Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: Prosocial behavior is valuable for the people it is meant to help, the people engaging in the behavior, and society in general. However, we do not always behave prosocially. Through three studies (N = 535) this work examined the possibility that resource scarcity might reduce prosocial behavior and that humility might promote prosocial behavior by both reducing the negative effect of scarcity on prosocial behavior, and by its own positive relationship with prosociality. This work further examined facets of humility that might promote prosocial behavior, such as other-orientation, and the roles of state and trait humility. Humility was associated with greater prosocial behavior across three studies, and though the other-oriented nature of the construct is at least partially responsible for this relationship, these studies suggest that other aspects of humility explain unique variance in prosocial giving. A path model that fits the data well suggests that trait humility promotes prosocial behavior by promoting state humility and other-orientation, which themselves are associated with greater degrees of prosocial giving. The effects of scarcity, and any moderating role humility might have, are somewhat unclear as the manipulations used failed to effectively manipulate feelings of resource scarcity.
Author: Matthew A. Humphreys
Language: English
Topic: Emotions and Moral Behavior
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Division of Graduate Education
OpenAlex ID: W2953002965