Department of Experimental Psychology University of Oxford Oxford, UK.
R Soc Open Sci. 2015 Dec 23;2(12):150546. doi: 10.1098/rsos.150546. eCollection 2015 Dec.
To what extent do people help ingroup members based on a social preference to improve ingroup members' outcomes, versus strategic concerns about preserving their reputation within their group? And do these motives manifest differently when a prosocial behaviour occurs in the context of helping another gain a positive outcome (study 1), versus helping another to avoid losing a positive outcome (study 2)? In both contexts, we find that participants are more prosocial towards ingroup (versus outgroup members) and more prosocial when decisions are public (versus private) but find no interaction between group membership and either anonymity of the decision or expected economic value of helping. Therefore, consistent with a preference-based account of ingroup favouritism, people appear to prefer to help ingroup members more than outgroup members, regardless of whether helping can improve their reputation within their group. Moreover, this preference to help ingroup members appears to take the form of an intuitive social heuristic to help ingroup members, regardless of the economic incentives or possibility of reputation management. Theoretical and practical implications for the study of intergroup prosocial behaviour are discussed.
人们在多大程度上基于对改善群体成员结果的社会偏好来帮助群体成员，而不是出于对在群体内维护声誉的策略性考虑？当亲社会行为发生在帮助他人获得积极结果的背景下（研究 1），与帮助他人避免失去积极结果的背景下（研究 2）时，这些动机是否表现不同？在这两种情况下，我们发现参与者对群体内（相对于群体外）成员更具亲社会性，并且在决策公开（相对于私下）时更具亲社会性，但在决策是否匿名或帮助的预期经济价值方面，没有发现群体成员与两者之间存在相互作用。因此，与群体偏好的偏好基础解释一致，人们似乎更愿意帮助群体内成员而不是群体外成员，而不论帮助是否可以提高他们在群体内的声誉。此外，这种帮助群体内成员的偏好似乎表现为一种直觉的社会启发式，以帮助群体内成员，而不论经济激励或声誉管理的可能性如何。讨论了对群体间亲社会行为研究的理论和实践意义。
