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The time after the COVID-19 pandemic posed a threat to engagement in prosocial behaviors within charity organizations. In the current study, we intended to test how three motivational paths: affective empathy-based, life satisfaction-based, and perceived social support-based shaped the change in intentions to give money and time to charity organizations over a yearly period (right after revocation of the most essential anti-COVID-19 laws and at the same time, outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022, in May 2022 and after a year, in late April-early May 2023). We also tested how past negative and present hedonistic time perspectives–namely, those most robust in predicting emotional states ‐ shaped the changes in the abovementioned motivational paths and giving intentions. We conducted our longitudinal study on the general population of Poland (N = 566). We found that there has been a significant drop in the willingness to give time to organizations over the year after loosening the COVID-19 restrictions and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. We found that affective empathy helped sustain the intentions to give time to organizations, whereas past negative time perspective contributed to the decrease in such intentions. Our study suggests threats to organizations and highlights potential ways to encourage supporting them and caring for their volunteers' well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study delves into the complex dynamics of ethical leadership's influence on employees' pro-social rule-breaking behavior, taking into account the mediating role of psychological capital and the moderating effect of moral identity. Using data collected from nursing staff in Pakistani hospitals and analyzed through PLS SEM, the study yielded unexpected results. Contrary to the initial hypotheses, the findings reveal a positive relationship between ethical leadership and employees' pro-social rule-breaking behavior within organizational settings. Furthermore, the study identifies psychological capital as a key mediator in this relationship, while moral identity emerges as a crucial moderator. These results challenge the conventional perception of ethical leadership as an exclusively positive form of leadership and underscore its unintended consequences. Moreover, they underscore the significance of employees' psychological processes and individual differences in unraveling this paradoxical relationship. These results have the potential to reshape how organizations view ethical leadership and consider the unintended outcomes it may generate. Future research can build upon these findings to explore the boundaries and contextual factors that influence the effects of ethical leadership, ultimately contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of leadership dynamics in diverse organizational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multiple studies, we found that people who are viewed as possessing a stronger desire for status are, ironically, afforded lower status by others. Coworkers who were viewed as having a higher (versus lower) desire for status (Study 1a and 1b), and individuals who were described as having a higher desire for status (versus a lower desire for status or no information), were afforded lower status (Studies 2, 3a, and 3b). Mediation analyses and an experimental manipulation of the mediator (Study 3a and 3b) suggested that the observed negative effect of desire for status on status was mediated primarily by perceptions of low prosociality. These findings have important implications for status organizing processes in groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In response to the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown measures Move Well, Feel Good (MWFG) was developed as a school intervention using improvement of motor competence as a mechanism for promoting positive mental health. Study objectives were to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of MWFG and to describe changes in child-level outcomes. Methods: Five northwest England primary schools were recruited. MWFG was delivered over 10-weeks through physical education (PE) lessons, which were supplemented by optional class-time, break-time, and home activities. The intervention focused on development of 9–10 year-old children's motor competence in locomotor, object control, and stability skills, and psychosocial skills. Feasibility was evaluated against nine pre-defined criteria using surveys, interviews (teachers), and focus groups (children). Pre- and post-intervention assessments of motor competence, mental health, prosocial behaviour, wellbeing, and 24-hour movement behaviours were also completed. Results: The five recruited schools represented 83% of the target number, 108 children consented (54% of target) with teachers recruited in all schools (100% of target). Intervention dose was reflected by 76% of the 45 scheduled PE lessons being delivered, and adherence was strong (>85% of children attending ≥75% of lessons). Positive indicators of acceptability were provided by 86% of children, 83% of PE teachers, and 90% of class teachers. Data collection methods were deemed acceptable by 91% of children and 80% of class teachers, and children spoke positively about participating in the data collection. Child-level outcome data collection was completed by 65%-97% of children, with a 3%-35% attrition rate at post-intervention, depending on measure. Favourable changes in motor competence (+13.7%), mental health difficulties (-8.8%), and prosocial behaviour (+7.6%) were observed. Conclusions: MWFG is an acceptable and feasible motor competence intervention to promote positive mental health. Content and delivery modifications could inform progression to a pilot trial with a more robust design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to biobehavioral synchronicity model, empathy—a fundamental requirement for reciprocal and prosocial behavior—is at the core of rebound from stress, an essential feature of resilience. However, there are also reports on antagonistic traits—characterized by empathic deficit—bolstering immunity to stress. In the literature there is also inconclusive evidence regarding gender-related differences in resilience. In separate female and male subsamples we analyzed the network constellation entailing resilience (assessed as rebound from stress), empathic (cognitive empathy, affective resonance, and affective dissonance) and antagonistic personality traits (Machiavellianism, grandiose- and vulnerable narcissism). For both genders, Machiavellian agency instigated by narcissistic admiration occupied the central position in the network indicating that personality's resources for proactivity and control are essential for successful rebound. Empathy, and in particular its affective component, occupied only a peripheral position in the network. Machiavellian antagonism in men and grandiose narcissism in females bridged prosocial mechanism of resilience with antagonistic nodes of the network. In the female subsample both types of malign narcissism (rivalry and vulnerable narcissism) directly thwarted rebound. This process was not detected in the male subsample network dominated by antagonism. That is, gender-related differences were associated with the avoidance strategies rather than with the proactive strategies. Thus, resilience assessed as rebounding from stress primarily involves personality resources which modulate proactive- and prosocial- but not necessarily reciprocal behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective rituals, particularly those characterized by synchrony and pain, have been shown to yield positive social and emotional outcomes. The question arises as to whether these findings extend to low-arousal, family-centered rituals and how spiritual beliefs factor into these communal practices. This study set out to examine the interplay between belief, ritual participation, and their effects on anxiety, social cohesion, and prosocial behavior during a low-arousal collective ritual in Mikasa, Japan. Drawing upon a sample of 183 festival participants, we measured belief in ancestors using a novel scale, identifying significant and consistent associations between these beliefs and measures of social cohesion across multiple targets. Moreover, active participation as a festival dancer displayed a positive relationship with feelings of social cohesion, particularly towards other festival attendees and at the national level. On measures of prosocial behavior, ancestral beliefs were positively associated with generosity shown within the festival setting, whereas observers were less generous towards community members than a non-attending control group. Anxiety outcomes displayed a negative relationship with ancestral beliefs and ritual observation but not participation as seen in previous research, suggesting a complex interplay between rituals, emotions, and individual states. These findings provide novel insights into the importance of belief systems and active participation in shaping social bonds and behaviors in the context of collective rituals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defining and measuring self-discrepancies in mind perception between how an individual sees their actual self in comparison to their ideal or ought self has a long but challenging history in psychology. Here we present a new approach for measuring and operationalizing discrepancies of mind by employing the mind perception framework that has been applied successfully to a variety of other psychological constructs. Across two studies (N = 265, N = 205), participants