Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2024-01-31
Abstract： People who help others often find themselves in a predicament: they desire recognition for their acts of kindness, yet feel ashamed and hesitant to showcase their benevolent deeds. From a social perspective, a paradox emerges - altruistic acts must be known to be disseminated and emulated, yet the humble moral principle of "doing good without seeking recognition" discourages the active display of benevolence.
Does flaunting altruistic deeds genuinely result in negative evaluations from others? This study focuses on the concept of conspicuous altruism, that is, publicly displayed altruism, and examines the perception gap between the altruist and bystander, hypothesizing that helpers would underestimate bystanders' evaluations of conspicuous altruistic behavior.
We conducted seven experiments to examine the prediction bias within conspicuous altruism and delve into its underlying mechanisms. In Study 1a (N = 199), Study 1b (N = 147), and Study 1c (N = 400), we presented screenshots of conspicuous altruistic content from social media networks to preliminarily examine whether helpers underestimate bystanders' evaluations of their actions. In Study 2 (N = 140), we utilized microblogs and tangible mementos as vehicles for conspicuous altruism to retest the main effect. Study 3 (N = 140) involved simulated volunteer activities, requiring helpers to engage in actual acts of kindness while bystanders observed altruistic content, once again investigating the prediction bias. In Study 4a (N = 140) and Study 4b (N = 199), we explored the mediating role of perceived altruistic motives and the motive to flaunt, using social media posts and verbal self-promotion as forms of conspicuous altruism. Our findings revealed that, compared to helpers' predictions, bystanders perceived stronger altruistic motives behind conspicuous altruistic behavior, while the mediating role of flaunting motives was not significant.
This research unveils the prediction bias associated with conspicuous altruism, where helpers tend to underestimate bystanders' evaluations of their actions, and explores the underlying psychological mechanisms. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of conspicuous altruistic behavior and its societal evaluations, providing a basis for encouraging helpers to openly address their impression management motives, actively promote altruistic actions, and thereby enhance the culture of altruism at the societal level.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Understanding the characteristics of social judgments in helping and help-seeking is profoundly essential to facilitate efficient and satisfactory interactions among human beings. Potential helpers and help-recipients have asymmetric perceptions in several aspects, including likelihood of seeking or receiving help, efforts invested in helping, anticipated emotions, and preferred manners in which aid is given. In consequence, they frequently mispredict how others truly think, feel and behave, which may inhibit the occurrence of cooperation and the spread of prosocial behavior. We propose that such prediction errors are inevitable under the joint influence of individual cognitive limitations and social factors. To bridge the gap between helpers and help-recipients, individuals and organizations should take its causes into account. Future research is encouraged to investigate the manifestation of prediction errors in online helping, emotional assistance, and between close others.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： If the influence of income and trade cost were neglected, it is natural that people are willing to pay the same for something as they would require when sell it. However, Prof. Thaler discovered that it is not always the truth. It happens in daily life that individuals attach higher value to the things they own and thus their willingness to pay and willingness to sell for the very item may differ. Enlightened by the prospect theory, Thaler explained this anomaly by loss aversion and named it endowment effect. Following him, many researchers have made further exploration and argument from various angles. In this paper, we summarized previous work about endowment effect and list different explanations including loss aversion theory, psychological ownership theory, biased cognitive processing theory and evolution theory. This paper elaborated the interrelationship and disputes among the theories and finally gave the reason why endowment effect is not abnormal. Meanwhile, endowment effect plays an important role in guiding government work as well as business strategy making. Future research should enrich the theory framework, expand applications and strengthen the research in Chinese background.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： It is critical to define the indicators when discussing “Healthy Aging”. “Quality of Life (QoL)” as a comprehensive concept, includes physical, psychological, social and environmental aspects, which surpasses traditional definitions such as “life expectancy” and “healthy life expectancy”. QoL is a widely accepted concept that emphasizes on subjectivity, plasticity and multi-dimension. Interventions based on positive psychological factors promoting elder’s QoL are explored. The recessing of physical system is unavoidable during the aging process, but active participation of individual’s psychological system could march to the rhythm of “quality of life” on elders.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Altruistic behavior is a behavior that benefits others at a cost to oneself, which is of great significance to groups and individuals. People differ significantly in their everyday altruistic behaviors, which is partly influenced by genetic factors. Recently, researchers have focused on the role of genes in altruistic behavior. First, the heritability of altruistic behavior was explored based on the method of quantitative genetics. A large number of studies have confirmed that altruistic behavior is indeed affected by heredity, and heritability estimates vary among studies (0~0.87). The heritability of altruistic behavior may be influenced by factors such as age, the method of measurement, and some environmental factors (e.g., culture, family environments). Second, based on molecular genetic research, researchers have found four categories of altruism-related candidate genes, including dopamine receptor genes, serotonin transporter genes, oxytocin receptor genes, and vasopressin receptor genes. These findings confirmed that altruistic behavior was correlated with some gene loci. Taken together, both quantitative and molecular genetic studies have provided abundant genetic evidence of altruistic behavior. Furthermore, according to the aforementioned studies, the environment has been proven not only to affect the heritability of altruistic behavior but also to play a key role in the influence of genes on altruistic behavior in both quantitative and molecular genetic studies. On the one hand, genotype is associated with an environment that jointly influences altruistic behavior, known as gene-environment correlation. There are three types of gene-environment correlations: passive, evocative and active. On the other hand, the effect of genetics on altruistic behavior is influenced by the environment, known as the differential susceptibility model; that is, the environment affects the development of the altruistic behavior of susceptibility gene carriers in a manner of “strengthening or weakening.” Accordingly, a large number of findings regarding the interactions between genes and the environment on altruism have been found in oxytocin receptor genes and dopamine receptor genes. The current studies have some problems, such as speculative selection of altruistic candidate genes and inconsistent conclusions. Future research needs to expand on and further explore the effect of neurobiological systems on altruistic behavior, which may focus on genome-wide research, meta-analysis, mechanism exploration, and systematic environmental intervention practice.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Physiological Psychology submitted time 2022-01-20
Abstract：
Altruistic behavior is a behavior that benefits others at a cost to oneself. Recently, researchers have focused on the role of genes in altruistic behavior. Based on quantitative and molecular genetics, the heritability of altruism is summarized, demonstrating the influence of heredity on altruistic behavior; and four categories of altruistic related candidate genes are discussed, including dopamine receptor gene, serotonin transporter gene, oxytocin receptor gene, and vasopressin receptor gene, then an in-depth discussion of the influence of environment on the relationship between genetics and altruism is included. On the one hand, genotype is associated with environment that jointly influence altruistic behavior, known as gene-environment correlation; on the other hand, the effect of genetics on altruistic behavior is influenced by the environment, known as the differential susceptibility model. Future research need to expand on and further explore the effect of neurobiological system on altruistic behavior, which may focus on genome-wide research, meta-analysis, mechanism exploration, and systematic environmental intervention practice.
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