Acting altruistically is one of humanity’s most praised, yet most puzzling behaviours. The aim of the present research is to examine the possibility that increased prosocial intentions can result from attempts to compensate for threats to perceptions of order. Previous research has found that people compensate order threats by increasing perceptions of control in external sources (Kay et al, 2008). Several competing theories on the origins of prosocial behaviour exist, such as the debate between Daniel Batson, advocating altruism, and Robert Cialdini, advocating an egoistic explanation. However, thus far no research has been published concerning the possibility of prosocial intentions acting as a compensatory mechanism to restore a sense of order in the world. In Study 1 perceptions of order were manipulated through writing about a time when participants did or did not have control over a positive outcome, followed by measurements of intentions to donate blood at an upcoming blood drive. In Study 2 participants read of a fake Harvard conference suggesting that the world was random. Participants then had an opportunity to restore control or did not have this opportunity, followed by a measurement of intentions to help solve problems in the world. Results of these studies support the hypothesis that intentions to act prosocially increase following threats to perceptions of order and control. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Acting altruistically is one of humanity’s most praised, yet most puzzling behaviours. The aim of the present research is to examine the possibility that increased prosocial intentions can result from attempts to compensate for threats to perceptions of order. Previous research has found that people compensate order threats by increasing perceptions of control in external sources (Kay et al, 2008). Several competing theories on the origins of prosocial behaviour exist, such as the debate between Daniel Batson, advocating altruism, and Robert Cialdini, advocating an egoistic explanation. However, thus far no research has been published concerning the possibility of prosocial intentions acting as a compensatory mechanism to restore a sense of order in the world. In Study 1 perceptions of order were manipulated through writing about a time when participants did or did not have control over a positive outcome, followed by measurements of intentions to donate blood at an upcoming blood drive. In Study 2 participants read of a fake Harvard conference suggesting that the world was random. Participants then had an opportunity to restore control or did not have this opportunity, followed by a measurement of intentions to help solve problems in the world. Results of these studies support the hypothesis that intentions to act prosocially increase following threats to perceptions of order and control. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Hierarchies are a ubiquitous form of human social organization. I hypothesized that one reason for hierarchies’ prevalence might be that core motivational needs for order and control make hierarchies psychologically appealing—because of the structure they offer—relative to other, less structured forms of social organization. This hypothesis is rooted in compensatory control theory (Kay et al., 2008), which posits that individuals have a basic need to perceive the world as orderly and structured. Therefore, personal and external sources of control are substitutable, inasmuch as they both serve the superordinate goal of believing that the world operates in an orderly fashion. An initial study confirmed that hierarchies are perceived as more structured and orderly relative to egalitarian arrangements. In five subsequent experiments, I threatened participants’ sense of personal control to increase their need to rely on external structure. Participants who lacked control perceived more hierarchy occurring in ambiguous social situations (Study 2) and preferred hierarchy more strongly in business contexts (Studies 3-4). Two studies tested my account that hierarchies are appealing because of their structure. Preference for hierarchy was higher among individuals high in Personal Need for Structure (PNS), and control threat increased preference for hierarchy even among low-PNS participants (Study 4). Importantly, framing a hierarchy as unstructured reversed the previous effects, so that participants who lacked control now found hierarchy unappealing (Study 5). A final study found that hierarchy-enhancing careers were more appealing after control threat, even when those jobs were low-status (Study 6). I discuss how the compensatory control account for the allure of hierarchies complements and extends other influential theories of hierarchy maintenance, such as Social Dominance Theory and System Justification Theory.

Lors de la poursuite d’un but, les consommateurs s’appuient souvent sur des sources externes de contrôle pour maintenir des niveaux de motivation élevés. Face à un sentiment d’impuissance, leur présence compense le sentiment de ne pas être au contrôle de son existence et permet de nier que les évènements de la vie peuvent se dérouler de manière aléatoire, que les choses peuvent être dues au hasard. En d’autres termes, lorsqu’un individu se sent incapable de contrôler la poursuite de son but, la perception d’ordre et de structure (mis en œuvre par un agent externe) renforce le sentiment que « tout est sous contrôle » et que, par conséquence, toute action produira un résultat attendu. De la même manière que la religion rappelle souvent aux croyants qu’une déité est à leurs côtés dans tous les moments de leur vie, les marques rappellent souvent explicitement qu’elles sont de véritables partenaires permettant aux consommateurs d’atteindre leurs buts. Mais, une telle tactique est-elle efficace ? Des courants de recherche importants en psychologie sociale (réactance et paresse sociale) suggèrent que promouvoir la présence d’agents externes influents est une source de démotivation à l’investissement d’efforts en vue de l’accomplissement d’un but. Dans cette thèse, nous examinons cette contradiction et offrons une tentative de réconciliation théorique à partir de trois recherches. Nous développons notamment la notion d’homologie fonctionnelle entre religion et marque en démontrant que la croyance dans le contrôle divin et la confiance en la marque servent un besoin élémentaire d’ordre quand les consommateurs doivent faire face à une menace sur leur contrôle personnel. / People are often reminded that influential external entities are by their side while they pursue important personal goals. In the context of reduced personal control, feeling their presence compensate for the realization of one’s own limitations when it comes to producing desired outcomes and avoiding undesired ones. Such reminders make people feel confident that there is structure and order in the world and help them cope with the anxiety inducing fear of randomness and chaos. In other words, when people feel that they do not have control over the pursuit of a goal, perceiving that overall “things are under control” because of the intervention of external agents promote the belief that actions and outcomes are interconnected. Just as religion often reminds believers that a deity is by their side, brands often explicitly remind their customers of their presence for goals they are pursuing. However, one may question the relevance of such a tactic. Prior work has provided extensive evidence showing that promoting influential external agents was detrimental to individuals’ willingness to take goal-directed actions (e.g., reactance and social loafing). In this dissertation, we examine this contradiction. We propose and test a theoretical reconciliation based on three researches. In doing so, we develop the notion of functional homology between religion and brand by arguing and demonstrating that both an interventionist deity and an interventionist brand serve the basic need for order and structure when people deal with a control threat. We further discuss the limitations of this work, directions for further research and the implications for marketing practice.

The doctoral thesis is thematically focused to human operator systems significantly contributing to this system reliability and safety. The theoretical part of the thesis is concerned with human activities and communications in MMS system, valuation and estimation of human reliability probability in MSS. The important part of the thesis is also a description of human operator neuromuscular system as an executive powerful system on MMS system regulating activities and the summary of human driver models in compensative lateral car control. The practical part of the doctoral thesis is based on analyses created by experimental data of drives. Experimental drives were done on drivers set following different backgrounds and different sleep deprivation at whole day. All experimental data was realized from the cooperation and following the agreement of Faculty of Transportation Science research centre on Prague ČVUT. Another part of thesis includes driver simulation model proposals with nonlinear components for lateral car control. Simulation model drives are compared with real drives or drivers on drive-simulator and there are monitored identical and different dynamic movement characteristics. The main target of doctoral thesis is to detect and obtain significant dynamical drive experience characteristics based on experimental data analyses. As well to found drive characters variability owing to driver’s fatigue and determinated evaluated characteristics changes. Acquired results of thesis should help in assistant systems that in cooperation with other components alert to micro-sleep and run off drive possibility.