Altruism; Helping Behavior; Humans; Personality; Social Behavior; Multidisciplinary
Abstract :
[en] Previous studies suggest a link between future thinking and prosocial behaviors. However, this association is not fully understood at state and trait level. The present study tested whether a brief future thinking induction promoted helping behavior in an unrelated task. In addition, the relation between mental time travel and prosocial behaviors in daily life was tested with questionnaire data. Forty-eight participants filled in questionnaires and were asked to think about the future for one minute or to name animals for one minute (control condition) before playing the Zurich Prosocial Game (a measure of helping behavior). Results revealed that participants in the future thinking condition helped significantly more than participants in the control condition. Moreover, questionnaire data showed that dispositional and positive orientation toward the future and the past was significantly associated with self-reported prosocial behaviors. The present findings suggest that thinking about the future in general has positive transfer effects on subsequent prosocial behavior and that people who think more about the past or future in a positive way engage more in prosocial behavior.
Disciplines :
Theoretical & cognitive psychology
Author, co-author :
Curotto, Patricia Cernadas; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland ; Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Sander, David; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland ; Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
D'Argembeau, Arnaud ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie ; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Klimecki, Olga; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland ; Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Language :
English
Title :
Back to the future: A way to increase prosocial behavior
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