The relations of basic and dark personality traits with prosocial tendencies: Exploring gender differences

Abstract

Prosocial behaviour covers a broad range of actions that are intended to benefit others rather than oneself, thus forming different types of prosocial tendencies which are linked to different individual characteristics. Moreover, there are some gender differences in the types of prosocial behaviour that males and females engage in. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate personality traits associated with different forms of prosocial tendencies, as well as whether there were gender differences in these relations. Data were collected on-line on a total of 905 participants (81% female; M age = 24.30, SD = 6.52), using the Prosocial Tendencies Measure (assessing 6 types of prosocial tendencies: altruistic, compliant, emotional, dire, public, and anonymous), the Ten Item Personality Inventory, and the Short Dark Triad. The results of hierarchical regression analyses (with basic personality traits entered in the first and dark personality traits in the second step) indicated that, although the percentage of explained variance in all types of prosocial tendencies was modest (up to the total of 24%), basic personality traits contributed more to an explanation of public prosocial tendencies in males than in females. The dark traits had a (negative) contribution to the explanation of altruistic prosocial tendencies in both males and females, and a contribution above the basic traits in an explanation of emotional, dire and compliant prosocial tendencies only in females. Generally, the results showed some interesting patterns, highlighting gender differences in the relations of personality traits and prosocial tendencies.

Prosocial behavior predicts meaning in life during the COVID-19 pandemic: The longitudinal mediating role of perceived social support

“…Children who have a strong desire to gain adult approval are more likely to engage in Public prosocial behavior ( 21 ). Public prosocial behavior is negatively related to sympathy ( 27 ) and positively related to narcissism ( 28 , 29 ) and other dark traits ( 30 ). Unlike other prosocial behavior, Public prosocial behavior is likely to be negatively associated with meaning in life.…”