were recruited online to fill in a modified version of the mind perception survey with questions pertaining to three domains (actual, ideal, ought) and two agents (self versus partner). The results revealed that participants idealized and thought they ought to have greater agency (the ability to do) and diminished experience (the ability to feel) for both themselves and their partner. Sex differences were also examined across both studies, and while minor differences emerged, the effects were not robust across the collective evidence from both studies. The overall findings suggest that the mind perception approach can be used to distill a large number of qualities of mind into meaningful facets for interpretation in relation to self-discrepancy theory. This method can breathe new life into the field with future investigations directed at understanding self-discrepancies in relation to prosocial behaviour and psychological well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical psychometric approaches in social science measure individuals' tendency to experience empathy and compassion. Using abstract questionnaire items, they place high demand on subjects' capacity to introspect, memorize, and generalize the corresponding emotions. We employed a Socio-affective Video Task (SoVT)—an alternative approach that measures situationally elicited emotions—and assessed its predictive power over prosocial behavior against classical questionnaires in a sample of Israeli university students. We characterized the conceptual embedding of the SoVT concerning other measures of prosocial affect and cognition, and tested group identification as an alternative precursor to prosocial behavior. Eighty participants rated their reactions to videos that presented the suffering of others or everyday scenes on scales of negative affect (providing a proxy for elicited empathy) and compassion. We then administered classical questionnaires that target empathy (the Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and compassion (the Compassionate Love Scale), as well as measures of hypothetical and real-life helping and prosocial attitudes—including conflict attitudes and intergroup bias. While compassion ratings in the SoVT failed to predict prosociality more accurately than classical questionnaires, the SoVT empathy index succeeded and correlated strongly with other precursors of prosociality. These results support video-based situational assessment as an implicit and robust alternative in the measurement of empathy-related processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prosocial behavior has positive social, cognitive, and physical health effects on the individual exhibiting the behavior as well as on society as a whole, and is integral to overall mental and physical wellbeing. The development of prosocial behavior is rooted in early childhood and learned through observation. As such, those spending time with children, especially their caregiver, play a critical role in their prosocial development. The current study investigates the impact of caregiver mental health on the prosocial development of young children over time. Methods: This paper presents a secondary analysis of child prosocial development in the Asenze Study, a longitudinal, population-based cohort study based in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Children were followed-up over time from an average age of five to seven years along with their caregivers. Linear GEE regression analysis was used to assess whether a change in presence of a mental health disorder in a caregiver during this 2-year interval (using the Client Diagnostic Questionnaire) impacted the development of their child's prosocial behavior (using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire). Results: After adjusting for early child-care, child HIV status, SDQ child prosocial subscale, SDQ total difficulties score, and household order score (CHAOS), children whose caregivers acquired a mental health disorder had a significantly smaller increase in prosocial behavioral development compared to children whose caregivers never had a mental health disorder. Conclusions: Identifying contextually relevant modifiable factors such as this will help stimulate the development of interventions to promote prosocial development in childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-serving biases (e.g., beliefs that one tends to perform better than peers) are generally associated with positive psychological outcomes like increased self-esteem and resilience. However, this tendency may be problematic in the context of collective action problems, wherein individuals are reliant on others' pro-social behaviors to achieve larger goals. We examined this question in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and recruited participants for an online study (n = 1023) from a university community in Spring 2020. We found evidence for self-peer asymmetries in Covid-related knowledge and restriction behavior, such that participants reported that they knew more about Covid-related symptoms, were doing more to stop the spread of the disease, and were more pro-socially motivated in doing so than peers. Actual peer reports indicated that these were overestimations. This self-enhancement comes with a cost: the perceived self-peer restriction behavior asymmetry had an indirect effect on the positive relationships both from Covid-specific worry and from perceived stress to general anxiety symptom intensity during the early lockdown period. People tended to have more severe symptoms of anxiety when they were more worried about Covid-19 and when they reported greater perceived stress, especially when they underestimated others' contributions to public health action relative to their own. This suggests that lack of trust in others' pro-sociality may be personally maladaptive for mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children with disabilities have an increased risk of mental health problems. Patterns of mental health problems and well-being may vary. Aims: To identify patterns of mental health problems and well-being in children with disabilities in Sweden, and investigate the influence of parental background (migration, education), and child cognitive level. Method: In this cross-sectional study, cluster analysis was used to analyse parents' ratings of conduct problems, emotional symptoms, and prosocial behaviour on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in children with disabilities (n = 136). The influence of parental background (migration, education) and child cognitive level on cluster membership was explored through multinomial logistic regression. Results: Five clusters of mental health patterns emerged. Three clusters had mean ratings near or past clinical cut-off for one each of the SDQ-subscales. One cluster had difficulties on all three subscales. Greater child cognitive difficulties increased the likelihood of low prosocial behaviour (OR 2.501, p <.001) and of difficulties on all three subscales (OR 2.155, p =.006). Parental background did not influence cluster membership. Conclusion: Children with disabilities display varying mental health patterns. Awareness of the complexity of mental health patterns among children with disabilities is important. Screening and support for emotional symptoms and prosocial behaviour deficits should be considered for children with conduct problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a collective opportunity to engage in prosocial behaviours, including kindness; however, little is known about the long-term impacts of the pandemic on such behaviours. As a part of a larger study (Health Outcomes for Adults During and Following the COVID-19 Pandemic), the purpose of this mixed methods research was two-fold: (1) to quantitatively explore adults' prosocial behaviour over time during the first 16 months of the pandemic in Ontario, Canada (April 2020-August 2021); and, (2) to more deeply explore, via focus groups, a sub-sample of Ontario adults' lived experiences of prosocial behaviour (assessed March 2022). A total of 2,188 participants were included in this study, with the majority of participants identifying as female (89.5%). At three time points, participants completed online questionnaires which included demographics, Prosocialness Scale for Adults, and three global kindness questions. A subset of participants (n = 42) also participated in one of six focus groups exploring their experiences of prosocial behaviour during the pandemic. A series of one-way repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that participants' self-reported prosocial behaviour increased significantly over time, while participants' awareness of kindness, engagement in acts of kindness, and view of kindness as crucial significantly decreased. Thematic analysis revealed three main themes: (1) shift in prosocial behaviour during the pandemic; (2) kindness from various perspectives; and, (3) prosocial burnout. This study provides insight into the longer-term effects of the pandemic on adults' prosocial behaviours and should be leveraged to help understand how individuals respond in times of crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosocial behaviour is pronounced in humans and prevalent in some non-human animals, however, the occurrence of the trait in chickens has not yet been investigated. Here, we studied the occurrence of prosociality in four different lines of adult female chickens. To explore the effects of domestication, chickens of the domesticated layer White Leghorn (WL) and the ancestral Red Junglefowl (RJF) were compared. Additionally, to explore the role of tameness, Red Junglefowl selected for high (RJF HF), or low (RJF LF) fear of humans were also studied. The hens were all tested in a prosocial choice task adapted from a previous study conducted on rats. Each individual was first trained to differentiate between a compartment where itself and a companion received food treats simultaneously (representing a prosocial choice), and one where only itself received the treat. Following training, each bird was tested in a free-choice set-up. No occurrence of prosociality was found at group level in any of the lines, however, our results suggest that the trait may occur in some individuals, and that domestication and increased tameness may have increased its prevalence, although alternative explanations such as side bias and social competition cannot be ruled out. Since this study is the first of its kind, further research is required to make any definite conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ongoing debate about whether the relationship between income and pro-social behaviour depends on economic inequality. Studies investigating this question differ in their conclusions but are consistent in measuring inequality at aggregated geographic levels (i.e. at the state, region, or country-level). I hypothesise that local, more immediate manifestations of inequality are important for driving pro-social behaviour, and test the interaction between income and inequality at a much finer geographical resolution than previous studies. I first analyse the charitable giving of US households using ZIP-code level measures of inequality and data on tax deductible charitable donations reported to the IRS. I then examine whether the results generalise using a large-scale UK household survey and neighbourhood-level inequality measures. In both samples I find robust evidence of a significant interaction effect, albeit in the opposite direction as that which has been previously postulated–higher income individuals behave more pro-socially rather than less when local inequality is high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research suggests that social exclusion is linked to a decrease in individuals' prosocial behavior. However, this effect has not been examined in an intergroup context. We manipulated social acceptance (using the Cyberball game) to examine participants' sharing with ingroup or outgroup members in a minimal group paradigm. Results revealed that when the prospective recipient was a group member who rejected them, socially excluded participants shared less than their socially accepted counterparts. However, when faced with members of an outgroup, socially excluded participants showed similar levels of prosocial behavior as their socially accepted counterparts. Further results suggest that the tendency of socially excluded participants to act in a less prosocial manner toward members of a group that had rejected them was generalized to the group as a whole (including group members with whom there had been no previous interaction). We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study contrasts two forms of peer status as sources of friend influence: Relative likeability and relative popularity. Participants included 310 children (142 boys, 168 girls), ages 9 to 12, in stable reciprocated friendships. Peer nominations were collected at two time points, 8 to 14 weeks apart. After removing overlapping variance through residualization, partners in each friend dyad were categorized into roles on the basis of relative (to the partner) popularity and relative (to the partner) likeability. Dyadic analyses compared more- and less-liked friends and more- and less-popular friends in terms of their influence over physical aggression, relational aggression, prosocial behavior, and academic achievement. Higher initial relational aggression, prosocial behavior, and academic achievement among more-liked partners predicted greater increases in the same among less-liked partners, but not the reverse. Unexpectedly, physical aggression among less-liked partners predicted increases in physical aggression among more-liked partners. More popular friends did not influence less popular friends on any of these variables, although (also unexpectedly) less-popular friends influenced the academic achievement of more-popular friends. Taken together, the findings suggest that during the pre- and early adolescent years, relative influence within a friendship tends to be apportioned on the basis of likeability, not popularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prosocial behavior is negatively associated with psychopathic traits and paradigms which measure prosocial behavior in the laboratory may be useful in better understanding moderators of this association. Methods: We revised a previously validated game of prosocial behavior by including a new trial type (i.e., trials where the participant will lose money and the charity will gain money). This version of the game was administered online and participants were randomized to group (exposed to a control stimulus video or a video used to elicit moral elevation, i.e. a positive response to witnessing another's act of kindness). We used repeated game administration to test whether a moral elevation stimulus affected game behavior and moderated the negative association between psychopathic traits and prosocial behavior. Results: Prosocial behavior on the new trial types added in this revised game correlated strongly with prosocial behavior on the old trial type (i.e., trials where the participant will gain money and the charity will lose money; r = 0.71; p-value<0.001; n = 485). Graphing trial acceptance rates by trial characteristics demonstrated expected patterns of behavior. Number of prosocial choices on the game correlated with psychopathic trait score (Levenson Factor 1 score; r = -0.52; p-value<0.001). Game repetition with a control stimulus in between runs, supported high immediate test-retest reliability of overall game behavior. Exposure to the moral elevation stimulus in between runs did not affect game behavior nor moderate the association between psychopathic traits and prosocial behavior. Conclusions: Choices on this revised game of prosocial behavior, which can be administered online, are associated with psychopathic traits scores. The game appears to have high immediate test-retest reliability. Exposure to the moral elevation stimulus did not affect prosocial behavior or impact the relationship between psychopathic trait scores and prosocial behavior. Future research should continue to test potential moderators of this relationship. Limitations of the current study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being trusted has many positive implications for one's wellbeing (e.g., a better career, more satisfying interpersonal relationships). Scholars have suggested that people actively attempt to earn trust. However, it is not clear what makes people invest in actions that may earn them trust. We propose that cognitive abstraction (more than concreteness) facilitates seeing the long-term benefits of performing behaviors (i.e., prosocial behaviors) for gaining trust. We conducted a survey among employees and their supervisors and two yoked experiments—total N = 1098 or 549 pairs. In support of our claim, we find that cognitive abstraction leads to more prosocial behavior, which subsequently increases trust received. Furthermore, the effect of abstraction on the performance of prosocial behavior is limited to situations where such behavior can be observed by others (and thus be a basis for gaining observers' trust). Our research shows when and why people decide to act in ways that may gain them trust and clarifies how cognitive abstraction influences the display of prosocial behavior and the subsequent trust received from fellow organization members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Social mindfulness is a relatively new concept in psychological research and is attracting increasing attention. Recent studies have provided evidence of its relevance with regard to prosocial behavior and empathy, but also concerning individual well-being and psychological health. In such studies, social mindfulness has been assessed using the social mindfulness paradigm by Van Doesum and colleagues, which is the standard measure of social mindfulness to date. However, evidence is scarce or lacking with regard to whether this measurement approach is unidimensional, whether it produces (test-retest) reliable and valid measurements, and whether its associations with personality and empathy are replicable. Methods: To test these assumptions, we assessed a sample of 265 participants currently working in health care professions on social mindfulness, several concepts of empathy, and the HEXACO personality dimensions longitudinally at two measurement occasions. Results: The results supported the assumption of unidimensionality of the measure. Partial support was found for its reliability, validity, and replicability. Test-retest reliability was acceptable, but the associations with personality and empathy turned out weaker than expected. Conclusions: The social mindfulness paradigm is an interesting approach toward understanding social mindfulness, meaning mindfulness of other people's needs. Potential directions for the further development of the social mindfulness paradigm and its network of relations, especially to empathy, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosocial behavior at school, such as helping and sharing, contributes to positive individual development, peer relations, and classroom climate. Students with intellectual disabilities (ID) may have difficulty to demonstrate prosocial behavior, but little is known about the levels