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Internet altruistic behavior arises from the interactions between givers and recipients. Previous studies have often neglected the patterns of interpersonal interactions in online environments and the psychological experiences of recipients during these exchanges. Notably, there is limited exploration of the underlying psychological mechanisms affecting both givers and recipients in Internet altruistic behavior transmission (IABT). This study explored the mechanisms of IABT among college students in the context of online interpersonal interaction through a combination of simulation behavioral experiments and scale tests. The results indicated that IABT was widespread among strangers (Study 1). During the interaction process, recipients who perceived social mindfulness were more likely to engage in subsequent IABT (Study 2). Gratitude mediated the relationship between perceived social mindfulness and IABT (Study 3). Additionally, social cues moderated the association between recipients' perceived social mindfulness and IABT (Study 4). Specifically, in the "eye cue" condition, where social cues were present (i.e., images of eyes), individuals with high perceived social mindfulness exhibited higher levels of IABT. In contrast, in the "flower cue" condition, which lacked social cues, this relationship was not observed. In conclusion, gratitude was found to serve as the mediating mechanism of recipients' social mindfulness promoting their IABT, while social cues were shown to act as an environmental factor facilitating IABT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government support is the main cause of promoting sustainable entrepreneurship, and green system is associated with improvisation. Therefore, using a sample of 201 senior students from 30 teams in Guizhou Province, China, the relationship between the green development system and senior student teams' sustainable entrepreneurial improvisation, the mediating effect of social mindfulness, and the facilitating effect of resilient leadership were investigated. The results confirm for the first time that green development system is positively related to senior student teams' sustainable entrepreneurial improvisation in Guizhou Province, China; that social mindfulness has a partial mediating effect; that resilient leadership is able to promote the relationship between green development system and senior student teams' sustainable entrepreneurial improvisation; and that resilient leadership is not able to promote the relationship between social mindfulness and senior student teams' sustainable entrepreneurial improvisation. This suggests that entrepreneurial teams of senior students in Guizhou Province needs not only a sound green entrepreneurial environment, but also a combination of positive attitudes and adaptive abilities with the goodness traits on the part of team leaders to adequately promote their behaviors of responding to unexpected events instantly in the process of sustainable entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social mindfulness entails the consideration of the interests of others while respecting their autonomy. Although long-term group identity generates in-group favoritism in social mindfulness decisions, the effect of temporary group identity on social mindfulness remains to be validated. This study examined this effect by recruiting a convenience sample of 74 adolescents from a youth basketball club, who were randomly assigned to either an in-group or out-group decision-making condition. A basketball game scenario was used to establish temporary group identities, referencing the Minimal Group paradigm for grouping while applying the SoMi paradigm in a real-world context. The results showed that adolescents exhibited higher social mindfulness (χ2 = 22.774, df = 1, p < 0.001) and preference-adjusted social mindfulness (χ2 = 6.861, df = 1, p < 0.01) toward in-group compared to out-group members. Conversely, they displayed higher levels of preference-adjusted social hostility toward out-group members (χ2 = 11.291, df = 1, p < 0.01). These findings suggest that even temporary group identities, formed in a sports setting, can lead to intergroup bias in adolescents' social decision-making, promoting goodwill toward the in-group while restricting the autonomy of out-group members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social mindfulness and Zhongyong thinking style are of high importance when evaluating relevant co‐actors in the social world. The current study investigates the influence of social mindfulness and Zhongyong thinking style on cooperative financial decision making in a public goods game among a Canadian sample. We hypothesize that higher perceived social mindfulness and higher perceived Zhongyong thinking style will increase the amount of money contributed to a joint project in a public goods game. The sample was a prolific‐based online recruited sample of n = 125 Canadians. We observed a significant main effect of Zhongyong thinking style on the amount of contributed money in the public goods game. Social mindfulness did not reach significance. The influence of Zhongyong thinking style was qualified by a significant Zhongyong by gender interaction, indicating that females but not males reduced their contributions if the Zhongyong thinking style of the co‐actor was manipulated as being low. It is shown that Zhongyong thinking style is also relevant in a Western cultural setting. Future research is needed, however, to investigate further the reasons for the differences between females and males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Gratitude is pivotal in promoting and maintaining prosocial interactions in human society. However, it is unclear whether the prosocial function of gratitude can be observed even in situations of uncertainty about whether one can provide benefits to others. Here, we examined whether gratitude promotes prosocial behavior in uncertain situations. Participants (N = 60) were randomly assigned to either a gratitude or neutral group. Following the emotion-induced manipulation, we examined whether participants would choose a non-unique resource when selecting one of four resources (one unique and three non-unique) to leave the choice to the follower. This represented an uncertain situation in which choosing a non-unique resource does not necessarily mean the follower will choose the unique one. Results showed that participants in the gratitude group were more likely to choose non-unique resources than those in the neutral group, suggesting that gratitude promotes prosocial behavior even in uncertain situations. Our findings indicate that gratitude is widely prevalent as a lubricant for interpersonal and cooperative relationships in human society.

