Which moral exemplars inspire prosociality?

Some stories of moral exemplars motivate us to emulate their admirable attitudes and behaviors, but why do some exemplars motivate us more than others? We systematically studied how motivation to emulate is influenced by the similarity between a reader and an exemplar in social or cultural background (Relatability) and how personally costly or demanding the exemplar’s actions are (Attainability). Study 1 found that university students reported more inspiration and related feelings after reading true stories about the good deeds of a recent fellow alum, compared to a famous moral exemplar from decades past. Study 2A developed a battery of short moral exemplar stories that more systematically varied Relatability and Attainability, along with a set of non-moral exemplar stories for comparison. Studies 2B and 2C examined the path from the story type to relatively low stakes altruism (donating to charity and intentions to volunteer) through perceived attainability and relatability, as well as elevation and pleasantness. Together, our studies suggest that it is primarily the relatability of the moral exemplars, not the attainability of their actions, that inspires more prosocial motivation, at least regarding acts that help others at a relatively low cost to oneself.

Visualizing compassion: Episodic simulation as contemplative practice

Contemplative interventions designed to cultivate compassion are receiving increasing empirical attention. Accumulating evidence suggests that these interventions bolster prosocial motivation and warmth towards others. Less is known about how these practices impact compassion in everyday life. Here we consider one mechanistic pathway through which compassion practices may impact perception and action in the world: simulation. Evidence suggests that vividly imagining a situation simulates that experience in the brain as if it were, to a degree, actually happening. Thus, we hypothesize that simulation during imagery-based contemplative practices can construct sensorimotor patterns in the brain that prime an individual to act compassionately in the world. We first present evidence across multiple literatures in Psychology that motivates this hypothesis, including the neuroscience of mental imagery and the emerging literature on prosocial episodic simulation. Then, we examine the specific contemplative practices in compassion-based interventions that may construct such simulations. We conclude with future directions for investigating how compassion-based interventions may shape prosocial perception and action in everyday life.

Research on the goal setting by modern students

The article presents a study of the goal setting by modern students. The authors analyze the role of goal setting in educational and future professional activities. The authors consider goal setting in the structure of valueoriented activity. They reveal the correlation of prosocial and egoistic values of students. The article provides a brief overview of modern approaches to goal setting. The authors consider various aspects of goal setting related to future professional activities, family life planning and the formation of material prosperity. The practical part of the study includes an analysis of goal setting based on a survey of 479 respondents (172 male, 307 female). The respondents were senior students of Novosibirsk universities. The researchers asked the respondents to formulate their life goals for one year, for five years, and for life. The results of this study are diverse. On the one hand, it reveals disturbing trends (a low level of prosocial motives expressed in the goal setting by students, as well as a small percentage of students who associate their future with research activities). Consumer motivation is expressed in student’s goal setting much more strongly than prosocial motivation. On the other hand, the results of the study allow us to speak about the preservation of the importance of family values in the views of modern students. There is a desire to acquire housing in the property, which indicates a tendency to settle down. This contradicts the ideas about the prospect of increasing the mobility of labor resources in Russia. It is also significant that only less than a third of young men and less than a third of girls expressed their intention to start their own business, which indirectly indicates the relatively modest prospects for the development of small and medium-sized businesses in Russia. Finally, the study showed a low level of emigrant sentiment among the surveyed students. The authors consider it expedient to organize such studies everywhere on an ongoing basis.

Seek What You Need

In Motive Disposition Theory, the affiliation motive describes our need to form mutually satisfying bonds, whereas the power motive is the wish to influence others. To understand how these social motives shape play experience, we explore their relationship to Self-Determination Theory and Flow Theory in League of Legends. We find that: higher intimacy motivation is associated with greater relatedness satisfaction, autonomy satisfaction, enjoyment, and the flow dimension of absorption; higher prosocial motivation with more effort invested and the flow dimension fluency of performance; and higher dominance motivation with lower relatedness satisfaction but higher competence satisfaction and increased flow in both dimensions. We demonstrate that in addition to being driven to satisfy universal needs, players also possess individualized needs that explain our underlying motives and ultimately shape our gaming preferences and experiences. Our results suggest that people do not merely gravitate towards need-supportive situations, but actively seek, change, and create situations based on their individualized motives.