A good cause
When Sex Doesn't Sell: Using Sexualized Images of Women Reduces Support for Ethical Campaigns
Renata Bongiorno, Paul Bain & Nick Haslam
PLoS ONE, December 2013
Abstract:
Images of scantily clad women are used by advertisers to make products more attractive to men. This “sex sells” approach is increasingly employed to promote ethical causes, most prominently by the animal-rights organization PETA. Yet sexualized images can dehumanize women, leaving an unresolved paradox – is it effective to advertise an ethical cause using unethical means? In Study 1, a sample of Australian male undergraduates (N = 82) viewed PETA advertisements containing either sexualized or non-sexualized images of women. Intentions to support the ethical organization were reduced for those exposed to the sexualized advertising, and this was explained by their dehumanization of the sexualized women, and not by increased arousal. Study 2 used a mixed-gender community sample from the United States (N = 280), replicating this finding and extending it by showing that behaviors helpful to the ethical cause diminished after viewing the sexualized advertisements, which was again mediated by the dehumanization of the women depicted. Alternative explanations relating to the reduced credibility of the sexualized women and their objectification were not supported. When promoting ethical causes, organizations may benefit from using advertising strategies that do not dehumanize women.
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An Occasion for Unselfing: Beautiful Nature Leads to Prosociality
Jia Wei Zhang et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology, March 2014, Pages 61–72
Abstract:
Past studies have documented interpersonal benefits of natural environments. Across four studies, we tested the hypothesis that exposure to more beautiful nature, relative to less beautiful nature, increases prosocial behavior. Study 1 yielded correlational evidence indicating that participants prone to perceiving natural beauty reported greater prosocial tendencies, as measured by agreeableness, perspective taking, and empathy. In Studies 2 and 3, exposure to more beautiful images of nature (versus less beautiful images of nature) led participants to be more generous and trusting. In Study 4, exposure to more beautiful (versus less beautiful) plants in the laboratory room led participants to exhibit increased helping behavior. Across studies, we provide evidence that positive emotions and tendencies to perceive natural beauty mediate and moderate the association between beauty and prosociality. The current studies extend past research by demonstrating the unique prosocial benefits of beautiful nature.
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Handshaking and Compliance with a Request: A Door-to-Door Setting
Nicolas Guéguen
Social Behavior and Personality, Fall 2013, Pages 1585-1588
Abstract:
Although different types of handshakes have been shown to be related to an individual's personality and social perception of the recipient, the effect of handshaking on compliance with a request remains in question. In a door-to-door setting, homeowners were asked for money for a humanitarian organization. Handshaking was performed or not by the solicitor before making the request in a random distribution. The results showed that more participants complied with the request in the handshaking condition (95.5%) than in the no handshaking control condition (53.3%). The difference between the 2 conditions was statistically significant.
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Smells like cooperation? Unpleasant body odor and people's perceptions and helping behaviors
Jeroen Camps et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Scents are omnipresent in our daily world and they are of great importance as represented by the use of perfumes or fragrances in the work environment. Even though it has been argued that bad scents invoke negative judgments, we argued and demonstrated that a bad body odor elicits feelings of pity in others (Experiment 1) and increases prosocial behavior (Experiment 2). Further, we showed that only if a person is not held accountable for his own body odor this elevated other's prosocial behavior (Experiment 3). These findings provide a novel perspective on the way human body odor affects our perceptions and consequent behaviors.
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Volunteering Among Latter-Day Saints
Van Evans, Daniel Curtis & Ram Cnaan
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, December 2013, Pages 827–841
Abstract:
In this article, we shed light on the volunteering behaviors of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). While some information was known about this group and its volunteering practices, detailed and reliable data were not available. This is the first study by a secular research institution to be given permission by the church to collect data within Latter-Day Saint congregations. We found a high rate of volunteering by almost all members, which was mostly, but not only, for religious purposes. About half the volunteering comes from fulfilling “callings,” while members initiate the other half. We found variations in volunteering based on the studied regions, age, income, education, gender, and generational membership. These findings provide the first reliable and detailed information regarding Latter-Day Saint volunteering and may serve as a springboard for future research on the pro-social behaviors of various religious groups.
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Behavioral consequences of money: When the automated teller machine reduces helping behavior
Nicolas Guéguen & Céline Jacob
Journal of Socio-Economics, December 2013, Pages 103–104
Abstract:
Previous research found that the reminders about money increase social distance and solitary activity. In two studies conducted in field settings, the helping behavior of participants was observed. Passersby that just handled or not money at an automated teller machine were asked to participate in a short survey (Study 1) or have the opportunity to warn a female-confederate walking ahead of him/her that she dropped something on the ground (Study 2). In both studies, it was found that handling money several seconds earlier was associated with a decrease in helping behavior.