Work and family are closely interconnected domains of human life. The past of three decades have witnessed the increasing research interest in exploring the crossover effect from employee work domain to their family domain. However, we know little about how and when servant leadership has crossover effects on the family member of employees. Drawing on work-family enrichment theory, the study focus on how servant leadership as an other-oriented leadership style enhances employee spousal ratings of family life quality through its effect on employees' other-orientedness. Specially, we propose that servant leadership can increase employees' social mindfulness (i.e., perspective taking and empathic concern) so that to understand spouses' thoughts and care for their feelings, which improve their perception of family life quality. Besides, the study examines the moderating effect of job demands for the relationships. Survey method is hired in this paper. The study collected the employee-spouse dyad data in three waves, each with an interval of two weeks, and examined the whole model through a path analysis using Mplus 8.3. The statistical analysis shows that both perspective taking and empathic concern mediate the positive effect of servant leadership on employee spouses' family life quality. Job demands positively moderates the relationship. The indirect effect of servant leadership on employee spouses' family life quality be strengthened when employees are in high job demands context. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications as well as future research directions of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the relationship between school bullying victimization and social mindfulness and its mechanism in light of the interdependence and schema theories. Method: The Chinese version of the Delaware Bullying Victimization Scale- student, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Self-Concept Clarity Scale and The Social Mindfulness Self-report Scale (SMSRS) were distributed to 553 middle school students. Results: (1) The correlations of school bullying victimization with social mindfulness, self-concept clarity, and cognition reappraisal were statistically significant. (2) School bullying victimization had a significant effect on social mindfulness. (3) The simple mediating role of self-concept clarity and cognition reappraisal between school bullying victimization and social mindfulness were significant. (4) Self-concept clarity and cognition reappraisal played a chain mediating role between school bullying victimization and social mindfulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gratitude is pivotal in promoting and maintaining prosocial interactions in human society. However, it is unclear whether the prosocial function of gratitude can be observed even in situations of uncertainty about whether one can provide benefits to others. Here, we examined whether gratitude promotes prosocial behavior in uncertain situations. Participants (N = 60) were randomly assigned to either a gratitude or neutral group. Following the emotion-induced manipulation, we examined whether participants would choose a non-unique resource when selecting one of four resources (one unique and three non-unique) to leave the choice to the follower. This represented an uncertain situation in which choosing a non-unique resource does not necessarily mean the follower will choose the unique one. Results showed that participants in the gratitude group were more likely to choose non-unique resources than those in the neutral group, suggesting that gratitude promotes prosocial behavior even in uncertain situations. Our findings indicate that gratitude is widely prevalent as a lubricant for interpersonal and cooperative relationships in human society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies show that adults and children evaluate the act of leaving a choice for others as prosocial, and have termed such actions as socially mindful actions. The current study investigates how the desirability of the available options (i.e., whether the available options are desirable or not) may influence adults' and children's evaluation of socially mindful actions. Children (N = 120, 4- to 6-year-olds) and adults (N = 124) were asked to evaluate characters selecting items for themselves from a set of three items--two identical items and one unique item--in a way that either leaves a choice (two diverse items) or leaves no choice (two identical items) for the next person (i.e., the beneficiary). We manipulated whether the available options were either desirable or undesirable (i.e., damaged). We found that adults' and 6-year-olds' evaluation of socially mindful actions is moderated by the desirability of the options. Although they evaluate the act of leaving a choice for others as nicer than the act of leaving no choice both when the choosing options are desirable and when they are undesirable, the discrepancy in the evaluation becomes significantly smaller when the choosing options are undesirable. We also found that inference of the beneficiary's feeling underlies social evaluation of the actor leaving a choice (or not). These findings suggest that children consider both the diversity of options left and the desirability of the available options in understanding and evaluating socially mindful acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have mainly explored the impacts of social mindfulness on social behaviours (e.g., cooperation), little is known about crucial macro social environment factors that affect social mindfulness, like the market economy. With the development of the market economy, people typically acquire the self‐centred and rational market mindset which may suppress social mindfulness. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the causal relationship between the market mindset and social mindfulness, as well as the psychological mechanism behind the effect. In Study 1, participants whose market mindset was activated by recalling market experiences showed lower social mindfulness than those whose non‐market mindset was activated by recalling other experiences. Studies 2 and 3 explored the mediation of perspective taking and state empathy behind the detrimental effect. It was found that the relationship between the market mindset and social mindfulness was mediated by perspective taking rather than by state empathy. Together, the present three studies expand the existing literature on the relationship between the market mindset and social mindfulness and remind policymakers to pay attention to the adverse effects of the market mindset on social mindfulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xinyi Guo, Lin You Center for Collaborative Innovation of Civilization Practice in New Era, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Lin You, Center for Collaborative innovation of Civilization Practice in New Era, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, 330022, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 791-88122985, Email 18137809001@163.comPurpose: The current study examined the effect of group identity on social mindfulness, how awe mediates this effect, and lastly how empathy may moderate the various indirect pathway.Methods: A total of 2041 Chinese college students were recruited from different universities or colleges to complete the questionnaire including group identity scale, awe scale, empathy scale and social mindfulness scale. This study was conducted using random and convenient sampling, as well as SPSS and its plugin PROCESS as a statistical tool.Results: The present study showed that group identity was positively associated with awe and social mindfulness. Awe was positively associated with social mindfulness. Empathy further moderated the relationship between group identity and awe, awe and social mindfulness, as well as group identity and social mindfulness.Conclusion: The findings of this study shed light on a correlation between group identity and social mindfulness. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the practical importance of intervening in the empathy level of students who have poor empathy in order to increase their social mindfulness.Keywords: group identity, social mindfulness, empathy, awe

Social mindfulness is a low-cost, proactive prosocial behavior that is commonly elicited and enhanced through everyday interpersonal interactions. Recent studies revealed that individuals' childhood experiences shape adults' prosocial behavior. However, the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and social mindfulness during early adulthood—a pivotal stage for identity and career development—remains unclear. Therefore, Study 1 employed the Chinese version of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire-Revised (ACEQ-R) to measure ACEs and the Social Mindfulness (SoMi) paradigm to determine social mindfulness and preliminarily assessed the association between ACEs and early adulthood social mindfulness. Study 2 also employed the ACEQ-R to measure ACEs and assessed daily stress and social mindfulness levels through a 12-day diary study to examine the association between ACEs and daily social mindfulness and the mediating role of daily stress. Greater severity of ACEs was associated with lower levels of social mindfulness in early adulthood. ACEs not only influenced individuals' level of social mindfulness directly but also indirectly affected early adulthood social mindfulness through daily stress. Thus, ACEs, as negative environmental factors, profoundly impact individuals' social adaptive development in early adulthood. These results offer a theoretical foundation and empirical support for enhancing social mindfulness levels among adults. • Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) negatively predicted social mindfulness. • ACEs influenced individuals' level of daily social mindfulness. • Daily stress mediated the links between ACEs and early adulthood social mindfulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We apply a social mindfulness lens to understand the phenomenon of perceived customer mistreatment. Recognizing that both recall of prosocial acts and perspective taking invoke the motivation to be mindful in social interactions, we investigated whether these two types of interventions affect customer service employees’ experience of customer mistreatment. Additionally, we investigated whether these two interventions might also buffer the relation of employees’ daily experience of customer mistreatment and their negative mood at the end of the workday. Finally, we examined whether the interventions, via their effects on daily experience of customer mistreatment and afternoon negative mood, could reduce dysfunctional coping responses in the evening (i.e., employee rumination and maladaptive shopping). We conducted a within-person field experiment utilizing a daily experience sampling approach with 94 customer service employees whom we surveyed for 15 consecutive workdays. Consistent with our expectations, both interventions significantly reduced the daily experience of customer mistreatment compared to a control condition. Recall of prosocial action also significantly buffered the positive relation of daily experience of customer mistreatment with afternoon negative mood. Moreover, both interventions had significant indirect effects on dysfunctional coping responses in the evening. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a robust tendency for people to expect others to be more immoral than them, for instance, more selfish. Where do these pessimistic beliefs come from? We explore a socio-metacognitive account whereby those beliefs originate in one's own impulses to act selfishly. In two studies, we used the social mindfulness paradigm, a task that provides the initial chooser the opportunity to be socially mindful about other people or not. Results show 1) that people expect others to be more selfish than them, and 2) that this belief in the selfishness of others is related to one's own impulses to act selfishly. Thus, even when people are kind in their choices, they tend to be less generous in their beliefs about the kindness of others, and this is particularly the case when those selfless choices did not come easily to them, but rather required suppressing an impulse to act selfishly.

