Do Real-World Prosociality Programs Predict Greater Psychological Well-Being in Kids?

Numerous laboratory studies suggest that engaging in prosocial action predicts greater psychological well-being, yet little work has examined whether kids (aged 5–12) experience these benefits in real-world community settings. In Study 1, we surveyed 24/25 students who completed their entire Grade 6 curriculum in a long-term care home alongside residents called “Elders.” We found that the meaning that kids derived from interacting with the Elders strongly predicted greater psychological well-being. In Study 2, we conducted a pre-registered field experiment with 238 kids who were randomly assigned to package essential items for disadvantaged children who were either demographically similar or dissimilar to them. Kids self-reported their happiness both pre- and post-intervention. While happiness increased from pre- to post-intervention, this change did not differ for kids who helped a similar or dissimilar recipient. These studies offer real-world evidence that engaging in prosocial action—over an afternoon or year—may enhance kids’ psychological well-being.

Investigating the Impact of Action Framing Manipulations On Ultimatum Game Players

The present study aimed at investigating the impact of action framing manipulations − which consists in priming an individual to act in a certain way − on ultimatum game players. In Experiment 1 (N = 188), participants who played as responders were asked to indicate which offers (from 1€ to 9€) they would either accept or reject. Responders’ minimal offer acceptable was higher in the reject frame than in the accept frame, suggesting that compared to the reject frame the accept action frame primed responders to accept a wider range of offers and favored the acceptance of unfair offers. In Experiment 2 (N = 400), participants played as proposer and were asked to indicate either how much money they wanted to keep for themselves (i.e., selfish frame) or give to the responder (i.e., prosocial frame). Surprisingly, proposers were found to be more generous in the selfish frame than in the prosocial frame. Compared to the prosocial frame, the selfish frame may have led proposers to focus more intensely on the loss inflicted to the responder which triggered a stronger anticipated feeling of guilt, thereby inducing them to be more generous in the selfish than in the prosocial action frame.

Defining empathy: Interconnected discourses of virtual reality’s prosocial impact

While a consumer revolution in virtual reality (VR) has piqued the interest of many fields, industries, and professions, it is unclear when, how, and to what degree the technology can elicit empathy. To better understand how the relationship between VR and empathy is communicated and defined, we performed qualitative and quantitative thematic analyses on popular ( N = 640) and academic articles ( N = 53) that included both terms. Findings revealed empathy is an aspirational term for journalists and researchers to showcase the potential of immersive media for prosocial change. Writers in both corpora suggested that empathetic experiences could lead to prosocial action through VR, but do not consistently define or measure empathy, given the inherent complexities surrounding the term. Drawing on seminal research in the field, we conclude with a definition of empathy related to immersive media.

How Does Personalization in News Stories Influence Intentions to Help With Drought? Assessing the Influence of State Empathy and Its Antecedents

Personalized stories are a powerful tool for communicating about science, particularly when a scientific topic is complex or unfamiliar. One example of such a topic is drought, something many regions of the world face regularly. Like other environmental challenges, drought recovery efforts benefit from a mobilized collective response through prosocial action, including volunteering and donations. The objective of this study was to examine how storytelling about drought influences emotional responses and empathic processes that in turn contribute to prosocial action. Using data collected from an online survey (N = 249) with undergraduate students, the current study tests the hypothesis that, relative to non-personalized stories, personalized news stories about drought will increase audiences' cognitive and emotional responses, including perceived suffering, narrative engagement, and state empathy. In addition, this study examines how emotional responses to personalized news stories influence readers' intentions to donate to farmers suffering from drought. Results reveal that personalized news stories are more likely than non-personalized stories to increase readers' state empathy and perceptions of others' suffering. Perceived suffering was directly related to the affective and cognitive dimensions of state empathy. Narrative engagement (i.e., transportation) was also directly related to the affective and cognitive dimensions of state empathy and indirectly associated with intentions to donate to assist those suffering from drought. Affective state empathy was directly associated with donation intentions, suggesting that an emotional response to media portrayals of suffering may promote prosocial intentions. We discuss the potential implications for using personalized news stories about drought and other natural disasters to motivate prosocial action.