of prosocial behavior and its predictors in this population. This study aims to describe the prosocial behavior of students with ID attending special needs schools and related individual (i.e., age, sex, and general functioning) and classroom level (i.e., classmates' mean prosocial behavior) predictors. School staff members assessed prosocial behavior of 1022 students with ID (69.5% boys; Mage = 11.34 years, SD = 3.73, range: 4–19 years) at the beginning and the end of a schoolyear. We found that students with ID on average demonstrated moderate levels of prosocial behavior, this was lower compared to norms of typically developing students. Correlations within each timepoint proved that prosocial behavior was more present in older students, girls, and students with higher general functioning. Using a longitudinal multilevel model, we found that, prosocial behavior increased more over the schoolyear in older students and in students with higher general functioning. Classmates' mean levels of prosocial behavior did not affect later individual prosocial behavior. We conclude that prosocial behavior in students with ID depends on several individual characteristics, but less on the levels of prosocial behaviors in their special needs classroom peer context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feeling a sense of belonging at school is associated with important positive outcomes for youth and requires youth to engage in positive social relationships. Yet there is a limited understanding of the social factors most associated with youths' school belonging and limited evidence about whether correlates of school belonging vary for marginalized groups like newcomers compared to majority groups. Sweden provides an important context for investigation of these issues because, over the past two decades, the country has experienced an influx of asylum seekers and educational reforms that have altered the composition and functioning of Swedish secondary schools. This study addresses these gaps by (1) investigating which of eight social factors are associated with school belonging among diverse Swedish youth, and (2) examining whether newcomer status moderates the relationship between social factors and school belonging. Hierarchical regression and moderation analyses were used to analyze data from 14 to 19 year-old (n = 233) newcomers and non-newcomers in Sweden. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that the school belonging measure contained two factors: positive perceptions and negative perceptions (reverse coded). For both, stronger school belonging was associated with lower perceived ethnic discrimination. Positive perceptions of school belonging were also associated with more prosocial behaviours and lower emotional problems. Negative perceptions of school belonging were associated with more peer problems. Notably, quantity and quality of peer relationships were not associated with school belonging. There was no consistent evidence of newcomer status moderating the relationship between social factors and school belonging. These results highlight factors associated with school belonging which are modifiable and amenable to intervention or impact by policy—ethnic discrimination, prosocial behaviour, and emotional and peer problems. The absence of moderation by newcomer status suggests that school belonging interventions or related policies are likely to affect newcomer and non-newcomer students similarly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many forms of prosocial behaviour are highly institutionalized. They are facilitated by organizations that broker between donors and recipients. A highly effective tool that organizations use to elicit prosocial behaviour are solicitations for donations (e.g., of blood, time, or money). Using register and survey data on blood donations in the Netherlands, we examine to what extent compliance with these solicitations is predicted by being recruited via word of mouth (WOM) and talking about donations. Our model predicts that donors that are one unit higher on our measure of talking about donations (range = 1–4) have a 2.9 percentage points higher compliance with solicitations for donations. In addition, this association is stronger for novice donors. Our study demonstrates the social embedding of the donors' decision-making processes about compliance. For practice, our results imply that organizations may increase their contributors' communication about donations to increase the effectiveness of their solicitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health inequalities along ethnic and socioeconomic groupings are well documented. The extent to which these observed inequalities are genuine or reflect measurement differences is unclear. In the current study we sought to investigate this in a large population-based sample of children and adolescents in the United Kingdom. The main objective of the study was to establish whether the parent-report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was invariant across ethnicity and socioeconomic status groupings at six time points from 3 to 17 years (maximum N = 17,274). First, we fitted a series of confirmatory factor analysis models to the data and confirmed that the five-factor structure (emotional problems; peer problems; conduct problems; hyperactivity/inattention; and prosocial behaviour) had acceptable fit at ages 5, 7, 11, and 14 years. Next, we tested configural, metric, and scalar invariance at these time points and demonstrated scalar invariance across household income, parent highest education, and ethnicity categories. The five-factor structure did not fit well at ages 3 and 17 years; therefore invariance was not tested at these ages. These findings suggest the parent-report SDQ can be used to measure socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities in mental health from ages 5–14 years but more consideration is required outside these ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosocial acts can increase positive emotions and contribute to emotional well-being, but it is unclear whether other types of moral behavior have similar effects. Respondents from a large online sample (N = 1783) were randomly assigned to recall recent instances when they had performed moral, self-indulgent, or routine acts. Those who recalled self-indulgent behaviors or acts associated with care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and sanctity-based morality increased in positive emotions relative to routine acts controls. Initial evidence suggests that effects for recalling moral acts occurred in part because individuals who recalled these behaviors generated positive moral self-appraisals and satisfied a basic psychological need for relatedness. Study results are consistent with the recent claim that morality is a basic psychological need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the popular notion that power motivations are associated with aggression and antisocial behavior, this study tested the hypothesis that activating power motivations can promote prosocial behavior. Because previous research has shown that public prosocial behavior is associate with reputation and status, this study examined how making prosocial decisions publicly or privately moderates the relationship between power motivations and prosocial behavior. One hundred and forty participants were randomly assigned to watch 20 min of either The Experiment (power motivation arousal) or a documentary called Beautiful China (control condition). A modified version of the dictator game was used to measure prosocial behavior. Participants were instructed to allocate an amount of money between themselves and a stranger girl in need, in the presence of the experimenter (the experimenter registers donation amount) or in the absence of the experimenter (the donation was put in a closed envelope). The results showed that individuals in the power motivation arousal group increased their help when their reputation was under scrutiny due to the experimenter's presence. In the private condition (experimenter is absent), power motivation is not related to prosocial behavior. The contrasting behavioral reactions resulting from the presence or absence of the experimenter are discussed in terms of reputation gain and competitive altruism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being moved has received increased attention in emotion psychology as a social emotion that fosters bonds between individuals and within communities. This increased attention, however, has also sparked debates about whether the term "being moved" refers to a single distinct profile of emotion components or rather to a range of different emotion profiles. We addressed this question by investigating lay conceptions of the emotion components (i.e., elicitors, cognitive appraisals, subjective feelings, bodily symptoms, and consequences for thought/action) of "bewegt sein" (the German term for "being moved"). Participants (N = 106) provided written descriptions of both a moving personal experience and their conceptual prototype of "being moved," which were subjected to content analysis to obtain quantitative data for statistical analyses. Based on latent class analyses, we identified two classes for both the personal experiences (joyfully-moved and sadly-moved classes) and the being-moved prototype (basic-description and extended-description classes). Being joyfully moved occurred when social values and positive relationship experiences were salient. Being sadly moved was elicited by predominantly negative relationship experiences and negatively salient social values. For both classes, the most frequently reported consequences for