• Adults spontaneously favor private socially mindful acts. • Children aged 6–11 spontaneously favor public socially mindful acts. • With motives revealed, adults and children favor private socially mindful acts. • Motives matter more in evaluations of socially mindful acts than unmindful acts. Previous research shows that both adults and children by 5 or 6 years of age appreciate socially mindful actions where one leaves a choice for others. However, less is known as to whether children consider motivations in their evaluations of socially (un)mindful actions. Here we investigated whether children and adults can spontaneously evaluate socially (un)mindful behaviors depending on contextual cues, specifically whether the actions happen in public or in private. We also investigated how children evaluate these actions when provided with explicit information on motivations. We presented 99 children (aged 6–11 years) and 99 adults in China with two characters performing the same socially mindful or unmindful behaviors. One character acted publicly, whereas the other acted privately. Participants were asked to compare the two characters first spontaneously and then again after explicit information on the characters' motivations was provided. We found that whereas adults spontaneously favor private socially mindful acts, children favor public socially mindful acts. Only after motivations were provided did children favor private socially mindful acts like adults. In addition, we found asymmetry in that motivation seems to matter more in evaluations of socially mindful actions than in evaluations of socially unmindful ones. These findings are the first to reveal children's consideration of motivations in their evaluations of socially mindful behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People are quick to form impressions of others' social class, and likely adjust their behavior accordingly. If social class is linked to prosociality, as literature suggests, then an interaction partner's class should affect prosocial behavior, especially when costs or investments are low. We test this expectation using social mindfulness (SoMi) and dictator games (DG) as complementary measures of prosociality. We manipulate target class by providing information regarding a target's (a) position on a social class ladder, and (b) family background. Three studies using laboratory and online approaches (N overall = 557) in two nations (the Netherlands [NL], the UK), featuring actual and hypothetical exchanges, reveal that lower class targets are met with greater prosociality than higher class targets, even when based on information about the targets' parents (Study 3). The effect of target class was partially mediated by compassion (Studies 2 and 3) and perceived deservingness of the target (Study 3). Implications and limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a complement to high-cost cooperation as assessed in economic games, the concept of social mindfulness focuses on low-cost acts of kindness. While social mindfulness seems quite natural, performed by many most of the time (reaching a level of 60--70 percent), what happens if such acts become more costly, and if costs become more salient? The present research replicates the prevalence of social mindfulness when costs are salient, but low. Yet we show that, with small increments in costs, the vast majority no longer exhibits social mindfulness. This holds even if we keep the outcomes for self high in comparison with the beneficiary. We conclude that the literature on social mindfulness should pay attention to cost. Clearly, if being socially mindful comes with high costs, this is not what most people are prepared to do. In contrast as long as costs are low and not salient, social mindfulness seems natural and normative.

Aim: This study aimed to explore the influence of leader mindfulness on hindrance stress in nurses. Based on the social mindfulness framework, the mediating effects of nurses' perceptions of their leaders' perspective taking and empathic concern and how they are moderated by mindfulness of nurses were investigated. Design: A time‐lagged cross‐sectional survey was conducted. Methods: The convenience sampling method was adopted. Data were collected at three time points from January to September 2020. A total of 393 paired datasets of nurses and their leaders were collected from 28 Chinese 3A grade hospitals. SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing. Results: (1) Leader mindfulness significantly reduced nurse hindrance stress. (2) Both nurses' perceptions of their leaders' perspective taking and empathic concern mediated the relationship between leader mindfulness and nurse hindrance stress. Empathic concern was more effective than perspective taking in the process of leader mindfulness for reducing nurse hindrance stress. Nurses' perceptions of their leaders' perspective taking completely mediated the relationship between empathic concern and nurse hindrance stress. (3) Nurse mindfulness moderated the relationship between leader mindfulness and nurses' perceptions of their leaders' empathic concern but had no significant effect on the relationship between leader mindfulness and nurses' perceptions of their leaders' perspective taking. Conclusion: Leader mindfulness was an important interpersonal factor for reducing nurse hindrance stress. Nurses' perceptions of their leaders' perspective taking and empathic concern were pivotal mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of leader mindfulness. Nurse mindfulness is a situational factor that contributes to the effectiveness of leader mindfulness. Impact: Hospitals can benefit from mindfulness interventions by improving the mindfulness of leaders and nurses. Nurse managers are encouraged to promote social mindfulness, which will enable perspective taking and empathic concern by nurses and thus reduce hindrance stress on nurses during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans are social animals, but not everyone will be mindful of others to the same extent. Individual differences have been found, but would social mindfulness also be shaped by one's location in the world? Expecting cross-national differences to exist, we examined if and how social mindfulness differs across countries. At little to no material cost, social mindfulness typically entails small acts of attention or kindness. Even though fairly common, such low-cost cooperation has received little empirical attention. Measuring social mindfulness across 31 samples from industrialized countries and regions (n = 8,354), we found considerable variation. Among selected country-level variables, greater social mindfulnesswas most strongly associated with countries' better general performance on environmental protection. Together, our findings contribute to the literature on prosociality by targeting the kind of everyday cooperation that is more focused on communicating benevolence than on providing material benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a complement to high-cost cooperation as assessed in economic games, the concept of social mindfulness focuses