Antropomorfisme Brand: Kampanye Digital Pencegahan Covid-19 Oleh Traveloka

Covid-19 has become a pandemic and the government is still trying to break the chain of this virus. Changes occur in many sectors in society, one of which is the accommodation and tourism sector. Traveloka, as one of the unicorn startups included in the accommodation and tourism sector, was also affected by the impact of Covid-19. In response to this complicated situation, Traveloka has adapted creatively by creating its latest advertisement in the form of a Covid-19 campaign. Traveloka tries to highlight the anthropomorphic side. The focus of this research is how Traveloka as a startup unicorn is able to capture millions of attention through personal closeness through anthropomorphism. The purpose of this research is to find out how brand anthropomorphism is in the Traveloka digital campaign as a social movement for the prevention of Covid-19. This study used a qualitative-descriptive approach by collecting data from in-depth interviews, observations, and literature studies. The result of this research is Traveloka uses anthropomorphism elements as an advertising attraction with anthropomorphic elements to generate sympathetic feelings from informants. This sympathetic feeling led to the informants' prosocial action to participate in fighting Covid-19.

Disengagement is as revealing as prosocial action for young children’s responding to strangers in distress: How personal distress and empathic concern come into play

In a paradigm of simulated stranger distress designed to elicit empathic arousal, this study examined multiple elements of responding in 61 preschoolers. Disengagement from stranger distress was underscored in addition to prosocial responding. All children encountered a female adult stranger feigning stomach ache followed by an infant manikin emitting cry sound in a bassinet. Behaviors were coded for other-oriented behaviors, personal distress, and disengagement. In contrast to the traditional supposition, behaviors indicative of personal distress covaried positively with empathic concern and negatively with disengagement. The findings of multiple regression analysis demonstrated how empathic concern and personal distress jointly related to disengaging behaviors in children’s response to stranger distress.

Emotional contexts influence toddlers’ prosocial strategies

Prosocial behavior is a highly heterogeneous construct, and young children use distinct prosocial actions in response to differing emotional needs of another person. This study examined whether toddlers’ prosocial responses differed in response to two understudied emotional contexts—whether or not children caused a victim’s distress and the specific emotion expressed by the victim. Toddlers ( N = 86; M age = 35 months) and their parent participated in two separate mishap paradigms in which parents feigned pain and sadness, respectively. Half of the sample was led to believe they had transgressed to cause their parent’s distress, whereas the other half simply witnessed parent distress as bystanders. Results indicated that toddlers were overall equally prosocial when they were transgressors compared to when they were bystanders and significantly more prosocial in response to sadness than pain. Toddlers were significantly more likely to use affection as transgressors than bystanders, information seeking as bystanders than transgressors, and affection in response to pain than sadness. All children used greater helping in response to sadness than pain, and this was especially true when they were bystanders. Findings add to mounting evidence of the complexity of prosocial action in early childhood by identifying that two, distinct emotional contexts influence the amount and type of prosocial behaviors that toddlers use to help others.

Does Mindfulness Training Without Explicit Ethics-Based Instruction Promote Prosocial Behaviors? A Meta-Analysis

Scholarly discourse has raised concerns about the gravitas of secular mindfulness trainings in promoting prosocial outgrowths, as these trainings lack ethics-based concepts found in contemplative traditions. Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted to test whether mindfulness trainings absent explicit ethics-based instructions promote prosocial action. There was a range of small to medium standardized mean difference effect sizes of mindfulness training on overt acts of prosociality when compared with active and inactive controls, k = 29, N = 3,100, g = .426, 95% confidence interval (CI)( g) = [.304, .549]. Reliable effect size estimates were found for single-session interventions that measured prosocial behavior immediately after training. Mindfulness training also reliably promotes compassionate (but not instrumental or generous) helping and reliably reduces prejudice and retaliation. Publication bias analyses indicated that the reliability of these findings was not wholly dependent on selective reporting. Implications for the science of secular mindfulness training on prosocial action are discussed.