The present study thus confirms the diversity of preschoolers' helping motivations with Eisenberg et al.'s model of prosocial motivations.

Social Media Influencers in CSR Endorsement: The Effect of Consumer Mimicry on CSR Behaviors and Consumer Relationships

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a global norm for organizations to observe. In today’s shifting media landscape, social media influencers (SMIs) have become central actors in social-mediated CSR communication, connecting organizations and stakeholders by endorsing organizational CSR initiatives through self-generated messages. This study aimed to investigate how SMIs succeeded in creating positive behavioral and relational outcomes among consumers through the use of social media in the context of CSR communication. Data from a survey of 592 participants in the United States indicated that SMIs’ trustworthiness, expertise, uniqueness, and originality contributed to creating a desire in target consumers to emulate the SMIs who had endorsed a CSR initiative on Twitter. Consumers’ desire to do so drove their engagement in the CSR initiative directly, and indirectly did so through attribution of an altruistic motivation to the CSR initiative. Moreover, the target consumers’ CSR engagement and altruistic attribution further fostered their relationships with the corporation performing the CSR initiative. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Factors That Influence Length of Membership in a Customer-Driven Organization: A Village

Membership is a critical feature of the survival of customer-driven organizations. As a membership-driven organization based on neighbors helping neighbors, many Villages express difficulty in having enough members and lack confidence in sustainability. This is the first study examining the association between length of membership and motivation for becoming a Village member. ShareCare, the first Village, was founded in 1994. We used an open-ended questionnaire to gather information from a representative sample of current Sharecare members (N=100). Three researchers were involved in coding responses with discrepancies resolved via collaborative discussion. Length of membership was categorized as: less than 10-years, and more than a 10-year membership. Motivations to join membership in ShareCare were categorized as: instrumental, social, and altruistic. We conducted three separate logistic regressions with covariates controlled to examine associations between length of membership and various motivations to become a ShareCare member. While the most frequent reason for joining was instrumental where the member would receive service (e.g., care coordination, and home visit), the least motivation for joining was altruism, where the member could help other members (e.g., running errand, and lawn care). More than a 10-year membership was not associated with social or instrumental motivation to join ([OR] 0.50, p = 0.27, [OR] 0.94, p = 0.95) whereas more than a 10-year membership was associated with altruistic motivation to join ([OR] 5.31, p = 0.02). Our findings provide guidance regarding motivating members to join and maintain membership in a consumer-driven organization.

Self-image and social-image of the donors: Two different views from oocyte donors’ eyes

To identify the perceptions of women oocyte donors this qualitative study was conducted on 30 oocyte donors using in-depth interview. The three main categories of decision-making challenge, the consequences of participation in assisted reproductive treatment, and the contrast between the self-image and social-image of the donor were inferred. Financial and altruistic motivation, social taboo, and the approval of trusted people were the sub-categories of the decision-making challenge. The results of the study showed that the decision for oocyte donation follows the effort of women to balance the financial and spiritual benefits of the donation against its cultural barriers.