thought/action were continued cognitive engagement, finding meaning, and increased valuation of and striving for connectedness/prosociality. Basic descriptions of the prototype included "being moved" by positive or negative events as instances of the same emotion, with participants in the extended-description class also reporting joy and sadness as associated emotions. Based on our findings and additional theoretical considerations, we propose that the term "being moved" designates an emotion with an overall positive valence that typically includes blends of positively and negatively valenced emotion components, in which especially the weight of the negative components varies. The emotion's unifying core is that it involves feeling the importance of individuals, social entities, and abstract social values as sources of meaning in one's life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to study the efficacy of the home-based Hero program in promoting positive emotions and prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample included 237 12- to 15-year-old adolescents from Argentina. The level of positive emotions and prosocial behavior toward strangers, friends and family in the adolescent intervention group increased through the three evaluation periods. The Hero program was focused on recognizing one's own emotions and provided an opportunity to reflect on different positive aspects of life, thus allowing a change in perspective related to immediate negative events. Moreover, the program provided an opportunity to change adolescents' perspective from personal worries to concerns about others, including friends, family members, and even strangers in need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans are predisposed to forming "first impressions" about the people we encounter including impressions about their personality traits. While the relationship between personality and strategic decision-making has been widely explored, we examine the role of personality impressions in predicting strategic behaviour and devising behavioural responses. In a laboratory setting, after only 4-minutes of "small talk", subjects developed a sense of the personality of their partners, particularly extraversion, which consequently changed their behaviour in future interactions. Subjects cooperated more in public goods games when they believed their partner to be extraverted and found it more difficult to out-guess opponents they perceived as similar to themselves in a level-k reasoning task, having engaged in conversation with them. We trace how language can generate these effects using text analysis, showing that talking more makes individuals appear extraverted and pro-social which in turn engenders pro-social behaviour in others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the relationship between physical activity and prosocial behavior in college students, and to examine whether self-perception and gender may play mediating and moderating roles, respectively, in that relationship. Methods: The International Physical Activity Questionnaire-long form, Prosocial Tendencies Measure, and Self-perception Scale were used to survey 647 college students in Yangzhou, China. Internal consistency testing, one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) across physical activity levels, exploratory factor analysis, correlation testing, mediation effect testing (independent variable, physical activity; mediating variable, self-perception; dependent variable, prosocial behavior), bootstrap testing and moderated mediation testing were conducted. Results: Physical activity level was not found to be a direct predictor prosocial behavior in college students. Self-perception was found to play a mediating role between physical activity and prosocial behavior. Conclusion: Physical activity is not directly predictive college students' prosocial behavior tendencies, but it is indirectly predictive through self-perception. This study explores the relationship between the three variables and the path of the relationship, deepening the research related to the relationship between physical activity and prosocial behavior, providing ideas for fostering prosocial behavior in Chinese universities, as well as providing a theoretical basis for possible future empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies suggest a link between future thinking and prosocial behaviors. However, this association is not fully understood at state and trait level. The present study tested whether a brief future thinking induction promoted helping behavior in an unrelated task. In addition, the relation between mental time travel and prosocial behaviors in daily life was tested with questionnaire data. Forty-eight participants filled in questionnaires and were asked to think about the future for one minute or to name animals for one minute (control condition) before playing the Zurich Prosocial Game (a measure of helping behavior). Results revealed that participants in the future thinking condition helped significantly more than participants in the control condition. Moreover, questionnaire data showed that dispositional and positive orientation toward the future and the past was significantly associated with self-reported prosocial behaviors. The present findings suggest that thinking about the future in general has positive transfer effects on subsequent prosocial behavior and that people who think more about the past or future in a positive way engage more in prosocial behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic, the accompanying lockdown measures, and their possible long-term effects have made mental health a pressing public health concern. Acts that focus on benefiting others—known as prosocial behaviors—offer one promising intervention that is both flexible and low cost. However, neither the range of emotional states prosocial acts impact nor the size of those effects is currently clear—both of which directly influence its attractiveness as a treatment option. Objective: To assess the effect of prosocial activity on emotional well-being (happiness, belief that one's life is valuable) and mental health (anxiety, depression). Methods: 1,234 respondents from the United States and Canada were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk and randomly assigned (by computer software) to perform prosocial (N = 411), self-focused (N = 423), or neutral (N = 400) behaviors three times a week for three weeks. A follow-up assessment was given two weeks after the intervention. Participants were blind to alternative conditions. Analyses were based on 1052 participants (Nprosocial = 347, Nself = 365, Nneutral = 340). Findings: Those in the prosocial condition did not differ on any outcome from those in the self-focused or neutral acts conditions during the intervention or at follow-up, nor did prosocial effects differ for those who had been negatively affected socially or economically by the pandemic (all p's > 0.05). Exploratory analyses that more tightly controlled for study compliance found that prosocial acts reduced anxiety relative to neutral acts control (β = -0.12 [95% CI: -0.22 to -0.02]) and increased the belief that one's life is valuable (β = 0.11 [95% CI: 0.03 to 0.19]). These effects persisted throughout the intervention and at follow-up. Conclusion: Prosocial acts may provide small, lasting benefits to emotional well-being and mental health. Future work should replicate these results using tighter, pre-registered controls on study compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation examined how dispositional compassion and empathy were associated with prosocial behaviors and attitudes in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Every two weeks from March 22 to June 15, 2020, we fielded a survey to a new cohort of adults in the U.S. Compassion related to whether one stayed home to protect others, more hours spent staying home and distancing from others, and more frequent mask wearing in public, in the past two weeks. Compassion also related to greater perceived ability to help others who were negatively affected. Empathy related to more endorsement of understanding others' fear of COVID-19, and less endorsement of the view that others were overreacting to COVID-19. There was an interaction between empathy and political ideology, suggesting that empathy may matter for understanding others' fear among those with more conservative-leaning beliefs. Empathy also related to greater understanding that sheltering-in-place helps prevent the spread of COVID-19. Findings suggest that messaging and interventions to increase compassion and empathy may promote public health behaviors during a pandemic regardless of political orientation. Targeting empathy may be one way to reach individuals with more conservative political beliefs, and it is important to use an evidence-based approach accounting for political party differences in motivated reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Similarity with others in need regarding various attributes [e.g., social group membership] has been shown to increase individuals' empathic responses, willingness to help and prosocial behaviour. We tested whether a subtle similarity, namely of observers' and targets' self-regulatory orientation in terms of a promotion or prevention regulatory focus [i.e., interpersonal regulatory fit], would entail similar effects. Interpersonal regulatory [mis]fit was conveyed through focus-congruent or -incongruent emotional reactions which targets, facing distressing situations, expressed. We predicted that when observer participants' regulatory focus fits with targets' negative emotional reaction [i.e., promotion focus—dejection