Brohmer Hilmar, Fauler Andreas, Floto Caroline, Athenstaedt Ursula, Kedia Gayannée, Eckerstorfer Lisa V, Corcoran Katja
Social Psychology, Institute for Psychology, Graz, Austria.
Front Psychol. 2019 Mar 29;10:545. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00545. eCollection 2019.
Helping often occurs in a broader social context. Every day, people observe others who require help, but also others who provide help. Research on goal contagion suggests that observing other people's goal-directed behavior (like helping) activates the same goal in the observer. Thus, merely observing a prosocial act could inspire people to act on the same goal. This effect should be even stronger, the more the observer's disposition makes him or her value the goal. In the case of prosocial goals, we looked at the observer's social value orientation (SVO) as a moderator of the process. In three studies ( = 126, = 162, and = 371), we tested the hypothesis that prosocial observations (vs. control) will trigger more subsequent casual prosocial behavior the more the observer is prosocially oriented. In line with the original research, we used texts as stimulus material in Study 1 and short video clips in Study 2 and 3. In Study 1 and 2, SVO was measured directly before the manipulation was induced and in Study 3 even a week prior to the actual experiment. Additionally, we included a second control condition video clip in Study 3, which did not depict human beings. Despite thoroughly developed stimulus material and methods, we found no support for an effect of the interaction, nor of the prosocial observation, but some support for an effect of SVO on casual helping behavior in Study 1 and 2. A mini meta-analysis revealed an effect equivalent to zero for goal contagion and a small, but robust SVO effect across studies. The main implication for the theory of goal contagion is that prosocial goals might not be as contagious as other goals addressed in the literature. We suggest a meta-analytic review of the literature to identify suitable goals and moderators for the goal contagion process.
帮助行为通常发生在更广泛的社会背景中。每天，人们都会看到需要帮助的人，也会看到提供帮助的人。目标感染的研究表明，观察他人的目标导向行为（如帮助行为）会在观察者身上激活相同的目标。因此，仅仅观察到亲社会行为就可能激励人们朝着相同的目标行动。观察者的性格越重视这个目标，这种影响就应该越强。在亲社会目标的情况下，我们将观察者的社会价值取向（SVO）视为这一过程的调节变量。在三项研究中（N1 = 126，N2 = 162，N3 = 371），我们检验了这样一个假设：亲社会观察（与对照组相比）会引发更多后续的随意亲社会行为，观察者的亲社会倾向越强，这种行为就越多。与原始研究一致，我们在研究1中使用文本作为刺激材料，在研究2和3中使用短视频片段。在研究1和2中，在诱导操作之前直接测量SVO，在研究3中甚至在实际实验前一周测量。此外，我们在研究3中纳入了第二个对照条件视频片段，该片段没有描绘人类。尽管刺激材料和方法都经过了充分的开发，但我们没有发现对交互作用或亲社会观察效果的支持，不过在研究1和2中发现了一些对SVO对随意帮助行为影响的支持。一项小型元分析显示，目标感染的效应相当于零，而在各项研究中SVO的效应虽小但稳健。目标感染理论的主要启示是，亲社会目标可能不像文献中提到的其他目标那样具有传染性。我们建议对文献进行元分析综述，以确定目标感染过程中合适的目标和调节变量。