on low-cost acts of kindness. While social mindfulness seems quite natural, performed by many most of the time (reaching a level of 60-70 percent), what happens if such acts become more costly, and if costs become more salient? The present research replicates the prevalence of social mindfulness when costs are salient, but low. Yet we show that, with small increments in costs, the vast majority no longer exhibits social mindfulness. This holds even if we keep the outcomes for self high in comparison with the beneficiary. We conclude that the literature on social mindfulness should pay attention to cost. Clearly, if being socially mindful comes with high costs, this is not what most people are prepared to do. In contrast as long as costs are low and not salient, social mindfulness seems natural and normative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies show that being socially mindful only requires a minimal social context: The presence of a specific other is enough to bring out greater social mindfulness in a one-shot social decision-making task that focuses participants’ decisions on leaving or limiting other people’s choice. Study 1 contrasts a control condition (with no second chooser) with two conditions in which a confederate chooses after the participant. We find that participants are socially mindful by leaving choice to the confederate more often. Study 2 reveals that a specified, identifiable other is left choice more often than an unspecified next chooser. The physical presence of others may thus be enough to elicit greater social mindfulness as manifested in simple and low-cost social decision-making.

In this research, we examine how high‐quality contact can facilitate employees' coworker support and explain why the benefits of high‐quality contact are contingent upon age. First, we employ a social mindfulness lens to decipher the motivational mechanisms of high‐quality contact with coworkers on providing coworker support via coworker‐oriented perspective taking and empathic concern. Second, we utilize socioemotional selectivity theory to overcome the current age‐blind view on workplace interactions and examine the indirect moderating effect of age via future time perspective on the link between contact quality, social mindfulness, and coworker support. We tested our hypotheses based on data from a sample of 575 employees collected in three waves. Results showed that both coworker‐oriented perspective taking and empathic concern mediated the positive effects of contact quality on coworker support. The effect of contact quality on coworker‐oriented empathic concern was stronger for older employees with a more constrained future time perspective as compared to younger employees with a more extensive future time perspective. Overall, we extend research on aging, workplace interactions, and support behavior by linking the literature on these topics using a social mindfulness lens and by adding employee age and age‐related mechanisms as important boundary conditions that qualify the outcomes of positive workplace contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge sharing is a discretionary act of employees who might see benefits in keeping their knowledge to themselves. We focus on the other-oriented nature of knowledge sharing to outline how respectful leadership as an other-oriented leadership style can enhance followers' knowledge sharing through its effect on followers' other-orientedness. Specifically, we propose that respectful leaders increase followers' social mindfulness—defined as the cognitive (i.e. perspective taking) and affective (i.e. empathic concern) willingness to behave in a way that increases others' opportunities—which facilitates knowledge sharing. To test our conceptual model, we conducted a three-wave field study with 275 followers, and a multi-source field study with 83 leader-follower dyads. In line with our hypotheses, followers' perspective taking (Study 1 and 2) and empathic concern (Study 1) mediated the positive effect of respectful leadership on followers' knowledge sharing. Moreover, perspective taking and empathic concern possessed interactive effects in Study 1, suggesting that the relationship between respectful leadership and followers' knowledge sharing was strongest when both components of social mindfulness were high. We discuss theoretical implications of the identified motivational pathway and elaborate on implications for practitioners who aim to facilitate knowledge sharing at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosociality is a central topic in positive psychology. An important but under-studied distinction can be made between active and reactive expressions. We suggest that the novel construct of social mindfulness represents active rather than reactive prosociality. Across four studies (N = 2,594), including a multi-wave representative sample spanning six years, social mindfulness is found to correlate with personality traits associated with prosocial and/or antisocial behavior. We find positive associations with empathy, social value orientation, and general prosocial behavior, and negative associations with moral disengagement and narcissism. Importantly, social mindfulness emerges as an active rather than a reactive characteristic that is more strongly related to HEXACO honesty-humility (active cooperation) than to HEXACO agreeableness (reactive cooperation). The association between social mindfulness and honesty-humility was found across measures six years apart. Given the well-established link between prosociality and well-being, emphasizing social mindfulness may be a good start to promote the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Social mindfulness” refers to being thoughtful of others and considering their needs before making decisions, and can be characterized by low-cost and subtle gestures. The present study compared the behavioral and neural responses triggered by observing others’ socially mindful/unmindful choices and how these responses were modulated by the social status of the agency. At the behavioral level, observing socially mindful choices made observers feel better, rate the actors as more likable, and behave more cooperatively than did observing socially unmindful choices. Analysis of event-related potentials in the brain revealed that compared with socially unmindful choices, mindful choices elicited more negative feedback-related negativity (FRN). Notably, while this effect of social mindfulness was only significant when the actor’s social status was medium and high, it was undetectable when the actor’s social status was low. These results demonstrate that the social mindfulness of others can be rapidly detected and processed, as reflected by FRN, even though it does not seem to receive further, more elaborate evaluation. These findings indicated that low-cost cooperative behaviors such as social mindfulness can also be detected and appreciated by our brain, which may result in better mood and more cooperative behaviors in the perceivers. Besides, the perception of social mindfulness is sensitive to important social information, such as social status.

