Lecture 3: Personality, intelligence and prosocial behaviour Flashcards
What are the key findings re the link between volunteering and personality?
> A and E during childhood Personality predicted volunteering during adolescence , relationship not mediated by organisational membership (Atkins et al 2005)
A (r = .23) and E (r = .14) correlated with current, past and anticipated volunteering in college students (Carlo 2005)
Volunteers from Meals on Wheels and professional caterers differed on A and E but not other personality traits –> so volunteering not a factor of the activity it self (Elshaug &Metzer, 2001)
What are the key findings re the link between cooperation and personality?
> Employees high on A and E are more likely to give and receive support from their co-workers (rs = .19 & .31) (Bowling et al, 2005)
A and E most associated with achievement related attitudes. E more likely to see competition as hyper-competitive (winners vs. losers) where as A very unlikely to see competition like that. A and E very likely to cooperate in a competition (Ross et al, 2003)
What are the key findings re the link between charitable giving and personality?
> less research
> support via economic games
What is the link between intelligence and pro-social behaviour?
> g associated with less aggression, less criminal activity and more complex socio-moral reasoning
Intelligence predicts outcomes associated with cooperation in economic games
example of US Presidential IQ negatively correlated with battle deaths in wars (Pinker 2012)
What are the explanations for the relationship between personality and prosocial behaviour?
- Pure altruism - motivated to act in a prosocial way purely by the outcome at a cost to self
- Warm glow - Acting in another’s interestbecause the act is enjoyable “action motivation”
> Both 1 & 2 seem to underpin the same neural reward system - you find this rewards - Enlightened self-interest - have a view of the world that if more people behave prosocially then it will make the world a better place and it will then benefit one’s own interest.
Why are economic games used?
> Real world example of prosocial behaviour are not pure examples of behaviour and there could be multiple motive underlying each behaviour in addition to pure altruism, warm glow and enlightened self-interest such as fun, exercise, social interest
Can manipulate and control for lab context
Can be generalisable as the basic elements are same as real social issues e.g. (self vs collective interests)
measure behaviour directly
Link between happiness and charitable giving?
> pro-social spending correlated with greater levels of overall happiness (r-.10) cf personal spending (no correlation) (Dunn et al 2008)
spending money on others (vs. on self) increased happiness (doesn’t matter whether it was $5 vs $20) (Dunn 2008)
happiness predicts future pro-social spending (Anik et al 2009)
same relationship between pro-social vs personal spending and positive affect found in Canada and Uganda (Ankin 2010)
What is social decision making?
Decision making which impacts other people
What are characteristics of economic games?
> model social interaction
2+ players
Goals and rewards to motivate people and rules
limited information about the intentions of others
payoff matrix is interdependent on decisions of self and others
What have economic games shown?
> there is a departure from traditional economic assumptions of self-interest and rationality
there is individual variation in behaviour
Which aspects of Big Five personality traits explain individual differences in prosocial behaviour in economic games?
> A and E as they reflect interpersonal relationships
A (cooperative, sympathetic, altruistic) concerned with maintenance of positive interpersonal relations
E (lively, bold, talkative and sociable) - two components
1. Affiliation - concerned with warmth, interpersonal engagement
2. Agency - concerned with reward related self-interest
What is the Interpersonal Circumplex?
> model of interpersonal behaviour
E closer to Assertiveness aspect
A closer to Compassion aspect
Enthusiasm and Affiliation between E and A
Describe HEXACO model
6 factors
> Extraversion - similar to B5
> Conscientiousness - similar to B5
> Openness - similar to B5
> Emotionality - similar to N but doesn’t include anger related characteristics
> Agreeableness - anger related characteristics are here - A is defined by lack of anger and forgiveness (in HEXACO) model
> Honesty-humility - reflects qualities such as trustworthiness, fairness and lack of greed
What are the two main aspects of HEXACO model and prosocial behaviour?
- HH (honest and humility) and HA (HEXACO Agreeableness) reflect divergent aspects of prosocial behaviour
1. Honesty-humility - active cooperation = tendency to be fair despite opportunities for exploitation
> Associated with cheating and other dishonest behaviours - such as workplace deviance, academic misconduct, delinquency etc (Lee et al, 2005)
2. HAgreeableness - reactive cooperation = tendency to be forgiving and tolerant of other’s transgressions
> Associated with forgiveness and vengefulness
Two main types of economic games with examples of each
- social dilemmas - Interdependent situation in which an individual’s immediate self-interest is in conflict with collective interests
> collective interests are maximised through mutual cooperation
> but self-interested individuals have a strong incentive to defect
> e.g. prisoner’s dilemma, public goods game, resource dilemma - bargaining games - tasks in which two players must divide a sum of money between themselves
> collective payoff = zero -sum
> less emphasis on uncertainty about other’s intentions
> allocations of wealth reveal social and fairness preferences
e.g. ultimatum game, dictator game and impunity game