or prevention focus—agitation], they would be more likely to express empathy, willingness to help, and to engage in prosocial behaviour towards this target compared to conditions of misfit. Five studies relied on observers' chronic regulatory focus [Study 1, 3, & 4] and situationally induced regulatory focus [Study 2 & 5] and presented different distressing scenarios with targets conveying focus [in]congruent negative emotions. Inconsistent results emerged across the studies, which indicated misfit, fit and no effects. Study characteristics did not suggest a moderator explaining these inconsistent findings. An internal meta-analysis across all studies indicated that overall there was no evidence of either a fit or a misfit effect. This work sheds light on the technical challenges of exploring relations between subtle interpersonal regulatory [mis]fit and prosocial reactions. Implications for future research are discussed, including the importance of creating stronger interpersonal [mis]fit experiences by means of incorporating descriptions of distressed targets' hindered goal pursuits as well as negative reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This review aims to explore the existing literature about the virtue of helping others and its association with youth mental health. Mental health of youth is rooted in their social environment. Helping others or engaging in prosocial behavior are activities that youth may participate in. The notion of helping others and its association with individual mental well-being have been well-studied for adults and older adults and to some extent in youth, however, no review has been conducted to understand the intersection of helping others and mental health in the youth population. Methods: This review will consider all study designs that examine helping others and mental health of youth. The inclusion criteria for the review will include young individuals aged 10-24-year-old, living in any geographic location, of all gender identities, and with or without mental health issues. Grey literature and studies that only speak to outcomes related to physical well-being will be excluded. A search will be conducted in CINAHL, MEDLINE and PsycINFO. Studies published in the English language will be included with no restriction on publication time period. Articles will be screened against the inclusion criteria onto a single software by two independent reviewers. In the case of any disagreement, a third independent reviewer would resolve the conflict. Findings: Data will be extracted and presented in a tabular or diagrammatic form supported by a summary. We will report our findings in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). The findings of this review will provide evidence-based recommendations for promoting youth mental health and a basis for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publishing industry shows marked evidence of both gender and racial discrimination. A rational explanation for this difference in treatment of both female and Black authors might relate to the taste-based preferences of book consumers, who might be less willing to pay for books by such authors. We ran a randomized experiment to test for the presence of discriminatory preferences by consumers based on authors' race, gender and/or age. We collected ratings of 25,201 book surveys across 9,072 subjects on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, making this study the largest experimental study of the book market to date. Subjects were presented with mocked-up book covers and descriptions from each of 14 fiction and non-fiction genres, with one of three possible titles per book randomly assigned. Using author names and photographs, we signaled authors' race, gender, and age and randomly assigned these combinations to each book presented to our subjects. We then asked subjects to rate their interest in purchasing the book, their evaluation of the author's credentials, and the amount they were willing to pay for the book. The experimental design of this study strived to eliminate the potential for proxy-based discrimination by providing book descriptions that detailed the authors' relevant professional experience. The large sample allowed for exploration of various types of taste-based discrimination observed in the literature, including discrimination against particular groups, homophily, and pro-social behavior. Overall, book consumers showed a willingness to pay approximately $0.50 or 3.5% more on average for books by Black authors and little, if any, practically meaningful discrimination based on age or gender. In other words, our study finds no and even contrary evidence of taste-based preferences by consumers that would rationalize the historic discriminatory treatment of Black or of female authors by publishers nor of discrimination based on an author's age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The present study aimed to adapt the Attitudes and Beliefs about Sleepy Driving Scale (ABSDS) to a sample of Chinese drivers and to examine its reliability and validity. Methods: Five hundred and twenty drivers aged 18 to 56 years old were asked to complete the ABSDS and a validated Chinese version of the Prosocial and Aggressive Driving Inventory. Results: The results showed that the final Chinese version of the ABSDS contained 7 items with satisfactory reliability. Second, significant gender differences were found in attitude towards sleepy driving, with female drivers scoring higher than male drivers. Third, significant correlations between ABSDS score and prosocial and aggressive driving behaviours were found. More importantly, ABSDS score can significantly predict drivers' prosocial driving behaviours. Moreover, ABSDS score can significantly predict drivers' violation involvement and accident involvement. Conclusion: The findings supported the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the ABSDS and suggested that it can be used to assess drivers' attitudes and beliefs about sleepy driving in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-conscious emotions, such as guilt and shame, motivate the adherence to social norms, including to norms for prosociality. The relevance of an observing audience to the expression of negative self-conscious emotions remains poorly understood. Here, in two studies, we investigated the influence of being observed on 4- to 5-year-old children's (N = 161) emotional response after failing to help someone in need and after failing to complete their own goal. As an index of children's emotional response, we recorded the change in children's upper body posture using a motion depth sensor imaging camera. Failing to help others lowered children's upper body posture regardless of whether children were observed by an audience or not. Children's emotional response was similar when they failed to help and when they failed to complete their own goal. In Study 2, 5-year-olds showed a greater decrease in upper body posture than 4-year-olds. Our findings suggest that being observed is not a necessary condition for young children to express a negative self-conscious emotion after failing to help or after failing to complete their own goal. We conclude that 5-year-olds, more so that 4-year-olds, show negative emotions when they fail to adhere to social norms for prosociality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainty has been shown to reduce the willingness to cooperate in various social dilemmas and negatively affect prosocial behavior. However, some studies showed that uncertainty does not always decrease prosocial behavior, depending on the type of uncertainty. More specifically, recent research has shown that prosocial behavior tends to increase under impact uncertainty—uncertainty about the consequences for others if they become infected. In addition, researchers have argued that intuition favors prosocial behavior while deliberation leads to selfish behavior. Our study explored how intuitive (time pressure) or deliberate mental processing, under outcome, or impact uncertainty affect prosocial behavior in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our sample consists of 496 participants, and we used a 4 (COVID-19 scenario: Control vs. Impact Uncertainty vs. Worst-Case vs. Indirect Transmission) by 2 (decision time: time delay vs. time pressure) between-subjects design. Results suggest that participants are more inclined to stay at home (prosocial intention) when forced to make their decisions intuitively rather than deliberately. Additionally, we found that uncertainty does not always decrease prosocial behavior. It seems that uncertainty does not affect the prosocial intention in a scenario with a real infectious disease. These findings suggest that the distinction between outcome and impact uncertainty may be due to the realism of experimental stimuli interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor sleep and psychological stress are obesity determinants that are rarely included in obesity prevention programs. The aim was to report the effects of the Healthy Start randomized intervention on the secondary outcomes psychological stress and sleep duration and onset latency. Data was obtained from the Healthy Start randomized intervention conducted in 2009–2012 among Danish healthy weight children aged 2–6 years, who had either a high birth weight (>4,000 g), high maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (>28 kg/m2), or low maternal educational level (≤10 years of schooling) and their parents. The intervention was designed to deliver improvements in diet and physical activity habits, optimization of sleep habits, and reduction of psychological family stress. The average intervention