"Social mindfulness" refers to being thoughtful of others and considering their needs before making decisions, and can be characterized by low-cost and subtle gestures. The present study compared the behavioral and neural responses triggered by observing others' socially mindful/unmindful choices and how these responses were modulated by the social status of the agency. At the behavioral level, observing socially mindful choices made observers feel better, rate the actors as more likable, and behave more cooperatively than did observing socially unmindful choices. Analysis of event-related potentials in the brain revealed that compared with socially unmindful choices, mindful choices elicited more negative feedback-related negativity (FRN). Notably, while this effect of social mindfulness was only significant when the actor's social status was medium and high, it was undetectable when the actor's social status was low. These results demonstrate that the social mindfulness of others can be rapidly detected and processed, as reflected by FRN, even though it does not seem to receive further, more elaborate evaluation. These findings indicated that low-cost cooperative behaviors such as social mindfulness can also be detected and appreciated by our brain, which may result in better mood and more cooperative behaviors in the perceivers. Besides, the perception of social mindfulness is sensitive to important social information, such as social status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Psychosis is characterized by problems in social functioning and trust, the assumed glue to positive social relations. But what helps building trust? A prime candidate could be social mindfulness: the ability and willingness to see and consider another person’s needs and wishes during social decision making. We investigated whether first-episode psychosis patients (FEP) and patients at clinical high-risk (CHR) show reduced social mindfulness, and examined the underlying neural mechanisms.Methods: Twenty FEP, 17 CHR and 46 healthy controls, aged 16–31, performed the social mindfulness task (SoMi) during fMRI scanning, spontaneously and after the instruction “to keep the other’s best interest in mind.” As first of two people, participants had to choose one out of four products, of which three were identical and one was unique, differing in a single aspect (e.g., color).Results: FEP tended to choose the unique item (unmindful choice) more often than controls. After instruction, all groups significantly increased the number of mindful choices compared to the spontaneous condition. FEP showed reduced activation of the caudate and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during mindful, and of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), mPFC, and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during unmindful decisions. CHR showed reduced activation of the ACC compared to controls.Discussion: FEP showed a trend toward more unmindful choices. A similar increase of mindful choices after instruction indicated the ability for social mindfulness when prompted. Results suggested reduced sensitivity to the rewarding aspects of social mindfulness in FEP, and reduced consideration for the other player. FEP (and CHR to a lesser extent) might perceive unmindful choices as less incongruent with the automatic mindful responses than controls. Reduced socially mindful behavior in FEP may hinder the building of trust and cooperative interactions.

