Latest Prosocial behavior Stories
In December of last year the New York Post published images of a man about to be killed by a train while several bystanders did little to help him. Numerous studies have provided evidence that people are less likely to help when in groups, a phenomenon known as the “bystander effect.” Those studies examined situations where only one person was needed to take action to help another. A University of Missouri anthropologist recently found that even when multiple individuals can contribute to...
Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online It’s safe to say television has not always been seen as an appropriate companion for children. For many years, health officials and child development experts have warned parents about the dangers of placing their children in front of the television for several hours a day. Now, new evidence has shown the question is shifting from “how much” to “which programs.” According to new studies from the University of Otago in...
University of Chicago A natural disaster can bring out the best in older children, prompting 9-year-olds to be more willing to share, while 6-year-olds become more selfish. Researchers at the University of Toronto, the University of Chicago, and Liaoning Normal University made this finding in a rare natural experiment in China around the time of a horrific earthquake. A crucial difference between the two age groups emerged one month after the disaster. The 6-year-olds’ willingness to...
Scorekeeping of past favors isn't, however, a factor While exchanging favors with others, humans tend to think in terms of tit-for-tat, an assumption easily extended to other animals. As a result, reciprocity is often viewed as a cognitive feat requiring memory, perhaps even calculation. But what if the process is simpler, not only in other animals but in humans as well? Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have determined monkeys may gain the...
Hispanics are enrolling in the higher education system at a greater rate than ever, yet they are less likely than their non-Hispanic peers to enter college or earn degrees, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. A new study by a University of Missouri researcher found that Mexican-American college students’ family and peer attachments are associated with prosocial and physically aggressive behaviors that can affect their success in college. Gustavo Carlo, Millsap Professor of Diversity in...
Researchers at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business are discovering that cell phones are making people less socially minded. The researchers are marketing professors Anastasiya Pocheptsova and Rosellina Ferraro, along with graduate student Ajay T. Abraham. The working paper is titled, "The Effect of Mobile Phone Use on Prosocial Behavior." As defined in the paper, prosocial behavior is action intended to benefit others. The study looked at different sets...
Parents’ financial strain and accompanying depression hinder parent-child bond; children less likely to volunteer, help others A majority of Americans rate their current financial situation as poor or fair, and nearly half of Americans say they have encountered financial problems in the past year, according to the Pew Research Center. A University of Missouri researcher studied how parents’ financial problems and resulting mental distress affect their relationships with their children....
Scientists, wondering for years how long ago our so-called prosocial behavior evolved, have recently found that chimpanzees also have a significant favoritism for prosocial behavior, which is in contrast to previous studies that positioned chimps as reluctant altruists that led to the widely held belief that human altruism evolved in the last six million years only after humans split from apes. In a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS),...
The Child Soldiers Global Report 20081 estimates that more than 300,000 children are engaged as soldiers around the globe, and more children are recruited every year in ongoing and new conflicts. Although a number of multinational coalitions are aligned to stop the recruitment of child soldiers, some countries persist in not only the recruitment of children but also in exposing children to both the psychological and physical dangers associated with combat.In the June issue of the Journal of...
Some video games can make children kinder and more likely to help "” not hurt "” other people.That's the conclusion of new research published in the current (June 2009) issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, a top-tier, peer-reviewed academic journal.The article presents the findings of three separate studies, conducted in different countries with different age groups, and using different scientific approaches. All the studies find that playing games with prosocial content...
