Prosocial Propensity Bias in Experimental Research on Helping Behavior: The Proposition of a Discomforting Hypothesis

Abstract

When researchers fail to control for confounding factors, the causes of behavior can be more apparent than real, even in experimental research. The current study replicates an experiment by Weinstein, Przybylski, and Ryan (2009) with the goal of demonstrating that their main fi nding could have resulted from diff erences in people's prosocial propensity. In their research, they found their hypothesized interaction eff ect: depending on the extent of immersion, participants presented with images of nature were found to be more prosocial in both their actions and in their declarations. Our sample of 175 adults (M age = 29.7 yr., SD = 11.7; 97 men, 78 women) was approached personally, randomly assigned to viewing either urban or nature images, and instructed to immerse themselves in the respective images. Using two formally distinct measures of participants' prosocial propensity (i.e., before and after the intervention), the hypothesis that individual diff erences in people's prosocial propensity can bias conclusions about the origins of prosocial behavior in experimental research was supported. To avoid invalid conclusions, the prosocial propensity levels of research participants should be controlled for.

The Prosocial Driver of Ecological Behavior: The Need for an Integrated Approach to Prosocial and Environmental Education

“…In turn, ecological behavior is defined as behavior that directly (e.g., saving energy at home) or indirectly (e.g., supporting campaigns that promote the use of renewable energy) affects humanity's impact on the natural environment, and behavior that aims to raise awareness of environmental problems (e.g., pointing out environmental damage to others) [5]. Many researchers have suggested that ecological behavior can be conceptualized as a type of prosocial behavior [6,7], driven by the same general propensity as prosocial behavior benefitting human others. This propensity is referred to as "prosocial propensity" and is defined as an individual's willingness to act prosocially regardless of the domain in which this behavior may be enacted [8].…”

Seeing our self reflected in the world around us: The role of identity in making (natural) environments restorative

“…For example, although self-reported immersion (Ryan et al, 2010;Weinstein et al, 2009) and individual differences in the perceived beauty of nature (Zhang et al, 2014) have been shown to moderate effects of exposure to natural images, past theory does not specify the origins of individual differences in immersion and perceived beauty and their specific psychological underpinnings. Indeed, others have critiqued the use of measured individual difference variables, and the ability to draw causal conclusions based on these, in this kind of research (Kaiser, Otto & Schuler, 2015). Current frameworks also do not seem well-placed to explain restorative effects that follow exposure to distinctly urban environments (e.g., Studies 1 & 2).…”

The dominance of introspective measures and what this implies: The example of environmental attitude

“…At least in the domain of environmental attitude, we were able to identify an alternative measure that was based on the Campbell paradigm, that is, the GEB. Beyond the promising results of our rather basic comparison study on construct validity, other studies using the GEB have already provided results on its good external validity with respect to actual behavior [ 22 , 35 , 36 ]. Even though the GEB is not based on independently observed behavioral responses and is instead based on self-reported behavior, its outcome corresponds well with actual behavior and even the ecological impact of the behavior [ 37 ].…”

“…Furthermore, because the Campbell paradigm is based on the Rasch model, all the benefits that come with the Rasch model, such as adaptive testing, can be used and applied (e.g., [ 38 ]). For instance, the possibility to link two test of the same construct with only a few items that overlap, repeated measurement becomes much more convenient (e.g., [ 35 ]).…”

“…The technical key to testing the fit of different items empirically—and thus to exchange introspective items for behavior-based ones—is the Rasch model. The ability of the Rasch model to utilize different sets of items to measure the same constructs (e.g., [ 35 ]) enables the researcher to adapt and optimize item sets without losing comparability across the different item sets. That is, a set with a focus on introspective items and a set that focuses on behavioral items that both refer to the same attitudinal object can be linked with only a few overlapping items.…”