The Role of Culture in Altruism: Thailand and the United States

Abstract

and Nigel P. FIELD 2)2) Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, U.S.A.62 Thai and 56 U.S. college students were examined on altruism and helping behavior. Thai-Buddhist culture has traditionally taught the importance of prosocial behaviors. Participants were administered the Self-Report Altruism (SRA) Scale, a specially developed projective measure (Altruism Apperception Test) and an indepth interview. Thais scored significantly higher than U.S. subjects on the SRA Scale (p < .001), and manifested a greater tendency to both offer altruistic projections on the AAT (p < .001) and report that they would personally help in such situations (p < .001). An exploratory, mediational analysis performed on the interview data of a subset of participants revealed that Thais appealed to religion as a reason for helping significantly more than Americans (p < .001), while Americans specifically mentioned religion was not a reason significantly more than Thais (p = .002). Findings suggest a relationship between socio-cultural-religious values and prosocial behavior in that Thai-Buddhist-affiliative-collectivistic society appears more altruistically-oriented than the American relatively more areligious achievement or individualistic-based society. Recommendations are that further studies be conducted to support the validation of the projective measure and explore the possible influence of the spirituality and individualism-collectivism constructs.

A Focus on Others and Commitment to Social Justice

“…Above and beyond this effect, the more one tends toward collectivism, the more they enjoy activities related to advocacy. This model is consistent with previous work, suggesting that people who endorse collectivistic values are more likely to engage in altruistic behavior (Armenta et al, 2011; Finkelstein, 2010; Yablo & Field, 2007) and to be motivated by the prospect of helping others as opposed to benefiting themselves (Finkelstein, 2010; Leon & Finkelstein, 2011).…”

“…Although the relation between collectivism and social justice values has not been directly examined, several past studies have demonstrated a link between collectivism and prosocial values. Specifically, collectivism has been found to positively predict altruism (Finkelstein, 2010; Yablo & Field, 2007 ), helping behavior (Armenta, Knight, Carlo, & Jacobson, 2011; Yablo & Field, 2007), and organizational citizenship behavior (Leon & Finkelstein, 2011). In addition to predicting specific behaviors, researchers have found that collectivism predicts motivation behind behavior.…”

Living a Calling, Nationality, and Life Satisfaction

“…Prosocial values, for instance, are likely to be more accessible in a collectivistic context due to the emphasis on prioritizing the good of the group over the good of the individual. Several studies have demonstrated a link between collectivism and prosocial behavior, with collectivism positively relating to altruism (Finkelstein, 2010; Yablo, 2007), helping behavior (Armenta, Knight, Carlo, & Jacobson, 2011; Yablo, 2007), and organizational citizenship behavior (Dávila de León & Finkelstein, 2011). Thus, it could be that concern for helping others and contributing to a greater good beyond the self is more pronounced in a collectivist context and in turn increases the likelihood of living out a calling.…”

The power of crowds: Grand challenges in the Asia-Pacific region

“…Despite the barriers to developing crowdsourcing in some areas of the Asia-Pacific region, there are some advantages that crowdsourcing can tap into, including rapid growth in access to the Internet and mobile phone usage, a culture of altruism, and acceptance of social networking in the region (Avery, 2017; Osaki, 2003; Up, 2018; Yablo and Field, 2007). 19…”