Video games have become a new platform for social interaction. I review the sociality of video games and the relationship between virtual- and real-world behaviors. I review and address the pros and cons of methods of measuring social behavior. Finally, I present two studies drawn from internet populations. In Study 1 (N = 250), I develop a scale, The Sociality in Multiplayer Online Games Scale (SMOG), which measures the frequency of social gaming behaviors in team-based, multiplayer online games. I hypothesized these to align on dominance and affiliation dimensions of social interaction (Kiesler, 1982). In Study 2 (N = 104), I conduct a confirmatory factor analysis, which supports a two-factor structure—Destructive and Constructive social behavior, resulting in the SMOG-6. I examine construct validity using measures of dominance and affiliation. Controlling for age, gender, and frequency of game-play, both factors predict dominance. SMOG-Destructive negatively, and SMOG-Constructive positively, predicted affiliation.

O tema central da tese é a educação para a paz na escola. É abordado a partir da bibliografia disponível e da investigação realizada durante o ano letivo de 2009 com 151 adolescentes de quatro escolas da rede pública e particular da região metropolitana de Belo Horizonte. A pergunta fundamental e motivadora da tese é: é possível educar para a paz na escola? Com o foco nesta questão central e a partir da hipótese inicial de que na medida em que educarmos comportamentos pró-sociais na escola, inibiremos os comportamentos violentos, foi realizada a pesquisa de campo com o objetivo geral de investigar os fatores que, numa proposta de educação para a paz, favorecem o desenvolvimento de comportamentos pró-sociais nos adolescentes e evitam comportamentos violentos no contexto escolar. Foram objetivos específicos da investigação realizada os seguintes: entender a educação para a paz como um compromisso fundamentado na experiência religiosa expressada nas diferentes tradições e como elemento central numa proposta de diálogo inter-religioso; estudar a adolescência como etapa privilegiada de intervenção psicopedagógica; analisar os efeitos da aplicação de um programa de intervenção psicopedagógica de educação para a paz na escola. A pesquisa combina métodos qualitativos e quantitativos ao usar o modelo experimental-estatístico, com um delineamento experimental multigrupo de medidas repetidas pré-teste/pós-teste, junto com o observacional-descritivo, privilegiando a observação participante. O primeiro capítulo é dedicado à fundamentação teológica da tese desde uma perspectiva pluralista e libertadora que privilegia o diálogo inter-religioso. O segundo capítulo é dedicado à fundamentação psicopedagógica da pesquisa e reflete sobre o binômio educação integral para a paz / comportamento pró-social. O terceiro capítulo descreve o percurso e a opção metodológica adotada na investigação. Finalmente o quarto analisa os dados coletados tomando como referência básica as quatro variáveis trabalhadas no programa de intervenção implementado com os adolescentes sujeitos da investigação e relacionadas todas elas com comportamentos pró-sociais: autoestima, expressão/compreensão de sentimentos, relações de cooperação e resolução de conflitos. A pesquisa constatou a efetiva diminuição dos comportamentos violentos dos adolescentes na sala de aula, especialmente nas escolas da rede pública participantes, junto com sinais de avanços na manifestação de comportamentos pró-sociais, mostrando que é possível e viável educar para a paz nas escolas através de programas de intervenção psicopedagógica específicos e de fácil implementação. / The central theme of theses is education for the peace at school. This theme is discussed based on the bibliography available and on investigation. The investigation was carried through the school year of 2009 with 151 adolescentes from four public schools in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte. The fundamental and motivating question of the thesis is: Is it possible to educate for peace at school?With the focus on this central issue and from the initial hypothesis that the extent to educate pro-social behavior at school, inhibit violent behavior. A field research was conducted with the aim to investigate the factors that, in a proposal of education for the peace, favors the development of pro-social behaviors in the adolescents and prevents violent behavior at school. Our research was motivated by the following points: understanding education for the peace as a religious experience based on the commitment expressed in the different traditions and as a central element in a proposal for inter-religious dialogue and to study the adolescent stage as prime psychopedagogical intervention, analyze the implementation of a psychopedagogical intervention program of education for the peace at school. The research combines qualitative and quantitative methods to use the experimental-statistical model, with a multigroup experimental design with repeated measures pre-test/post-test, along with observational and descriptive, focusing on participant observation. The first chapter is related to the theological foundation of the research from a pluralistic and liberating perspective that focuses interreligious dialogue. The second chapter refers to the psychopedagogical fundamentals of the research and reflects on the dual integral education for peace / pro-social behavior. The third chapter describes the course and the methodological approach used to carry out this research. The fourth chapter is based on the analysis and comments of collected data. For that purpose reference was made to the four parameters worked in the program of intervention implemented with adolescent subjects of the investigation and all of them related to prosocial behaviors: self-esteem, expression / comprehension of feelings, cooperation relations and conflict resolution.The research showed the effective reduction of violent behaviors of adolescents in the classroom, especially in public schools participating, along with signs of progress in the demonstration of prosocial behaviors, showing that it is possible and feasible to educate for the peace at schools through psychopedagogical intervention programs which are easily implemented.