period was 15 months. Children with information on a 7-day sleep record, sleep onset latency, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and a modified version of Parenting Stress Index (PSI) were included. The effects of the intervention on sleep habits, PSI scores, SDQ Total Difficulties (SDQ-TD) and Pro-social Behavior scores, and 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI) were analyzed using linear regression intention-to-treat (n = 543 (intervention group n = 271, control group n = 272)) analyses. No statistically significant effects on sleep duration, sleep onset latency, PSI score, or SDQ Pro-social Behavior score were observed. Values both before and after the intervention were within the normal range both for children in the intervention and children in the control group. Mean change in SDQ-TD was 0.09 points (95% CI -0.57;0.59) in the intervention group, and -0.69 points (95% CI -1.16; -0.23) in the control group (p = 0.06). In conclusion, there were no intervention effects in relation to sleep duration, sleep onset latency, PSI score, or SDQ Pro-social behavior. There was an indication that children in the intervention group had slightly more behavioral problems than the control group after the intervention, but values were within normal range both before and after the intervention, and the difference is not considered to be clinically meaningful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined early external childcare in relation to development from age 7 to 20. A Swiss sample was used (N = 1,225; 52% male). Development included multi-informant-reported externalizing behavior, internalizing problems, prosocial behavior, delinquency, and substance use. Growth curve models revealed that, dependent on the informant, time in a daycare center was related to increased externalizing and internalizing problems until at least age 11. It was not related to delinquency. Roughly three days per week at a daycare mother or playgroup was related to increased externalizing behavior. External family care was associated with increased prosocial behavior. Finally, time in a daycare center was associated with fewer externalizing but more internalizing problems and substance use for children from vulnerable backgrounds. This relation with substance use lasted to age 20. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In low-income countries, vaccination campaigns are lagging, and evidence on vaccine acceptance, a crucial public health planning input, remains scant. This is the first study that reports willingness to take COVID-19 vaccines and its socio-demographic correlates in Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country. Methods: The analysis is based on a nationally representative survey data of 2,317 households conducted in the informal economy in November 2020. It employs two logistic regression models where the two outcome variables are (i) a household head's willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine or not, and (ii) if yes if they would also hypothetically pay (an unspecified amount) for it or not. Predictors include age, gender, education, marital status, income category, health insurance coverage, sickness due to COVID-19, chronic illness, trust in government, prior participation in voluntary activities, urban residence. Results: Willingness to take the vaccine was high (88%) and significantly associated with COVID-19 cases in the family, trust in government and pro-social behavior. All other predictors such as gender, education, income, health insurance, chronic illness, urban residence did not significantly predict vaccine willingness at the 5% level. Among those willing to take the vaccine, 33% also answered that they would hypothetically pay (an unspecified amount) for it, an answer that is significantly associated with trust in government, health insurance coverage and income. Conclusion: The results highlight both opportunities and challenges. There is little evidence of vaccine hesitancy in Ethiopia among household heads operating in the informal economy. The role played by trust in government and pro-social behavior in motivating this outcome suggests that policy makers need to consider these factors in the planning of COVID-19 vaccine campaigns in order to foster vaccine uptake. At the same time, as the willingness to hypothetically pay for a COVID-19 vaccine seems to be small, fairly-priced vaccines along with financial support are also needed to ensure further uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct reciprocity plays an essential role in forming cooperative relationships. Direct reciprocity requires individuals to keep track of past interactions and condition their behavior on the previous behavior of their partners. In controlled experimental situations, it is known that children establish direct reciprocity according to the partner's behavior, but this has not been verified in real life. This study aims to identify the establishment of short-term direct reciprocity in response to peers' behaviors among Japanese preschoolers aged 5 and 6. It employs naturalistic observation at a nursery school. In addition, the psychological process for direct reciprocity was examined. The findings demonstrated that after receiving prosocial behavior, the recipient child returned the prosocial behavior more frequently within 7 minutes, compared with control situations; this suggests that 5-to 6-year-olds formed direct reciprocity in the short term when interacting with their peers. Additionally, recipient children tended to display affiliative behavior after receiving prosocial behavior. Positive emotions toward initiating children may have been caused by receiving prosocial behavior, and this psychological change modified short-term direct reciprocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are humans instinctively good or is it only our capacity for reflection that enables us to restrain our selfish traits and behave prosocially? Against the background of dual-process theory, the question of whether people tend to behave prosocially on intuitive grounds has been debated controversially for several years. Central to this debate is the so-called social heuristic hypothesis (SHH), which states that subjects orient their behavior more closely to their deeply ingrained norms and attitudes when the behavior comes about in an intuitive rather than reflective manner. In this paper, we apply the SHH to a novel setting and investigate whether its implications hold true in a non-reactive field experiment, in which subjects are unaware that they are part of a study. We test whether subjects report a misdirected email or try to use the opportunity to reap a monetary benefit. Since all subjects participated six months prior to the field experiment in a lab experiment, we have solid measures of the subjects' general tendency to behave intuitively and their prosocial attitudes. In addition, participants were asked in a follow-up survey to self-report their intuitiveness at the time of the decision. While we observe a significant and positive effect on prosocial behavior for self-reported intuitiveness (but not for general intuitiveness) in the bivariate analyses, this effect becomes insignificant when controlling for interaction effects with attitudes. In addition, for both forms of intuitiveness, we find a significant and positive interaction effect with subjects' prosocial attitudes on prosocial behavior. Hence, this study confirms previous findings from laboratory as well as online studies and provides external validity by demonstrating that the SHH applies in a real-life situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Using test, trace and isolate systems can help reduce the spread of COVID-19. Parents have the additional responsibility of using these systems for themselves and acting on behalf of their children to help control COVID-19. We explored factors associated with the use of England's NHS Test and Trace service among parents of school-aged children. Methods: One-to-one telephone interviews with parents (n = 18) of school-aged (4 to 18 years) children living in England between 30 November to 11 December 2020. Data were explored using thematic analysis. Results: Three themes and eight sub-themes emerged. In terms of recognising symptoms of COVID-19, parents needed prompting before recalling the main symptoms described by the NHS. Parents suggested several factors relating to the nature of the symptom(s) and contextual information that might lead to or prevent them from seeking a test. Although parents supported symptomatic testing and described trusting official sources of information (e.g., Government and NHS websites). However, some concerns were raised regarding the accuracy of test results, safety at testing centres and logistics of testing but none of the concerns appeared to prevent engagement with testing. Parents perceived adherence to testing and self-isolation as pro-social behaviour, although family resources and circumstances impacted their ability to adhere fully. Conclusions: Our study identified several barriers to parents using NHS Test and Trace as needed. Information about the eligibility of testing (main symptoms of COVID-19 and the age of eligibility) needs to be more precise and resources provided to enable families to adhere to self-isolation if the efficiency of test, trace and isolate systems is to be optimised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The meaning of Publicness for organizations and for individuals has received growing attention in the public administration literature in recent years. We adopt a perceived publicness perspective to expand our understanding of the publicness