In everyday life, there are many situations that elicit emotional reactions to an individual's plight, leading to empathic thoughts and helping behaviors. But what if the observed situation involves fictional characters rather than real life people? The main goal of this dissertation was to investigate the extent that empathic thoughts and helping behaviors characterize children's responses to fictional social interactions, as well as to real ones. Another goal was to develop a new measure of prosocial behavior. In Study 1, 60 undergraduate students (36 female; Mage = 19.87, SDage = 4.46) played two computerized ball-tossing games, one with 3 co-players who were believed to be other students and one in which a ball was tossed between 3 walls. During the second half of each game, one of the co-players/walls was excluded by the other two co-players/walls; the participant's subsequent increase in passes to the excluded co-player/wall was recorded. Participants increased their passes to the excluded real co-player more than to the excluded wall, indicating that the increase in the Real Condition were attempts to help another person, rather than simply to even out the distribution of passes. Study 2 extended these findings to children and tested the relationship between reactions to real and fictional social interactions. Seventy-one 5- and 8-year-old children (36 females; 35 5-year-olds: Mage = 5 years, 8.2 months, SDage = 2.4 months; 36 8-year-olds: Mage = 8 years, 6.5 months, SDage = 2.9 months) played the computerized ball tossing game with (1) other children they believed to be real, (2) novel cartoon characters, and (3) walls. One of the co-players/walls was excluded in the second half of each game. Although children reported similar empathic reactions towards the excluded real and fictional co-players, they increased their passes to the excluded real co-player more than to the excluded fictional character or wall (controlling for individual differences in real life empathy). These results suggest that children's emotional reactions to what they experience in fiction and in real life are similar, but they take the behavioral steps to help another individual only when that individual is believed to be a real person.

One of the most profound transformations of the marketing discipline in recent history has been driven by the democratization of power relations and value creation between brands and consumers. This dissertation explores the branding implications of this fundamental shift by investigating whether and how the type and degree of control shared by brands affect consumer empowerment perceptions and, in turn, consumer–brand relationships, as well as whether and how these effects might be moderated by the size and diversity of the choice set and by the image valence of the brand that shares control with consumers. The present research examines such questions in a prosocial context by studying an emerging form of co-created social responsibility, cause-related marketing (CM) with choice, in which the consumer, not the brand, chooses the charitable cause to which the brand will donate in response to the consumer’s purchase. By integrating research on power, choice, and brand relationships, this dissertation proposes a conceptual framework that predicts whether, when, and why giving consumers control over a brand’s meaningful decision (operationalized as CM with choice) strengthens consumer–brand relationships. Six experiments test this framework. The dissertation shows that letting consumers choose a brand’s donation recipient strengthens consumer–brand relationships by increasing consumer empowerment and engagement. This serial mediation through empowerment and engagement is replicated across all studies. The main effect can be bolstered by providing consumers either unrestricted choice (i.e., choose any cause from memory) rather than restricted choice (i.e., select from a list of predetermined cause options; Studies 1–4) or a combination of both choice modes (Study 4), but not by expanding the size of the set of cause options (Study 2) or increasing the similarity or dissimilarity of the options (Studies 3a and 3b). Finally, Study 5 reveals that introducing a conventional CM campaign improves brand outcomes (attachment, attitudes, and purchase intentions) regardless of brand image (negative, neutral, or positive) and that adding consumer cause choice to the campaign benefits brands as much as (or more than) introducing the campaign itself does, though only when brand image is neutral or positive. When brand image is negative, adding consumer cause choice fails to improve brand outcomes and can even backfire—a boundary condition similar to the boomerang effect that arises from psychological reactance because consumers prefer to keep their distance. A central implication of this dissertation is that when a brand allows consumers to co-create its charitable giving campaign, neither the choice set’s size or diversity nor consumers’ involvement or satisfaction with the chosen cause brings consumers closer to the brand; instead, what brings them closer to the brand is their increased sense of empowerment, which in turn enhances their engagement with the brand that shares its control. An equally important implication results from the observed boomerang effect, which should serve as a warning for any managers who risk falling into the trap of adopting a standard, one-size-fits-all view of prosocial co-creation as a tool to repair an otherwise defective brand reputation. A strategy that encourages consumers to serve as brand agents by co-creating the brand’s meaning requires caution on the brand’s part. As in interpersonal relationships, the general desire to spend time together must first be at least somewhat mutual before any shared experience—no matter how positive—can make the bond grow stronger.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / The COVID-19 pandemic presents threats, such as severe disease and economic hardship, to people of different ages. These threats can also be experienced asymmetrically across age groups, which could lead to generational differences in behavioral responses to reduce the spread of the disease. We report a survey conducted across 56 societies (N = 58,641), and tested pre-registered hypotheses about how age relates to (a) perceived personal costs during the pandemic, (b) prosocial COVID-19 responses (e.g., social distancing), and (c) support for behavioral regulations (e.g., mandatory quarantine, vaccination). We further tested whether the relation between age and prosocial COVID-19 responses can be explained by perceived personal costs during the pandemic. Overall, we found that older people perceived more costs of contracting the virus, but less costs in daily life due to the pandemic. However, age displayed no clear, robust associations with prosocial COVID-19 responses and support for behavioral regulations. We discuss the implications of this work for understanding the potential intergenerational conflicts of interest that could occur during the COVID-19 pandemic. / New York University Abu Dhabi

Much research has shown that women are more empathic than men. Yet, women and men are equally forgiving. However, it is not clear whether empathy is more important to forgiveness for men or for women. The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in levels of empathy and forgiveness and the extent to which the association of empathy and forgiveness differed by gender. Participants were 127 community residents who completed self-report measures of empathy and forgiveness. The present results showed that women were more empathic than men, but no gender difference for forgiveness was apparent. However, the association between empathy and forgiveness did differ by gender. Empathy was associated with forgiveness in men—but not in women.

