Empathy incites a stable prosocial decision bias.

Empathy toward suffering individuals serves as potent driver for prosocial behavior. However, it remains unclear whether prosociality induced by empathy for another person's pain persists once that person's suffering diminishes. To test this, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a binary social decision task that involved allocation of points to themselves and another person. In block one, participants completed the task after witnessing frequent painful stimulation of the other person, and in block two, after observing low frequency of painful stimulation. Drift-diffusion modeling revealed an increased initial bias toward making prosocial decisions in the first block compared with baseline that persisted in the second block. These results were replicated in an independent behavioral study. An additional control study showed that this effect may be specific to empathy as stability was not evident when prosocial decisions were driven by a social norm such as reciprocity. Increased neural activation in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex was linked to empathic concern after witnessing frequent pain and to a general prosocial decision bias after witnessing rare pain. Altogether, our findings show that empathy for pain elicits a stable inclination toward making prosocial decisions even as their suffering diminishes.

Neural Representation of Donating Time and Money.

Volunteering and charitable donations are two common forms of prosocial behavior, yet it is unclear whether these other-benefitting behaviors are supported by the same or different neurobiological mechanisms. During an fMRI task, 40 participants (20 female-identifying; age: mean = 18.92 years, range = 18.32-19.92 years) contributed their time (in minutes) and money (in dollars) to a variety of local charities. With the maximum amount of time and money that participants could spend on these charities, they did not differentially donate their time and money. At the neural level, donating time and money both showed activations in brain regions involved in cognitive control (e.g., dorsolateral PFC) and affective processing (e.g., dorsal anterior cingulate cortex), but donating time recruited regions involved in reward valuation (e.g., ventral striatum) and mentalizing (e.g., temporal pole) to a greater extent than donating money. Further, the precuneus, which is also a region involved in mentalizing, more strongly tracked the varying amount of money than time donated, suggesting that the precuneus may be more sensitive to the increasing magnitude of a nonsocial exchange (e.g., donating money is a financial exchange) than a social exchange (e.g., donating time is an interpersonal exchange). Our findings elucidate shared as well as distinct neurobiological properties of two prosocial behaviors, which have implications for how humans share different resources to positively impact their community.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Prosocial behaviors broadly characterize how humans act to benefit others. Various prosocial behaviors, such as volunteering and charitable donations, share the goal of positively contributing to community. Our study identifies brain regions that may serve as ubiquitous neurobiological markers of community-based prosocial behaviors. Despite this shared goal, our study also shows that the human brain responds to donating time and money in diverging ways, such that brain regions associated with processing emotional reward and thinking about others are more strongly recruited for donating time than for money. Therefore, our study sheds light on how different personal resources, such as one's time and money, within a prosocial context are represented in the brain.

The Interactive Effect of Incentive Salience and Prosocial Motivation on Prosocial Behavior.

Charities often use incentives to increase prosocial action. However, charities sometimes downplay these incentives in their messaging (pilot study), possibly to avoid demotivating donors. We challenge this strategy, examining whether increasing the salience of incentives for prosocial action can in fact motivate charitable behavior. Three controlled experiments (N = 2,203 adults) and a field study with an alumni-donation campaign (N = 22,468 adults) found that more (vs. less) salient incentives are more effective at increasing prosocial behavior when prosocial motivation is low (vs. high). This is because more (vs. less) salient incentives increase relative consideration of self-interest (vs. other-regarding) benefits, which is a stronger driver of behavior at low (vs. high) levels of prosocial motivation. By identifying that prosocial motivation moderates the effect of incentive salience on charitable behavior, and by detailing the underlying mechanism, we advance theory and practice on incentive salience, motivation, and charitable giving.

No evidence tube entrapment distresses rodents in typical empathy tests.

