Imagination and the Prosocial Personality: Mapping the Effect of Episodic Simulation on Helping Across Prosocial Traits

Prior work suggests that imagining helping others increases prosocial intentions and behavior towards those individuals. But is this true for everyone, or only for those who tend towards – or away from – helping more generally? The current study (N=283) used an imagined helping paradigm and a battery of behavioral and self-report measures of trait prosociality to determine whether the prosocial benefits of imagination depend upon an individual’s general tendency to help others. Replicating prior work, we found links between imagination and prosociality and support for a three-factor model of prosociality comprising altruistically, norm-motivated, and self-reported prosocial behaviors. Centrally, the effects of imagination on prosociality were slightly larger for less altruistic individuals but independent of norm-motivated and self-reported prosociality. These results suggest leveraging people’s abilities for episodic simulation as a promising strategy for increasing prosociality in general, and perhaps particularly for those least likely to help otherwise.

Can Narratives Increase Compliance?

The current study assessed whether vicariously experiencing story characters granting a small favor can induce similar intentions from its audiences. Acting upon the perspectives of story characters, audiences may agree to a subsequent larger request to the same cause, as in the case of vicarious foot-in-the-door (VFITD). Study 1 found that a VFITD story was more effective in eliciting prosocial intentions than a non-VFITD story and a non-narrative message. That is, the VFITD condition generated greater intentions to volunteer in a series of activities, with attitudes mediating this process. Study 2 replicated this result. It also showed that when a VFITD story can generate sufficient levels of identification, it is more effective than a non-VFITD narrative in eliciting prosocial intentions. Implications of this study are also discussed.

The effects of constructive television news reporting on prosocial intentions and behavior in children: The role of negative emotions and self-efficacy

To reduce negative emotional responses and to stimulate prosociality, constructive journalism promotes the inclusion of positive emotions and solutions in news. This study experimentally tested whether including those elements indeed increased prosocial intentions and behavior among children, and whether negative emotions and self-efficacy are mediators in this regard. To this end, children (N = 468; 9 to 13 years old) were exposed to an emotion-based, solution-based, or non-constructive news video. Results showed that emotion-based and solution-based news reduced children’s negative emotions compared to non-constructive news. No direct effects for prosocial intentions were found, but solution-based news led to less prosocial behavior (i. e., money donated) than emotion-based and non-constructive news. Moreover, negative emotions served as a mediator, self-efficacy did not. The more negative emotions were elicited by a news story, the higher the prosocial intentions and behavior. In conclusion, a constructive style of reporting helps to reduce children’s negative emotional responses but subsequently hinders prosociality.

Da Silva et al. (2021). Accueil des réfugiés en France : le point de vue des Français d’origine maghrébine et des Français « natifs » . Psychologie française

Studies on attitudes towards refugees in France have only focused on “native” French people. Extending the study beyond the majority group is important, given the multicultural composition of contemporary Western societies. To this end, 144 "native" French and 109 Maghrebi French were surveyed. We first tested the model whereby the link between national identification and prosocial intentions towards refugees is mediated by the threat perception. This model only applies to "native" French participants. We then took a closer look at the precursors of prosocial intentions among Maghrebi French (i.e., misrecognition of national belonging). Even if the feeling of identity misrecognition among Maghrebi French seems to be associated with the expression of prosocial intentions, the extent of its negative consequences should not be overlooked.

Public Perceptions of COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing Technologies During the Pandemic in Germany

Digital contact-tracing technologies are being used for epidemiological purposes at scale for the first time in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This poses challenges for governments aiming at high and efficient uptake and for people weighing the advantages (e.g., public health) against the potential risks (e.g., loss of data privacy) of these unprecedented measures. Our cross-sectional survey with repeated measures across four samples in Germany (N = 4,357) focused on public perceptions of digital contact-tracing technologies and related attitudes toward privacy. We found that public acceptance of potential privacy-encroaching measures decreased over time. Levels of acceptability were high for all three hypothetical tracking apps representing a range of privacy encroachments. Intentions to download the actual tracking app (the Corona-Warn-App) that became available during our study were also high. However, this did not directly translate into actual uptake. Our results point to the crucial roles of trust in government and in the app's security, as well as of concerns about the app's effectiveness. A conflict between prosocial intentions and personal benefit on the one hand, and lack of trust in data security and the app's effectiveness on the other, are at the heart of people's decisions about whether to use digital contact-tracing technologies.

The Impact of Writing About Gratitude on the Intention to Engage in Prosocial Behaviors During the COVID-19 Outbreak

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has quickly swept the globe leaving a devastating trail of lost human lives and leading to a public health and economic crisis. With this in mind, prosociality has been heralded as a potential important factor to overcome the negative effects of the pandemic. As such, in this study, we examined the effectiveness of a brief reflexive writing exercise about recent experiences of gratitude on individuals’ intentions to engage in prosocial behaviors using a sample of 253 participants living in Portugal and 280 participants living in Brazil. Participants were randomly assigned to either a condition in which they were asked to write about recent experiences of gratitude or a control group in which they were asked to write about daily tasks. We predicted that the gratitude intervention would increase state gratitude and, consequently, increase positive affect and empathic concern, and decrease negative affect, leading to increased intentions to engage in prosocial behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. A moderated serial–parallel mediation analysis, in which we controlled for gender, age, and level of religiosity, indicated that our manipulation led to increases in state gratitude, which in turn increased positive emotions and empathic concern, leading to increased prosocial intentions in both countries. A content analysis of participants’ responses in the gratitude group revealed that relationships with others and health and well-being were the central themes of their gratitude experiences during the COVID-19 global pandemic.

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.

Abnormality in News Stories

What makes people show emotional responses toward victims of social injustice in news stories? What are the behavioral consequences of these emotions? Using an online experiment, this study examined the effects of abnormality perception on how people make cognitive and affective assessments of a negative social event. We found that content abnormality (i.e., an unusual/unexpected event) perceived in news stories leads people to attribute less responsibility to the victim and experience stronger emotional responses (i.e., anger and sadness). This in turn increases the desire for a stronger punishment toward the perpetrator. Syntactic abnormality (i.e., negation) indirectly influenced punitive judgment by increasing the responsibility attributed to the offender. The use of negation as the dominant sentence structure (syntactic abnormality) reduced prosocial intentions, but only when the news story was depicted as an abnormal occurrence (content abnormality). These findings illuminate the interconnections between abnormality perception, emotion, and judgment.