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The purpose of this dissertation is twofold: first, this research aims to contribute to the understanding of the roots of public service motivation and explore whether it is appropriate to ground the public service motivation concept in institutional theory; second, this research will analyze the relationship between altruism, public service motivation, empathy levels, and prosocial behavior. The field of public administration has witnessed a proliferation of research in public service motivation, both internationally and across the United States. A substantial amount of research has been conducted at the federal and state levels on public service motivation, leaving the local level of government largely underrepresented. Researchers have developed and refined measurement techniques for the public service motivation construct and have extensively examined the consequences of public service motivation as they pertain to public management techniques and approaches. However, the role institutions play in the development of public service motivation is largely unexamined. Additionally, the impact of public service motivation on prosocial behavior has not been thoroughly examined. This research attempts to fill these gaps in the literature. Using data derived from survey responses from 903 employees of ten local governments in Mississippi, this research examines an underrepresented group in public service motivation literature. This research analyzes the role that various institutional antecedents play in the development of public service motivation among local government employees, finding that four out of the seven institutional antecedents studied were significant: educational level, parenting status, parental modeling, and spirituality. It also analyzes the impact of public service motivation, empathy, and altruism levels on the prosocial behavior of local government employees in society. Results show that public service motivation is positively correlated to prosocial behavior; whereas empathy and altruism are not statistically significant.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between language skills and prosocial behavior in 37 children with language impairment (LI) and 37 typically developing peers matched for age (ranging from 6;11 to 11;1 years). The influence of gender on this relationship was also considered. Three different subtests of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999) were used to evaluate language ability in the areas of language comprehension, language production and pragmatic judgment skills. The Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (C. H. Hart & Robinson, 1996) was used to evaluate prosocial behavior. The current study replicated previous research by documenting that children with LI demonstrate significantly poorer prosocial behavior skills than do typically developing peers. Children with LI also performed significantly more poorly on the three language subtests of paragraph comprehension, syntactic construction, and pragmatic judgment skills compared to typical peers. No significant gender differences were noted on any of the comparisons. Multiple regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between the three language subtests and prosocial behavior in the group with LI compared to the typical group. Results for both groups indicated that paragraph comprehension, syntactic construction, and pragmatic judgment skills were not significant predictors of prosocial behavior when used in combination or independently. Results suggest that language alone cannot predict prosocial behavior in children with LI or typically developing children.

This study examined the relationship between marital conflict, parenting, and adolescent prosocial behavior. Parents and one target child from two-parent families (n = 330) responded to questionnaires regarding levels of marital conflict, parenting behaviors, and child prosocial behavior. Using structural equation modeling, results indicated that one dimension of parenting, warmth and connection, mediated the relationship between marital conflict and child prosocial behavior. Group comparisons did not find significant gender differences. The significance on parent-child connection is discussed along with clinical implications.

While there has been research published on social withdrawal during childhood, little work has been done on the effects of social withdrawal during emerging adulthood. Since emerging adulthood is a time of transition and initiation to new environments and social contexts, it would be expected to be a time of great anxiety for individuals predisposed to social withdrawal (shyness). Shyer emerging adults are at risk for internalizing behaviors, lowered self-concept, and delayed entry into romantic relationships, therefore, they may also be more challenged when it comes to enacting prosocial behaviors. In addition, the inability to self-regulate emotions may mediate this relationship. This study utilized a sample of 774 college students (538 women, 236 men; 79% Caucasian; M = 20 years old) to test these hypotheses. Results showed that emerging adults who were more socially withdrawn were less likely to exhibit prosocial behaviors toward strangers, friends, and family members. In addition, results showed that the inability to self-regulate emotions, or cope, mediated this relationship in all cases. Implications include the salience of emotional self-regulation as a prerequisite to prosocial behavior directed toward multiple others and the possibly detrimental influence of shyness on relationship and community involvement during emerging adulthood.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Rising economic inequality has become a widespread trend and concern in recent decades. Economic inequality is often associated with pernicious consequences such as a decrease in individual health and social cohesion and an increase in political conflicts. Does economic inequality have a negative association with prosocial behavior, like many other aspects of inequality? To answer this question, this dissertation investigates the relationship between economic inequality and prosocial behavior, particularly charitable giving, by conducting three empirical studies. The first study is a meta-analysis on the overall relationship between economic inequality and prosocial behavior. Results from 192 effect sizes in 100 studies show that there is a general small, negative relationship between economic inequality and different forms of prosocial behavior. Moderator tests demonstrate that social context, the operationalization of prosocial behavior, the operationalization of economic inequality, and average age of participants significantly moderate the relationship between economic inequality and prosocial behavior. The second study differentiates between redistributive and non-redistributive charitable causes and examines how income inequality is associated with charitable giving to these two causes in China. Using synthesized data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) and official data, this study shows that income inequality has no significant relationship with charitable giving to redistributive causes, but it has a negative association with charitable giving to non-redistributive causes. Of the four moderators, only education significantly moderates the relationship between income inequality and redistributive giving. The third study tests whether and how government social spending mediates the relationship between income inequality and charitable giving. Using the US county level panel data, this study finds there is no significant relationship between income inequality and government social spending as well as between government social spending and charitable giving. Thus, government social spending does not significantly mediate the relationship between income inequality and charitable giving. However, income inequality has a robustly and significantly negative relationship with charitable giving. In sum, this dissertation furthers our understanding of the relationship between economic inequality and prosocial behavior, especially charitable giving. Given the higher economic inequality facing many countries, it is a timely dissertation and has important practical implications.