concept and operationalize this perception as a means to predict employees' formal and prosocial behaviors across sectors. Using a recently developed Publicness Perceptions Scale (PPS), we present and empirically examine a model regarding the direct and indirect relationships among perceived publicness, employees' engagement, and their performance in public and hybrid organizations. Findings based on a field study of 340 employees from governmental (i.e. public) and non-governmental (i.e. hybrid) organizations reveal that perceived publicness has a positive relationship with Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB) and that this relationship is largely mediated by employees' engagement. In addition, in non-government organizations perceived publicness is negatively related to employees' in-role performance. We thus contribute to the theoretical knowledge on publicness at the perceptual level and point to its role in formal and informal performance across sectors. Other theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed, and directions for future studies are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children can identify who is benevolent or malevolent not only through first-hand experiences and observations but also from the testimony of others. In this study, we investigated whether 5- and 7-year-olds (N = 128) would form their attitudes toward others after hearing testimony about that person's past moral behavior and whether the valence of testimony would differently influence the children. In the positive condition, half of the participants gained information about three puppets: puppet A's prosocial behavior by their own first-hand observation, testimony about puppet B's past prosocial behavior, and testimony about puppet C's past neutral behavior. In the negative condition, the other half also learned information about the three puppets: puppet A's antisocial behavior by their own first-hand observation, testimony about puppet B's past antisocial behavior, and testimony about puppet C's past neutral behavior. Then they engaged in tasks that measured their behavioral attitudes toward the puppets and evaluated the goodness of each puppet to assess their attitudes at a cognitive level. Our results concluded that the children form their behavioral attitudes toward others based on testimony starting at the age of 7, and attitude formation at the cognitive level based on testimony is seen at age 5. Negative testimony, rather than positive testimony, influences the children's attitudes toward others. In addition, the 7-year-olds' use of testimony differs depending whether they are the allocators or the receivers of rewards. Our findings deepen understanding of how children rely on the verbal information around themselves when they navigate interactions with others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Public acceptability of nudging is receiving increasingly more attention, but studies remain limited to evaluations of aspects of the nudge itself or (inferred intentions) of the nudger. Yet, it is important to investigate which individuals are likely to accept nudges, as those who are supposed to benefit from the implementation should not oppose it. The main objective of this study was to integrate research on self-regulation and nudging, and to examine acceptability of nudges as a function of self-regulation capacity and motivation. Method: Participants (N = 301) filled in questionnaires about several components of self-regulation capacity (self-control, proactive coping competence, self-efficacy, perceived control and perceived difficulty) and motivation (autonomous motivation and controlled motivation). To evaluate nudge acceptability, we used three vignettes describing three types of nudges (default, portion size, and rearrangement) that stimulated either a pro-self behavior (healthy eating) or pro-social behavior (sustainable eating) and asked participants to rate the nudges on (aspects of) acceptability. Results: Results revealed that there were substantial differences in acceptability between the three types of nudges, such that the default nudge was seen as less acceptable and the rearrangement nudge as most acceptable. The behavior that was stimulated did not affect acceptability, even though the nudges that targeted healthy eating were seen as more pro-self than the nudges targeting sustainable eating. From all self-regulation components, autonomous motivation was the only measure that was consistently associated with nudge acceptability across the three nudges. For self-regulatory capacity, only some elements were occasionally related to acceptability for some nudges. Conclusion: The current study thus shows that people are more inclined to accept nudges that target behaviors that they are autonomously motivated for, while people do not meaningfully base their judgments of acceptability on self-regulatory capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of meaning in life has largely centered on its relationship with personal well-being, while a focus on how meaning is related to enhancing the well-being of others has received less research attention. Although searching for meaning may imply lower personal well-being, we find that meaning-seekers are more motivated to perform costly prosocial actions for the sake of others' well-being, given the perceived meaningfulness of these behaviors. Studies 1–4 (N = 780) show that meaning-seeking correlates with the motivation to engage in a range of costly prosocial behaviors. Meaning-seeking is further shown to be distinct from pursuing happiness in its relationship with costly prosociality (Study 2 & 3) and to share a stronger association with high-cost than low-cost prosociality (Study 3 & 4). Study 5 (N = 370; pre-registered) further shows that the search for meaning is related to costly prosocial behavior in the recent past. While our studies are cross-sectional, the pattern of findings suggests that seeking meaning (rather than happiness) may play an important role in motivating altruistic tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some evidence suggests that people behave more cooperatively and generously when observed or in the presence of images of eyes (termed the 'watching eyes' effect). Eye images are thought to trigger feelings of observation, which in turn motivate people to behave more cooperatively to earn a good reputation. However, several recent studies have failed to find evidence of the eyes effect. One possibility is that inconsistent evidence in support of the eyes effect is a product of individual differences in sensitivity or susceptibility to the cue. In fact, some evidence suggests that people who are generally more prosocial are less susceptible to situation-specific reputation-based cues of observation. In this paper, we sought to (1) replicate the eyes effect, (2) replicate the past finding that people who are dispositionally less prosocial are more responsive to observation than people who are more dispositionally more prosocial, and (3) determine if this effect extends to the watching eyes effect. Results from a pre-registered study showed that people did not give more money in a dictator game when decisions were made public or in the presence of eye images, even though participants felt more observed when decisions were public. That is, we failed to replicate the eyes effect and observation effect. An initial, but underpowered, interaction model suggests that egoists give less than prosocials in private, but not public, conditions. This suggests a direction for future research investigating if and how individual differences in prosociality influence observation effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Empathy is fundamental to social cognition, driving prosocial behaviour and mental health but associations with aging and other socio-demographic characteristics are unclear. We therefore aimed to characterise associations of these characteristics with two main self-reported components of empathy, namely empathic-concern (feeling compassion) and perspective-taking (understanding others' perspective). Methods: We asked participants in an internet-based survey of UK-dwelling adults aged ≥18 years to complete the Interpersonal Reactivity Index subscales measuring empathic concern and perspective taking, and sociodemographic and personality questionnaires. We weighted the sample to be UK population representative and employed multivariable weighted linear regression models. Results: In 30,033 respondents, mean empathic concern score was 3.86 (95% confidence interval 3.85, 3.88) and perspective taking was 3.57 (3.56. 3.59); the correlation between these sub-scores was 0.45 (p < 0.001). Empathic concern and perspective taking followed an inverse-u shape trajectory in women with peak between 40 and 50 years whereas in men, perspective taking declines with age but empathic concern increases. In fully adjusted models, greater empathic concern was associated with female gender, non-white ethnicity, having more education, working in health, social-care, or childcare professions, and having higher neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience and agreeableness traits. Perspective taking was associated with younger age, female gender, more education, employment in health or social-care, neuroticism, openness, and agreeableness. Conclusions: Empathic compassion and understanding are distinct dimensions of empathy with differential demographic associations. Perspective taking may decline due to cognitive inflexibility with older age whereas empathic concern increases in older men suggesting it is socially-driven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]