Title |
The Effect of Group Attachment and Social Position on Prosocial Behavior. Evidence from Lab-in-the-Field Experiments
|
---|---|
Published in |
PLOS ONE, March 2013
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0058750 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Delia Baldassarri, Guy Grossman |
Abstract |
Social life is regulated by norms of fairness that constrain selfish behavior. While a substantial body of scholarship on prosocial behavior has provided evidence of such norms, large inter- and intra-personal variation in prosocial behavior still needs to be explained. The article identifies two social-structural dimensions along which people's generosity varies systematically: group attachment and social position. We conducted lab-in-the-field experiments involving 2,597 members of producer organizations in rural Uganda. Using different variants of the dictator game, we demonstrate that group attachment positively affects prosocial behavior, and that this effect is not simply the by-product of the degree of proximity between individuals. Second, we show that occupying a formal position in an organization or community leads to greater generosity toward in-group members. Taken together, our findings show that prosocial behavior is not an invariant social trait; rather, it varies according to individuals' relative position in the social structure. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 4 | 36% |
Canada | 1 | 9% |
Portugal | 1 | 9% |
Hungary | 1 | 9% |
Unknown | 4 | 36% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 10 | 91% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 9% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Germany | 1 | <1% |
France | 1 | <1% |
Australia | 1 | <1% |
Brazil | 1 | <1% |
Peru | 1 | <1% |
Mexico | 1 | <1% |
United States | 1 | <1% |
Luxembourg | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 195 | 96% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 55 | 27% |
Researcher | 25 | 12% |
Student > Master | 23 | 11% |
Student > Bachelor | 16 | 8% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 14 | 7% |
Other | 39 | 19% |
Unknown | 31 | 15% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Social Sciences | 62 | 31% |
Psychology | 28 | 14% |
Economics, Econometrics and Finance | 25 | 12% |
Business, Management and Accounting | 15 | 7% |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 10 | 5% |
Other | 18 | 9% |
Unknown | 45 | 22% |