In the first two experiments an empty tube open at one end was placed in different locations. Male hamsters, tested one at a time, tended to stay close to the tube or in it. During the first minute of the first 4 sessions of Experiment 3, the hamster was unrestrained. If it entered the tube, it was locked within the tube. If it did not enter the tube during the first min, it was placed in it, and the tube was locked. Fifteen min later, the tube was opened, and the hamster was unrestrained for a further 20 min. The tube remained open during Session 5. Hamsters spent more time near the tube than predicted by chance and continued to enter the tube although tube-occupancy duration did not differ from chance levels. In Experiment 4, male rats were tested in two groups: rats in one group had been previously trapped in a tube and rats in the other group allowed to freely explore the test space. For the first two min of each of four 20-min sessions, trapped-group subjects were permitted to move about the chamber unless they entered the tube. In that case, they were locked in for the remainder of the session. If, after two min, they did not enter the tube, they were locked in it for the remaining 18 min. Free rats were unrestricted in all sessions. In Session 5, when both groups were permitted to move freely in the chamber, trapped and free rats spent more time in and near the tube than predicted by chance. These data show tube restraint does not seem to distress either hamsters or rats.

How effort-based self-interest motivation shapes altruistic donation behavior and brain responses.

Prosocial behaviors are central to individual and societal well-being. Although the relationship between effort and prosocial behavior is increasingly studied, the impact of effort-based self-interested motivation on prosocial behavior has received less attention. In the current study, we carried out two experiments to examine the effect of motivation to obtain a reward for oneself on donation behavior and brain response. We observed that individuals who accumulated more money in the effort-expenditure rewards task (EEfRT) donated a lower proportion of their earnings. The sigmoid model fitted participants' choices in the EEfRT task, and the effort-reward bias and sigma parameters negatively correlated with the amount of money donated in the donation task. Additionally, the effort-reward bias and sigma parameters negatively predicted N2 amplitude during processing of charitable donation-related information. We propose that individuals who exhibit a lower level of effort-based self-interest motivation may allocate more cognitive control or attentional resources when processing information related to charitable donations. Our work adds weight to understanding the relationship between effort-based self-interest motivation and prosocial behavior and provides electrophysiological evidence.

Associations between forms of aggression and peer victimization: Does prosocial behavior matter?

Relatively little is known regarding factors that may mitigate the strength of the associations between forms of aggressive behavior and peer victimization. The goal of the current study was to investigate prosocial behavior as a moderator of these links over a 2-year period during middle childhood. Participants included 410 third-grade students (53% boys) and their homeroom teachers. Results indicated that prosocial behavior was associated with lower initial levels of victimization, whereas relational aggression was associated with higher initial levels of victimization. Physical aggression predicted more stable patterns of victimization over time, and prosocial behavior moderated the prospective link from relational aggression to peer victimization; specifically, relational aggression predicted decreases in victimization at higher levels of prosocial behavior and more stable patterns over time when levels of prosocial behavior were low. Further, gender differences were observed in the moderating effect of prosocial behavior on the prospective link from physical aggression to peer victimization, such that it served as a risk factor for boys and a protective factor for girls.

Are prosocial tendencies relevant for developmental psychopathology? The relations of prosocial behavior and empathy-related responding to externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and autism spectrum disorder.

The field of developmental psychopathology tends to focus on the negative aspects of functioning. However, prosocial behavior and empathy-related responding - positive aspects of functioning- might relate to some aspects of psychopathology in meaningful ways. In this article, we review research on the relations of three types of developmental psychopathology- externalizing problems (EPs), internalizing problems (IPs), and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) - to empathy-related responding (e.g., affective and cognitive empathy, sympathy, personal distress) and prosocial behavior. Empathy-related responding and prosocial behavior generally have been inversely related to EPs, although findings are sometimes reversed for young children and, for empathy, weak for reactive aggression. Some research indicates that children's empathy (often measured as emotional contagion) and personal distress are positively related to IPs, suggesting that strong sensitivity to others' emotions is harmful to some children. In contrast, prosocial behaviors are more consistently negatively related to IPs, although findings likely vary depending on the motivation for prosocial behavior and the recipient. Children with ASD are capable of prosocially and empathy-related responding, although parents report somewhat lower levels of these characteristics for ASD children compared to neurotypical peers. Issues in regard to measurement, motivation for prosociality, causal relations, and moderating and mediating factors are discussed.