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Andrew Lilley & Robert Slonim
Journal of Public Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper presents a model and experimental evidence to explain the “volunteering puzzle" where agents prefer volunteering time to donating money when monetary donations are, ceteris paribus, more efficient for providing resources to charity. In the model agents receive heterogeneous utility from pure and impure altruism (Andreoni, 1989) that permits warm glow to vary between monetary donations and volunteering, thus allowing preferences for impure altruism to rationalize inefficient allocation decisions. We define a measure of the price of impure altruism as the additional proportion of income contributed by a donor to give in the dimension that maximizes her utility, holding the overall charitable contribution constant. To test the predictions of the model we ran an experiment in which we varied within-subjects the costs and benefits of monetary and volunteer donations. We also varied between-subjects the emphasis on either the donation value to the charity (pure altruism) or the contribution of the donor (impure warm-glow altruism). Consistent with the model’s predictions, the experiment shows that framing the donation decision from a pure perspective increases the efficiency of donation choices, the substitutability of donations between money and time, and crowding out. Nonetheless, while greater impurity results in a more inefficient allocation of resources, empirically we find it increases overall charitable donations. We discuss the implications of our experimental results for both theory and policy.
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Beliefs and Ingroup Favoritism
Axel Ockenfels & Peter Werner
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
We report on two experiments designed to investigate the role of beliefs for ingroup favoritism. On average, dictators transfer substantially more to recipients who are publicly known to share the same group identity, compared to transfers given to recipients who are publicly known to be outgroup matches. However, there is substantially less ingroup favoritism if the dictator is informed that the recipient is unaware of the shared group membership. Moreover, dictators tend to ask less often for information about a recipient's identity if disclosure would imply that the dictator's identity is also disclosed to the recipient. The evidence supports the view that in group favoritism is partly belief-dependent, in addition to the notion that shared group identity per se changes charity preferences.
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Karen Smith et al.
Social Neuroscience, January/February 2014, Pages 1-9
Abstract:
Recent research indicates that the neuropeptide oxytocin and the gene for the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) have been implicated in the modulation of various social behaviors, including those related to empathy and sensitivity to others. In this study, we examine the hypothesis that genetic variation in OXTR is associated with autonomic reactions when perceiving others in distress. We also explore the possibility that individual disposition in empathic concern would differ by OXTR genotype. To address these questions, 51 male participants (18–35 years of age), genotyped for OXTR rs53576, viewed a social interaction containing high levels of individual distress and apparent physical pain. Electrodermal activity, a measure of sympathetic nervous system activity, was collected during the presentation of the stimuli. Participants also completed a self-report dispositional measure of empathy prior to starting the study and provided ratings of arousal while viewing the stimuli. OXTR variant rs53576 GG individuals showed increased levels of sympathetic and subjective arousal in response to the stimuli compared to A allele carriers. GG homozygotes also expressed greater levels of empathic concern. These findings support the importance of the oxytocin receptor variation in emotional and physiological reactions to the affective experiences of other conspecifics.
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High-frequency rTMS on DLPFC increases prosocial attitude in case of decision to support people
Michela Balconi & Ylenia Canavesio
Social Neuroscience, January/February 2014, Pages 82-93
Abstract:
Engaging in prosocial behavior was explored in the present research, by investigating the role of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in modulation of intention to support other people and of emotional attuning as it was expressed by facial feedback (electromiography, EMG). High-frequency rTMS was applied on DLPFC to 25 subjects when they were required to choose to directly intervene or not to support other people in emotionally valenced social situations (cooperative, noncooperative, conflictual, neutral contexts). Two control conditions were included in the experimental design to control the simple stimulation effect (sham condition with absence of TMS stimulation) and the location effect (control site condition with Pz stimulation). In comparison with sham and control condition, rTMS stimulation induced increased prosocial behavior in all the emotional situations. Moreover, as a function of valence, zygomatic (for positive situations) and corrugators (for negative situations) muscle activity was increased, with significant effect by DLPFC stimulation which induced a “facilitation effect”. In addition, negative situations showed a higher rTMS impact for both behavioral and EMG responsiveness. Finally, prosocial behavior was found to be predicted (regression analysis) by EMG variations, as a function of the negative versus positive valence. The prefrontal circuit was suggested to support emotional responsiveness and facial feedback in order to facilitate the prosocial behavior.