The Structure of Human Prosociality: Differentiating Altruistically Motivated, Norm Motivated, Strategically Motivated, and Self-Reported Prosocial Behavior
- Creators
- Böckler, Anne
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Tusche, Anita
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Singer, Tania
Abstract
Prosocial behavior is crucial for functioning societies. However, its reliable scientific assessment and the understanding of its underlying structure are still a challenge. We integrated 14 paradigms from diverse disciplines to identify reliable and method-independent subcomponents of human prosociality; 329 participants performed game theoretical paradigms and hypothetical distribution tasks commonly used in behavioral economics and completed interactive computer tasks and self-reports typically employed in psychology. Four subcomponents of prosociality were identified by exploratory factor analysis and verified by confirmatory factor analysis in an independent sample: altruistically motivated prosocial behavior, norm motivated prosocial behavior, strategically motivated prosocial behavior, and self-reported prosocial behavior. Altruistically motivated behavior was related to gender, to enhanced cognitive skills, and to reduced negative affect. Our study provides a crucial step toward an overarching framework on prosocial behavior that will benefit future research on predictors, neural underpinnings, and plasticity of human cooperation and prosociality.
Additional Information
© 2016 by Social and Personality Psychology Consortium. Published online before print April 5, 2016.Errata
In a recent publication, we employed factor analyses to integrate 14 measures of prosocial behavior, proposing four subcomponents of human prosociality: altruistically motivated, norm motivated, strategically motivated, and self-reported prosocial behavior. However, the reported confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) yielded standardized regression weights above 1, resulting from an improper solution (Heywood cases), which precludes straightforward interpretation of results. Here, we present two adjusted CFA models that rectify this problem. Model 1 resolves the issue of Heywood cases by implementing equality constraints, yielding a four-factor structure that is largely similar to the original model. Model 2 accommodates additional methodological considerations and presents a revised structure of prosociality with three subcomponents: altruistically motivated, norm motivated, and self-reported prosocial behavior. We also report minor corrections of descriptive results, none of which alter the pattern of results and interpretations of the original publication.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 70239
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160909-110134848
- Created
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2016-09-09Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-01Created from EPrint's last_modified field