This thesis incorporates three studies that analyze how information is presented in various contexts, how these different modes of presentation affect decision makers’ perceptions and how to improve communication of information to eliminate distortions. Chapter 1 features a scenario where experts make inferences given different presentations of a regression analysis, a widely used statistical method. Chapter 2 introduces an experience-based presentation mode and tests its effectiveness on decision makers with varying statistical abilities, across multiple probabilistic tasks. Chapter 3 demonstrates the effects of presentation mode and the number of available options on the amounts and distributions of donations to NGOs and their campaigns. Overall, the findings suggest that presentation mode is an important determinant of judgments and decisions, and they can be restructured to improve the accuracy of inferences. / Esta tesis incluye tres estudios que analizan cómo la información se presenta en varios contextos, cómo estos diferentes modos de presentación influyen las percepciones de los tomadores de decisiones y cómo mejorar la comunicación de la información para eliminar distorsiones. Capítulo 1 analiza una situación donde expertos hacen inferencias utilizando diferentes presentaciones de un análisis de regresión, un método de estadística ampliamente utilizado. Capítulo 2 introduce un modo de presentación basado en experiencia y pone a prueba su eficacia a través de múltiples problemas probabilísticas. Capítulo 3 demuestra los efectos del modo de presentación y el número de opciones disponibles sobre las cantidades y la distribución de las donaciones a las ONG y sus campañas. En general, los resultados sugieren que el modo de presentación es un determinante importante de las percepciones y decisiones, y pueden ser reestructuradas para mejorar la precisión de las inferencias.

In the thesis on the pro-social traits of workers in helping (assistance-providing) professions I dedicate myself to pro-social behavior, empathy and the basic characteristics of personality issuing from the five-factor personality model {--} The Big Five. Most professionals agree that pro-social behavior and empathy belong among the basic characteristics that assistance-providing professionals should have. An important role is also the personality of the care provider. The listed constructs and connections among them however remain the home environment of empirical research and thereby represent the phenomena regarding which there exist few verified findings. The goal of the paper rests in fining the level of empathy and personal dispositions in accordance with the Big Five model that could influence pro-social behavior in selected groups of assistance-giving professionals. The factors in question are neuroticism, extroversion, and openness to experience, graciousness and conscientiousness. Data collection took place with the help of two psychodiagnostic questionnaires. The IRI questionnaire measures level of empathy and the NEO-FFI questionnaire was used for diagnosing the five personality dimensions. The study was quantitative. The monitored set included respondents from three assistance-giving professions {--} nurses, members of the Czech Republic Fire Rescue Corps, and elementary-school teachers. The results confirmed the hypothesis that care providing workers show higher levels of empathy in comparison to the population average, and the hypothesis that these professionals show a higher level of personality traits that, in an interpersonal context, display positive orientation towards others, that is that they are more extroverted and gracious in comparison with the population average, was refuted. These results make it possible to consider that the relationship between the basic personality dimensions and pro-social tendencies may be mediated by the level of empathy with regard to other psychological constructs and the results of social learning. Conclusions cannot be generalized, due to a relatively small sample group. For this purpose it would be interesting to carry out a professional study, which would exceed, in its scope and possibilities, the usual requirements of a thesis paper.

