Folk stories featuring prosocial content are ubiquitous across cultures. One explanation for the ubiquity of such stories is that stories teach people about the local socioecology, including norms of prosociality, and stories featuring prosocial content may increase generosity in listeners. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of 185 Hadza hunter-gatherers. We read participants a story in which the main character either swims with another person (control story) or rescues him from drowning (prosocial story). After hearing the story, participants played a dictator game with dried meat sticks and then were given a recall test of facts presented in the story. There was moderate evidence for a small effect of the prosocial story: participants who heard the prosocial story gave an estimated 0.22 [90% HDI: -0.12-0.57] more meat sticks than those who heard the control story. However, the association between generosity and sex, marital status, and region of residence was stronger; men gave more than women, unmarried participants gave more than married participants, and participants living in a region with more exposure to markets gave more than participants living further from markets. There was no evidence that the prosocial story was more easily recalled than the control story. These results provide some support for the hypothesis that prosocial stories can increase prosociality in listeners, though the effect of hearing a single story is small.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12110-023-09444-4 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Children Appreciate Reasoners Who Approach Moral Dilemmas With Humility.
Dev Sci
January 2025
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Article Synopsis
- Children face moral dilemmas that involve conflicts between competing actions and start to appreciate the complexity of these dilemmas as they grow older.
- In a study, younger children tended to prefer a reasoner who was uncertain about their moral choice, viewing them as nicer and more trustworthy compared to a confident decision-maker.
- Older children showed a shift in preference, with 5-year-olds favoring confident decisions, while 6- and 7-year-olds began to value the acknowledgment of uncertainty, indicating evolving moral reasoning capabilities.
From inspiration to restoration: Moral elevation as a catalyst for improving intergroup relations in contexts of conflict.
J Pers Soc Psychol
August 2024
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University.
Existing research examining the creation of positive and prosocial interpersonal relations has established moral elevation as an approach-oriented emotion to be associated with a range of positive and prosocial outcomes. In this article and with the goal to identify emotional mechanism for improving intergroup relations in contexts of conflict, we examined the effects of moral elevation on enhancing relations. Across four experimental studies (s = 1,131), conducted in four understudied countries directly affected or threatened by intergroup conflict, we demonstrated that induced moral elevation elicits important cognitive and emotional shifts toward adversarial groups, resulting in improved intergroup relations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFostering Prosociality in Refugee Children: An Intervention With Rohingya Children.
Monogr Soc Res Child Dev
September 2024
Psychology Department, University of Toronto, Alexander von Humbolt Professor, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.
Prosocial behavior is a distinguishing characteristic of human nature. Although prosocial behaviors emerge early in development, contextual factors play an important role in how these behaviors are manifested over development. A large body of research focuses on the trajectory of prosocial development across diverse cultures and investigating contexts that foster it.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding of the functions of forgiveness among preschoolers.
J Exp Child Psychol
November 2024
Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Forgiveness plays an important role in restoring and maintaining cooperative relationships. Previous studies have demonstrated that young children could forgive transgressors both as a third party and as a victim. However, the research on young children's understanding of forgiveness is scant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF"I Want Everybody to Know as Much of My Life Story as They Can": Life Stories of Former Foster Youth.
Child Maltreat
July 2024
Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
The power of stories shared by young people in foster care is well-documented. Largely left unexplored is a story of foster care that is told within a fuller context of the life course. Using narrative and life history methods, this study sought to retrospectively identify and connect life experiences in histories of young people and explore how systems are portrayed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!