Background: Psychosis is characterized by problems in social functioning and trust, the assumed glue to positive social relations. But what helps building trust? A prime candidate could be social mindfulness: the ability and willingness to see and consider another person's needs and wishes during social decision making. We investigated whether first-episode psychosis patients (FEP) and patients at clinical high-risk (CHR) show reduced social mindfulness, and examined the underlying neural mechanisms. Methods: Twenty FEP, 17 CHR and 46 healthy controls, aged 16–31, performed the social mindfulness task (SoMi) during fMRI scanning, spontaneously and after the instruction "to keep the other's best interest in mind." As first of two people, participants had to choose one out of four products, of which three were identical and one was unique, differing in a single aspect (e.g., color). Results: FEP tended to choose the unique item (unmindful choice) more often than controls. After instruction, all groups significantly increased the number of mindful choices compared to the spontaneous condition. FEP showed reduced activation of the caudate and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during mindful, and of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), mPFC, and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during unmindful decisions. CHR showed reduced activation of the ACC compared to controls. Discussion: FEP showed a trend toward more unmindful choices. A similar increase of mindful choices after instruction indicated the ability for social mindfulness when prompted. Results suggested reduced sensitivity to the rewarding aspects of social mindfulness in FEP, and reduced consideration for the other player. FEP (and CHR to a lesser extent) might perceive unmindful choices as less incongruent with the automatic mindful responses than controls. Reduced socially mindful behavior in FEP may hinder the building of trust and cooperative interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ample evidence for the central role of morality in social judgments. However, research has not examined whether perceived morality of others also drives perceived humanness, nor has it extensively considered its behavioral consequences. These issues were addressed across two studies. Study 1 revealed that information about a target person's morality increased his/her perceived humanness, which in turn explained positive behavioral intentions toward him/her. Study 2 pointed out that information about a target person's morality increased unselfish behaviors toward him/her. This effect was explained by perceived humanness of the target. Implications of the relationship between morality, perceived humanness, and unselfish behaviors are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies show that being socially mindful only requires a minimal social context: The presence of a specific other is enough to bring out greater social mindfulness in a one-shot social decision-making task that focuses participants' decisions on leaving or limiting other people's choice. Study 1 contrasts a control condition (with no second chooser) with two conditions in which a confederate chooses after the participant. We find that participants are socially mindful by leaving choice to the confederate more often. Study 2 reveals that a specified, identifiable other is left choice more often than an unspecified next chooser. The physical presence of others may thus be enough to elicit greater social mindfulness as manifested in simple and low-cost social decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social mindfulness refers to individual's respect and protection of others' options in interpersonal interaction. The object-choosing task is a traditional paradigm to assess social mindfulness. Individuals with high social mindfulness would choose the nonunique object so that others would have more options; on the contrary, individuals with low social mindfulness would choose the unique object, which limits others' choices. No prior study has examined whether perceiving people with different levels of social mindfulness affects one's cooperation. Based on this background, two experiments were conducted to address this question. In both experiments, a confederate participant's (Player A's) social mindfulness was manipulated by setting the frequency that Player A chose the unique and the nonunique objects. Then, participants were asked to interact with Player A in the public goods game (Experiment 1) or in the centipede game (Experiment 2). Convergent results showed that compared to those interacting with a socially unmindful person, participants interacting with a person perceived as socially mindful contributed more resources in the public goods game and chose to pass on more rounds in the centipede game. These findings suggest that perception of others' high social mindfulness enhances one's own cooperative behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to identify people who are prosocial, supportive, and mindful of others is critical for choosing social partners. While past work has emphasized the information value of direct social interactions (such as watching someone help or hinder others), social tendencies can also be inferred from indirect evidence, such as how an agent considers others when making personal choices. Here we present a computational model of this capacity, grounded in a Bayesian framework for action understanding. Across four experiments we show that this model captures how people infer social preferences based on how agents act when their choices indirectly impact others (Experiments 1a, 1b, & 1c), and how people infer what an agent knows about others from knowledge of that agent's social preferences (Experiment 2). Critically, people's patterns of inferences could not be explained by simpler alternatives. These findings illuminate how people can discern potential social partners from indirect evidence of their prosociality, thus deepening our understanding of partner detection, and social cognition more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful social relationships require a consideration of a partner's thoughts and intentions. This aspect of social life is captured in the social mindfulness paradigm (SoMi task), in which participants make decisions that either limit or preserve options for their interaction partner's subsequent choice. Here we investigated the neural correlates of spontaneous socially mindful and unmindful behaviours. Functional magnetic resonance data were acquired from 47 healthy adolescents and young adults (age 16–27) as they completed the SoMi task. Being faced with socially relevant choices was associated with activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, caudate, and insula, which is consistent with prior neuroeconomical research. Importantly, socially mindful choices were associated with activity in the right parietal cortex and the caudate, whereas unmindful choices were associated with activity in the left prefrontal cortex. These neural findings were consistent with the behavioural preference for mindful choices, suggesting that socially mindful decisions are the basic inclination, whereas socially unmindful responses may require greater effort and control. Together, these results begin to uncover the neural correlates of socially mindful and unmindful choices, and illuminate the psychological processes involved in cooperative social behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social mindfulness has recently been introduced as a type of prosocial