Extensive research has documented the relationship between listening to certain genres of music and negative effects on social behavior such as aggressive and antisocial behavior. The present study explored whether there are genres of music associated with altruism. Altruistic behavior is defined as behavior that is consistently more caring, helpful, considerate of other's feelings, and self- sacrificing. These behaviors promote our ability to thrive as a community. Yet, few studies have addressed the relationship between music and altruism. Data was collected from 608 college students who completed a self-report altruism scale, music preference measure, the Marlowe Crowne social desirability scale, and a demographic information form in order to see if there is a relationship between choice of music and altruism. A multiple hierarchal regression analysis found music genre choice accounted for 15.9 percent of variance in self-reported altruism. Significant, positive correlations emerged also between altruism and several music genres including alternative, country, classical, and emo.

Il contributo presenta i risultati di un progetto multi-fase che ha avuto come obiettivo la creazione di un nuovo modello di azione collettiva solidarity-based. Sviluppatosi in tre fasi conseguenti e necessarie, tale progetto mira a fornire indicazioni teoriche, metodologiche ed applicative per interventi di cittadinanza globale capaci di favorire condizioni di giustizia sociale. La prima fase consta di uno studio cross-culturale condotto in Italia, Austria e Stati Uniti volto a rilevare le rappresentazioni sociali dei concetti di obbedienza e disobbedienza in gruppi di giovani-adulti. La discussione dei risultati evidenzia similitudini e differenze cross-culturali tra le rappresentazioni e definisce, per la prima volta in letteratura, attraverso l’utilizzo di mixed methods completamente bottom-up i concetti di obbedienza e disobbedienza. Nella seconda fase è stato creato e validato uno strumento psicometrico in grado di misurare l’atteggiamento relativo alla disobbedienza pro-sociale poiché, nella terza e ultima fase, tale costrutto, insieme alle variabili ragionamento morale e valori di impegno, sono state testate come predittrici del modello EMSICA, modello esplicativo di un’azione collettiva a favore di un out-group in condizioni di svantaggio sociale. La discussione dei risultati indica la rilevanza empirica di tali variabili offrendo interessanti spunti di riflessione per i policy maker. / This dissertation presents the results of a multi-phase project whose goal was the creation of a new model of solidarity-based collective action. Developed in three consequential and necessary phases, this project aims to provide theoretical, methodological and practical guidance for interventions of global citizenship to favor conditions of social justice. The first phase consists of a cross-cultural study conducted in Italy, Austria and the United States aimed at detecting the social representations of the concepts of obedience and disobedience in young adults groups. The discussion of the results highlights the similarities and the differences between cross-cultural representations and defines the concepts of obedience and disobedience for the first time in literature, through the use of completely bottom-up mixed methods. In the second phase has been created and validated a psychometric instrument that can measure the attitude related to pro-social disobedience because, in the third and final stage, this construct, along with the variables moral reasoning and engagement values, have been tested as predictors of the EMSICA model, that explains collective action in favor of a disadvantaged out-group. The discussion of the results indicates the empirical relevance of these variables offering interesting insights for policy makers.

One of the main environmental policy challenges is convincing individuals and organisations to engage in socially desirable courses of action; that is, to have them internalise the consequences of their decisions. As contributions from institutional and behavioural economics have indicated, policies aimed at fostering pro-social action can be ineffective and even counterproductive if the interests and concerns of the relevant actors are not properly considered throughout the policy process. In fact, international conventions and national legislation around the world generally recommend stakeholder involvement in order to properly address pressing environmental challenges. The evidence that underpins and informs this recommendation, however, is still insufficient and scattered across different strands of literature. On the one hand, research on participatory governance has indeed systematically documented the potential for policymakers and resource managers to obtain high-quality, context-specific and legitimate input for environmental policymaking from participatory processes. On the other, the available research has also cast doubt on the potential of participatory processes to produce concrete change in (pro-social) action on the ground. In general, the success of these processes ultimately depends on their design, implementation and context. However, most of these conclusions stem from rich qualitative accounts of participatory processes, structured comparisons of cases and systematic reviews of case studies and the available literature. With this type of evidence, it is difficult to neatly identify the impact of participatory interventions on pro-social and cooperative behaviour and systematically assess the underlying mechanisms. This thesis addresses these knowledge gaps. The thesis investigates the extent to which and the mechanisms by which participatory interventions could foster (or hinder) pro-social and collective action for natural resource management and environmental protection. It comprises four chapters, each constituting