Compensatory prosocial behavior in high-risk adolescents observing social exclusion: The effects of emotion feedback.

Although exposure to violence has been consistently associated with deficits in prosocial behavior among adolescents, effective methods of mitigating these deficits have yet to be identified. The current investigation tested whether prosocial behavior could be promoted by providing adolescents with feedback about the emotional states of others and whether the effects of feedback varied between adolescents who had versus had not experienced violence in the home or in the community. Adolescents aged 8 to 17 years with (n = 87) and without (n = 61) histories of violence exposure completed a virtual social exclusion ball-tossing paradigm in which information about an excluded peer's emotions (sad, angry, or neutral) was experimentally manipulated. Among adolescents with histories of violence exposure, those who received feedback that the peer was sad due to being excluded compensated by throwing the ball more often to that peer. In contrast, adolescents without histories of violence exposure did not engage in compensatory prosocial behavior, instead maintaining a relatively even number of tosses to all players. Findings offer new insight into simple potential methods of eliciting prosocial behavior in adolescents for whom such responding may be compromised and may provide a potential starting point for interventions.

Recalling experiences of scarcity reduces children's generosity relative to recalling abundance.

Does a sense of having less or more than what one needs affect one's generosity? The question of how resource access influences prosocial behavior has received much attention in studies with adults but has produced conflicting findings. To better understand this relationship, we tested whether resource access affects generosity in the developing mind. In our preregistered investigation, we used a narrative recall method to explore how temporary, experimentally evoked states of resource abundance or scarcity affect children's sharing. In this study, 6- to 8-year-old American children (N = 148) recalled an experience of scarcity or abundance and then chose how many prizes to share with another child. We found that children in the scarce condition rated themselves as sadder, viewed their resource access as more limited, and shared fewer tokens than children in the abundant condition. Our results indicate that recalling past experiences of resource access creates distinct behavioral consequences for children and suggest that a sense of "having less" may encourage a strategy of resource conservation relative to a sense of "having more," even at a young age.

The costs and benefits of kindness for kids.

What do children think makes an act kind? Which kind acts are children likely to perform? Previous research with adults suggests that the kindness of acts depends largely on the benefit provided and to a lesser extent on the cost incurred, and that adults are more likely to perform low-cost, high-benefit kind acts. In the current study, children (9-12 years, n = 945) and teens (13-17 years, n = 939) rated the benefit, cost, kindness, and likelihood of performing 173 acts of kindness, and adults (18+ years, n = 891) rated how beneficial, costly, kind, and likely the acts would be for young people to perform. Among children and teens, benefit but not cost predicted the kindness of acts, and benefit positively predicted, but cost negatively predicted, performance (for "kindness quotients" of 61% and 65%, respectively). Among adults, benefit and cost predicted the kindness of acts, and cost, but not benefit, negatively predicted performance (for a kindness quotient of 59%). The results for children and teens are similar to those from previous research with adults; however, adults are more sensitive to cost when rating kindness, are less sensitive to benefit when rating performance by young people, and are less likely to think young people will perform acts of kindness overall. In practical terms, the results suggest that recommending cost-effective acts may be the best way to encourage children to be kinder.

Beyond empathy: Cognitive capabilities increase or curb altruism in middle childhood.

Altruistic behavior, which intentionally benefits a recipient without expectation of a reward or at a cost to the actor, is observed throughout the lifespan from everyday interactions to emergency situations. Empathy has long been considered a major driver of altruistic action, but the social information processing model supports the idea that other cognitive processes may also play a role in altruistic intention and behavior. Our aim was to investigate how visual analysis, attention, inhibitory control, and theory of mind capabilities uniquely contribute to predicting altruistic intention and behavior in a sample of 67 French children (35 girls and 32 boys; Mage = 9.92 ± 0.99 years) from Paris and neighboring suburbs. Using a Bayesian analysis framework, we showed that in younger grade levels visual analysis and selective attention are strong predictors of altruistic intention and that inhibitory control strongly predicts altruistic behavior in a dictator game. Processes underlying theory of mind, however, negatively predict altruistic behavior in the youngest grade. In higher grade levels, we found that stronger attention and inhibitory control predicts lower altruistic intention and behavior. Empathy was not found to predict altruistic intention or behavior. These results suggest that different cognitive capabilities are involved in altruistic intention and behavior and that their contribution changes throughout middle childhood as social constraints deepen and altruism calls on more complex reasoning.