behavior that emphasizes the importance of a skill to see other people's needs beyond the will to act accordingly. Correspondingly, social mindfulness has been proposed to involve processes of executive functioning and thus of deliberate thinking. In four studies, we tested the influence of processing mode on social mindfulness using different experimental manipulations (i.e., instructions to decide intuitively vs. deliberately, time pressure, and cognitive load). Contrary to the idea that social mindfulness requires conscious processing – and unlike recent findings suggesting intuitive cooperation – we consistently found negligible effect sizes for the influence of processing mode on social mindfulness. This was observable for both, prosocial and selfish individuals alike (i.e., those with high vs. low levels in Social Value Orientation or Honesty-Humility, respectively). Overall, the findings suggest that social mindfulness constitutes a general tendency to perceive and act prosocially in social situations that is unaffected by processing mode and, by implication, distinguishable from other types of prosocial behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Beneficiary's preference influences children's evaluations of choice leaving acts. • Children by age 4 understand it is mean to take away the only thing others prefer. • With age children increasingly value choice when preference is unknown. • With age children increasingly value preference over diverse choice. • Increasing flexibility found in children's evaluation of indirect prosocial actions. People value indirect prosocial actions that benefit others as byproducts of self-oriented actions. One example of such an action is the act of leaving a choice for others when selecting an item for oneself. In this study, we investigated how knowledge of the beneficiary's preference may influence children's evaluations of such actions. Children (n = 91, 4- to 10-year-olds) and adults (n = 43) were asked to evaluate characters taking a snack for themselves from a set of three items—two identical items and one unique item—in a way that either leaves a choice (two different items) or leaves no choice (two identical items) for the next person (the beneficiary). The beneficiary's preference was systematically manipulated as unknown, preferring the unique item, or preferring the item of which there are two. We found notable developmental changes: Children as young as 4 years of age understand that it is nicer not to take away the only thing others prefer; with age, children increasingly appreciate the value of leaving a diverse choice when the beneficiary's preference is unknown; however, when the beneficiary clearly prefers the item of which there are two, children increasingly think that it is nicer to leave two identical but preferred items than to leave a diverse choice. These findings reveal increasing flexibility and subtlety in children's social evaluation of indirect prosocial actions; their evaluation develops from a mere understanding of the value of preference to a flexible appreciation of both preference and choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social class predicts numerous important life outcomes and social orientations. To date, literature has mainly examined how an individual's own class shapes interactions with others. But how prosocially do people treat others they perceive as coming from lower, middle, or higher social classes? Here, in addition to testing effects of self social class on prosocial behavior, we also investigate how target social class affects prosocial behavior, operationalized using a social mindfulness paradigm that focuses on leaving or limiting choice to others. We offer three lines of reasoning, predicting that lower class targets either elicit greater prosociality than higher class targets (fairness), that higher class targets elicit greater prosociality (status), or that people are most prosocial to targets from their own social class (similarity). Across four studies, we find that participants behave less prosocially (i.e., are less socially mindful) toward higher class targets relative to lower and/or middle class targets. Perceptions of similarity, warmth, and competence did not mediate lower prosociality for higher relative to lower class targets. Together, results are most consistent with a fairness perspective. Across all studies, we also found that self social class had little to no relationship with prosociality. In total, results suggest that social class is relevant for prosocial behavior, but that target social class matters more than self social class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social mindfulness has been described as the socially relevant disposition of being attentive to and considerate of other people's needs and acting accordingly. However, previous studies have not included actual other people. The goal of the present study is to test the hypothesis that people high versus low in social mindfulness are perceived as different by and have different impacts on the people in their personal environments. In our study, we used caregivers as primary participants and two types of other rater. First, primary participants were rated by their private long-term contacts (e.g., closest friend or significant other) on empathy, agreeableness, and honesty/humility. Second, patients provided satisfaction ratings of the care they received from their caregivers (i.e., primary participants). We found small associations between social mindfulness and other-rated empathy but no associations with other-rated agreeableness or honesty/humility. By contrast, the association between caregivers' social mindfulness and patients' satisfaction with their received care was large. The findings are interpreted with regard to differences in levels of acquaintanceship. We speculate that social mindfulness may be more relevant in formal settings than in close relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although one may not always see it, social life often involves choices that make people act in ways that are mindful of others or not. We adopt an interdependence theoretical approach to the novel concept of social mindfulness, which we conceptualize in terms of other-regarding choices involving both skill (to see it, e.g., theory of mind, perspective taking) and will (to do it, e.g., empathic concern, prosocial Orientation) to act mindfully toward another person's control over Outcomes. We operationalized social mindfulness in a new social decision-making paradigm that focuses on leaving or limiting choice options for others that we tested across 7 studies. Studies 1a through 1c showed that people with other-oriented mindsets left interdependent others more choice than people with self-oriented and/or unspecified mindsets. Studies 2a and 2b revealed that people developed more favorable judgments of a socially mindful than of a socially unmindful person. Study 3 revealed that unknown others with trustworthy (vs. untrustworthy) faces were met with more social mindfulness. Study 4 revealed that social mindfulness could be traced in personality by being positively related to Honesty-Humility and Agreeableness (HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised) as well as to Empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and a prosocial value orientation (SVO). Together, these studies contribute to explaining how social mindfulness can help people to navigate the social world by aiming to maximize other people's control over their situational Outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]