a stand-alone, self-contained academic paper. Throughout the different chapters, the thesis reviews and integrates insights from the literature on participatory governance and from the institutional and behavioural analyses of pro-social and collective action. Furthermore, using two laboratory economic experiments (Chapters 3 and 4) and one framed lab-in-the-field experiment (Chapter 5), the thesis systematically assesses specific hypotheses concerning the potential impacts of participatory interventions on cooperative and pro-social behaviour and the underlying mechanisms of these impacts. The introductory chapter of the dissertation gathers, presents and discusses the insights gathered from each chapter. It expands on the motivations for the thesis, presents the general and specific research gaps and questions the thesis tackles and clarifies the conceptual, theoretical and methodological foundations upon which the thesis is grounded. Chapter 2 (entitled Participatory interventions for collective action in environmental and natural resource management) reviews the literature on participatory governance together with the literature on collective action in natural resource and environmental management. The main goal of this review is to contribute to integrating the main insights from both strands of literature regarding (a) the potential of participatory interventions to foster collective action and (b) the channels through which they might foment (or hinder) collective action. It therefore seeks to help integrate the insights from these different strands of literature, which, although related, have generally been disconnected until now. The chapter draws on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to organise these insights within a coherent conceptual framework. As the results of this literature review indicate, participatory interventions have the potential to foster collective action through two channels. Firstly, by helping resource users to change (and enhance) the rules, norms and strategies that constrain and guide their behaviour (the indirect channel) and, secondly, by directly influencing the specific behavioural factors (e.g. knowledge, trust, preferences, perceptions and beliefs) that collective action hinges upon (the direct channel). However, to sustain collective action, the relevant literature has consistently emphasised that trust needs to be continually cultivated and ensured. Therefore, in line with insights from earlier studies on participatory governance, the results of this literature review also indicate that practitioners and policymakers must not only design participatory interventions carefully to effectively build the trust needed to heighten and sustain collective action, but participatory interventions must also be adequately embedded within the broader (social-ecological and governance) context, providing for follow-up, enforcement, monitoring and conflict-resolution mechanisms. From Chapter 3 through Chapter 5, the thesis focuses on the direct channel, studying the potential of participatory interventions to directly influence behaviour within relevant economic action situations such as social dilemma and distributive action situations. Within a given environment and institutional context, the studies recreate processes commonly facilitated within participatory interventions. Chapter 3 assesses the effects of externally structured and facilitated processes of information exchange, and Chapters 4 and 5 examine the impact of inducing perspective-taking via role-switching techniques (Chapter 4) and instructions (Chapter 5). Thanks to this experimental approach, it is possible to systematically assess the behavioural impacts of these types of processes as well as the underlying mechanisms. Chapter 3 (entitled Structuring communication effectively for environmental cooperation) starts by reviewing previous experimental studies on the effects of two-way communication in social dilemmas to identify the elements that are commonly involved in effective communication processes. This review notes four cooperation-enhancing components of communication: (i) problem awareness, (ii) exploration of strategies to tackle the problem at hand, (iii) agreement on desirable joint strategies and (iv) ratification of agreed-upon strategies. A total of 560 students at Osnabrück University participated in a laboratory implementation of a voluntary contribution mechanism; a public goods game. The experiment implemented a series of interventions that represented these components of communication and contrasted the resulting levels of cooperation with the average outcomes of control groups interacting under either free (unstructured) communication or no communication whatsoever. The intervention that facilitated agreement on a common strategy (i.e. the combination of (ii) and (iii)) was particularly effective at boosting cooperation. Furthermore, combined with interventions promoting problem awareness and ratification, this intervention produced levels of cooperation similar to the average levels of cooperation observed in groups with free-form communication. The results of this experiment expand the understanding in the literature of the role of communication in social dilemmas and provide insights into the potential of structured and facilitated processes of information exchange and social interaction to foster collective action for environmental management. Chapter 4 (The effects of inducing perspective-taking through role reversal in a give-and-take a dictator game on pro-social behaviour) and Chapter 5 (Perspective-taking for pro-social behaviour in watershed management) deal with the effects of inducing perspective-taking on unilateral pro-social behaviour. The results outlined in Chapter 4 indicate that perspective-taking, induced through role reversal, can be associated with significant average changes in the participants’ self-reported state of emotions (in terms of both empathic and positive as well as in distressing and negative emotions). The emotional reactions that the role reversal seems to influence, however, do not appear to result in significantly more (or less) pro-social behaviour. The chapter explores and discusses two plausible explanations for these results, namely the transient effects of emotional reactions and the opposing effects of diverging emotional reactions on pro-social behaviour. These results come from the analysis of data from 144 students at Osnabrück University who participated as dictators in a laboratory implementation of a give-and-take dictator game. The design of the experiment allows the identification of the effect of inducing decision-makers to experience the other person’s position through unilateral role reversal on pro-social behaviour. During the simulation round, dictators in treatment groups experienced how it would feel to be in the role of the recipient. Dictators in the control groups only learned about the distributional consequences of their allocation decisions on recipients. Hence, through a treatment comparison, it was possible to single out the effects resulting from temporarily taking on the position of the other participant. To understand the underlying drivers of a potential behavioural change, the study elicited participants’ emotional states both before and after the simulation round. The results in Chapter 5 indicate that inducing perspective-taking can be associated with relatively greater pro-social behaviour based on an experimental study of downstream farmers’ behaviour in a watershed management context. Moreover, the provision of information on the social-ecological context during the perspective-taking exercise cannot account for the different behavioural patterns in the treatment and control groups. These results come from a lab-in-the-field experiment carried out with 177 downstream farmers in a Peruvian watershed. In the experiment, farmers in the treatment groups were motivated to imagine the upstream farmers’ perspective (i.e. to think about their thoughts and feelings) before deciding on whether or not to contribute to an initiative in the upper watershed. The initiative intends to help upstream farmers improve their well-being without compromising the water supply downstream. The behaviour of farmers in the treatment groups was compared against the behaviour of farmers in the control groups wherein perspective-taking was not induced. Taken together, the results of Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 illustrate the potential of inducing perspective-taking—commonly promoted in participatory processes—to trigger pro-social behaviour in economic situations. It can indeed alter relevant behavioural variables and trigger pro-social behaviour in distributive and social-dilemma situations. Nevertheless, as the literature on perspective-taking has previously indicated, the final effects depend on the specific procedures by which and the situations and contexts wherein perspective-taking is induced. Based on these findings, it is possible to sustain that participatory interventions do have the potential to effect changes in pro-social and cooperative behaviour at both the collective and individual level. Whether this impact is realised or hindered hinges on the procedures and contexts of participatory interventions. It would also depend on the mechanisms provided to follow up on the initiated processes and sustain and build upon the early outcomes. The contributions of this thesis are threefold. Firstly, it integrates insights from the literature on the institutional and behavioural analysis of pro-social and collective action and the literature on participatory governance for natural resource management. Secondly, it generates new evidence, based on experimental methods, in terms of the potential for participatory interventions to foster pro-social and collective action, and in terms of the mechanisms by which participatory methods and processes could effectively impact (or hinder) pro-social and cooperative behaviour. In this way, the thesis helps to bridge the gap of knowledge in terms of how participatory interventions can effectively change behaviour and, subsequently, encourage socially desirable social-ecological outcomes. In doing so, it also adds to the understanding of pro-social and cooperative human behaviour and the way that the processes of information-exchange and perspective-taking, which are often facilitated by participatory processes, may (or may not) advance it. Research on participation is, however, still ongoing and, in terms of the way forward, the thesis makes a third, methodological contribution. It demonstrates how experimental research in both the laboratory and in the field, conducted under a coherent conceptual and methodological framework, can complement one another and shed light on the extent to which and the means by which participatory interventions can produce changes in behaviour. The experimental method, in terms of both laboratory and field experiments, can therefore complement the set of methods traditionally employed to analyse participatory processes. The results of the studies comprising the thesis underscore the importance of carefully analysing the policy process. As contributions from the behavioural literature have repeatedly indicated, human behaviour is driven by a combination of self-regarding, social and procedural preferences. Hence, addressing pressing environmental challenges involving externalities and social dilemmas not only entails getting the policy design right to synergistically coordinate and orchestrate these different types of preferences. It also requires careful design, analysis and implementation of the activities and methods that structure and facilitate stakeholder interactions throughout the policy process.