The relations among prosocial behavior, hedonic, and eudaimonic well-being in everyday life.

INTRODUCTION: Existing research highlights the significance of prosocial behavior (voluntary, intentional behavior that results in benefits for another) to people's well-being. Yet, the extent to which this expected positive relation operates at the within-person level (e.g., is more prosocial behavior than usual related to a higher than usual level of well-being?) while taking into account stable interindividual differences, remains a research question that deserves further investigation. In this study, we aimed to explore the relations between prosocial behavior and hedonic (HWB; subjective assessment of life satisfaction and happiness) and eudaimonic (EWB; actualization of human potential in alignment with personal goals, including concepts like meaning in life and closeness to others) well-being in daily life. METHOD: Using ecological momentary assessment for 4 weeks, data were collected from two British samples, comprising 82 adolescents and 166 adults. RESULTS: Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling revealed a positive relations between prosocial behavior and HWB/EWB at both between and within-person levels across the samples. CONCLUSION: In summary, these findings further support the positive link between prosocial behavior and well-being in everyday life. Notably, this association was consistent across different age groups (adolescent and adults) at both between and within-person levels.

Testosterone reduces generosity through cortical and subcortical mechanisms.

Recent evidence has linked testosterone, a major sex hormone, to selfishness in economic decision-making. Here, we aimed to investigate the neural mechanisms through which testosterone reduces generosity by combining functional MRI with pharmacological manipulation among healthy young males in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subject design. After testosterone or placebo gel administration, participants performed a social discounting task in which they chose between selfish options (benefiting only the participant) and generous options (providing also some benefit to another person at a particular social distance). At the behavioral level, testosterone reduced generosity compared to the placebo. At the neural level (n = 60), the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) encoded the other-regarding value of the generous option during generous choices, and this effect was attenuated by testosterone, suggesting that testosterone reduced the consideration of other's welfare as underpinned by TPJ activity. Moreover, TPJ activity more strongly reflected individual differences in generosity in the placebo than the testosterone group. Furthermore, testosterone weakened the relation between the other-regarding value of generous decisions and connectivity between the TPJ and a region extending from the insula into the striatum. Together, these findings suggest that a network encompassing both cortical and subcortical components underpins the effects of testosterone on social preferences.

Measuring early adolescents' prosocial behavior toward diverse others: Considering multiple social identities.

INTRODUCTION: In a diverse society, individuals often need to make prosocial decisions toward others who vary on a range of intertwined social identities. Adolescence is a prime time to promote intergroup prosociality due to identity salience during this developmental stage. In this study, our goal was to develop and provide initial validation, of a novel measure on intergroup prosocial behavior considering gender and race/ethnicity. METHOD: We used two independent samples of early adolescents (N1 = 118, Mage = 12.21 years, 55% boys, 59% White collected nationally in the United States.; N2 = 133, Mage = 12.77, 51.1% boys, 77% White collected locally in Arizona). RESULTS: Using the data from Sample 1, Exploratory Factor Analyses revealed a two-factor solution capturing intergroup prosociality and personal distress. Confirmatory Factor Analyses with data from Sample 2 confirmed the factor structure. The reliability of intergroup prosociality was acceptable. Prosociality subscale was positively correlated with adolescents' empathy, sympathy, compliant, emotional, dire, and anonymous prosocial behaviors indicating convergent validity and negatively correlated with adolescents' public prosocial behavior indicating discriminant validity. Further, we examined whether youth engage in differential intergroup prosocial behavior using both variable-centered and person-centered approaches, combining data from Samples 1 and 2. While adolescents did not engage in differential intergroup prosocial behavior, Latent Profile Analyses revealed five distinct profiles of early adolescents' intergroup prosociality. Overall, this study advances research on youth's intergroup prosociality across two intersectional social identities, moving beyond the conceptualization of single social identities in intergroup research.

Weakened sympathetic response and lower parasympathetic activity in intimate partner violence perpetrators when empathizing: Influence of autonomous activation in affective approach and prosocial behavior.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning has been proposed as a relevant method to characterize the therapeutic needs of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators. Nevertheless, research has neglected the influence of the ANS on socio-affective functions in this population. The aim of the present study was to analyze the psychophysiological activity of IPV perpetrators (n = 52) compared to controls (n = 46) following an empathic induction task, performed through negative emotion-eliciting videos. We employed two general ANS markers (heart rate [HR] and respiratory rate [RR]), two sympathetic-related indexes (pre-ejection period [PEP] and skin conductance level [SCL]) and a parasympathetic biomarker (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]). Additionally, we explored the impact of psychophysiological activity on prosocial behavior using Hare's donation procedure. Compared to controls, IPV perpetrators reported lower HR and SCL following the task, as well as longer PEP, suggesting an attenuated sympathetic response to others' distress. No differences in the RSA response pattern were found, however, IPV perpetrators displayed lower overall RSA levels throughout the protocol, indicative of reduced parasympathetic activity. Besides, while no differences in prosocial performance were observed, greater sympathetic responses and overall parasympathetic activity predicted increased donations across the sample. Thus, a high sympathetic and parasympathetic activity might influence the occurrence of prosocial behavior. The present study provides further evidence supporting that IPV perpetrators cope differently with others' negative emotions. In line with this biopsychosocial perspective, insights are gained on the emotional processing of IPV perpetrators which, in turn, could contribute to improve IPV psychotherapeutic programs.

Medical students' perceptions of prosocial behaviors: a grounded theory study in China.

INTRODUCTION: Prosocial behavior has been shown to be protective against burnout. Yet, we know little about prosocial behavior in medical students. We wanted to know what are chinese medical students' understanding of prosocial behavior and which factors influence their participation in it? METHODS: We undertook a grounded theory study, following Corbin & Strauss. We used convenience sampling and conducted semi-structured individual interviews. We analyzed data using open, axial, and selective coding techniques. Next, we grouped data into concepts. We noticed these concepts aligned with three existing social theories, so we developed our theory in concert with these: the Theory of Planned Behavior, Self-Determination Theory, and Social Support Theory. RESULTS: Twenty-eight medical students participated in this study. Medical students hold especial views on the roles of medical physicians, and most of these views align with students' core values, including the value of prosocial behavior. Students are intrinsically motivated to engage in prosocial behaviors that align with their core values. Personal values, personality traits, perceived self-competence, career motivation, environmental factors, and family influences are the core factors influencing medically positive prosocial behavior. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports a focus on prosocial behavior instead of altruistic behavior in medical education. We anticipate that promoting prosocial behavior through medical curricula will reduce moral distress and burnout among medical students.

Student's and Classmates' Prosocial Behavior predict Academic Engagement in Middle School.

Students' academic engagement is greatly informed by a classroom's social climate. However, more research is needed regarding how specific peer behavior, especially prosocial behavior, come to shape academic engagement. The present study investigated whether students' perceptions about their classmates' prosocial behavior were associated with their academic engagement (cognitive, behavioral, affective) across the school year. Indirect effects via increases in students' own prosocial behavior were examined. Participants were 905 middle school students from rural, low-income communities in the Midwestern United States (50% girls, 46% boys; Mage = 12.94 years). Students completed self-report surveys in the fall and spring of the 2022-2023 school year. Results revealed that students' perceptions of their classmates' prosocial behavior were positively associated with students' own prosocial behavior. Students' own prosocial behavior was positively associated with all three dimensions of engagement. The positive indirect effect of classmates' prosocial behavior on engagement through students' own prosocial behavior was significant. The findings highlight the importance of classmates' behavior on individuals' academic engagement and offer insights into classroom-based interventions aimed at improving collective behavior.

Longitudinal Associations Between Support and Prosocial Behavior Across Adolescence: The Roles of Fathers, Mothers, Siblings, and Friends.

Family members and friends can play an important role in adolescents' prosocial behavior. To better understand the relation between support and prosocial behavior in adolescence, it's important to conduct longitudinal studies that distinguish between within-dyad variance and between-dyad variance. The current study investigated longitudinal associations between adolescents' prosocial behavior, autonomy support, and emotional support from family and friends across adolescence. Across six annual years, 497 Dutch adolescents (284 boys; mean age T1 = 13.03 years, SDage = 0.46), fathers, mothers, siblings, and friends reported on their prosocial behavior. Adolescents also reported on perceived autonomy and emotional support. Between-dyads almost all associations of support and prosocial behavior of family members and friends with adolescents' prosocial behavior were significant, with higher levels of adolescents' prosocial behavior being associated with higher levels of prosocial behavior and support from fathers, mothers and friends. Within-dyads, several concurrent associations were significant, but within-dyads links between prosocial behavior and autonomy support are particularly driven by adolescent-mother or adolescent-sibling effects. This study highlights processes that occurred either at the between-dyad level or at the within-dyad level, but that varied per relationship type and that adolescents are the main catalysts in within-dyads changes in prosocial behavior and support. Preregistration: This study was preregistered on 20 January 2020 at https://osf.io/vxkm3/?view_only=dca87fd1585c444ba5cd5a00c22280ae .

Narcissism Moderates the Association Between Autonomy-Supportive Parenting and Adolescents' Prosocial Behavior.

Prior research has separately investigated the associations of autonomy-supportive parenting and narcissism with adolescents' prosocial behavior, but their joint relationships with prosocial behavior have been rarely examined. The present research aimed to expand the existing literature by scrutinizing the main and interactive associations of autonomy-supportive parenting and narcissism with adolescents' prosocial behavior. In so doing, a series of four studies (collectively N = 2023), combining cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental designs, were conducted. The adolescents' mean age varied from 12.42 to 15.70 years, with a balanced representation of the sexes in those studies. Converging results across four studies showed that high narcissism magnified the positive association between autonomy-supportive parenting and adolescents' prosocial behavior. The interaction pattern presented also suggested adolescents with high narcissism scores were more affected than others-both for better and for worse-by autonomy-supportive parenting, although this interaction might be specific to particular facets of prosocial behavior. These results were robust after adjusting for a few key covariates and survived a set of additional analyses. The present findings provide a novel avenue to explain individual differences linking prosocial behavior with those two factors and further advance precise, individualized strategies to promote adolescents' prosocial behavior.

Do Adolescents Adopt the Prosocial Behaviors of the Classmates They Like? A Social Network Analysis on Prosocial Contagion.

While the influence of high-status peers on maladaptive behaviors is well-documented, socialization processes of prosocial behavior through high-status peers remain understudied. This study examined whether adolescents' prosocial behavior was influenced by the prosocial behavior of the peers they liked and whether this effect was stronger when the peers they liked were also well-liked by their classmates. Three waves of data, six months apart, were collected among Chilean early adolescents who completed peer nominations and ratings at Time 1 (n = 294, Mage = 13.29, SD = 0.62; 55.1% male), Time 2 (n = 282), and Time 3 (n = 275). Longitudinal social network analyses showed that adolescents adopted the prosocial behavior of the classmates they liked - especially if these classmates were well-liked by peers in general. In addition, adolescents low in likeability were more susceptible to this influence than adolescents high in likeability. The influence resulted both in increases and - especially - decreases in prosocial behavior, depending on the level of prosociality of the liked peer. Findings suggest that likeability represents an important aspect of peer status that may be crucial for understanding the significance of peer influence with respect to prosocial behaviors during adolescence. Pre-Registration: https://osf.io/u4pxm .