Prosocial behavior. Common motivational determinants in contexts of social exclusion and scarcity of environmental resources

Abstract

El resumen de la tesis para la base de datos Teseo debe ser una presentación de la tesis y tener la extensión suficiente para que quede explicado el argumento de la tesis doctoral. El formato debe facilitar la lectura y comprensión del texto a los usuarios que accedan a Teseo, debiendo diferenciarse las siguientes partes de la tesis: 1. introducción o motivación de la tesis Prosocial behavior is defined as an extensive category of intentional acts, including helping behavior, altruism, cooperation and solidarity, oriented towards benefitting other people. In this sense, pro-environmental behavior is a specific variant of prosocial behavior that may be defined as those acts that intentionally seeks to minimize the negative impact of one¿s actions on the environment. In our societies civic cooperation, assistance, and solidarity are becoming increasingly necessary. More and more individuals are experiencing social exclusion, resulting for example in job loss, eviction from their homes, and even complete marginalization. Moreover, The seriousness of the risks related to human action on the planet and the urgency to make decisions capable of slowing down or halting environmental unsustainability, led some authors to use the ¿planetary emergency¿ expression. Promotion in individuals, groups and communities of prosocial and pro-environmental behavior encourages the development of networks that facilitate coexistence and well-being in healthier social and environmental contexts. Thus, it seems relevant to search for keys that would assist in promoting prosocial and pro-environmental decision-making among individuals and groups. 2.contenido de la investigación This Doctoral Dissertation focuses on the analysis of the psychosocial determinants of prosocial and pro-environmental behavior through experimental designs and with simulators. Prosocial behavior is analyzed in two different blocks. In the first one, five papers explored prosocial behavior in the neutral and in the exclusion versus exclusion contexts. In the second block two papers analyzed pro-environmental behavior in the cooperative versus competitive contexts. Some of the main findings were that (1) the explored variables were shown to predict prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors; (2) the moderated role of the exclusion/inclusion condition in the links between variables was confirmed; (3) the social reconnection hypothesis was corroborated: excluded people who believe that they can reconnect (hopeful excluded individuals) were more prosocial than included people and than hopeless excluded people; (4) Exclusion affects differently prosocial behavior depending on which needs are affected; (5) affective balance¿at the individual-level¿and prosocial team-efficacy and team-trust¿at the team-level¿affected prosocial behaviors with team members; (6) trust moderated¿strengthened¿the negative effect of prosocialness on selection of selfish strategies; and (7) knowledge and cooperative/competitive contexts interact together to explain the pro-environmental behavior occurrence. 3.conclusión The results entail that it may be pertinent¿in practical terms¿(1) to foster in individuals their disposition to be prosocial, their perception of efficacy in being prosocial, the trust they place in others, and their levels of affiliation motivation; (2) to increase positive affect and trust in included groups; (3) to increase positive affect in hopeful excluded individuals; and (4) to work on the negative feelings and on the tendency to dread rejection in hopeless excluded individuals, trying to reduce the negative impact that those variables have on prosocial behavior. Additionally, we have shown that, in order to trigger prosocial behavior, it would be relevant when individuals have to work in groups to create programs with the aim of improving their perceptions of affective balance, team-efficacy and team-trust with respect to prosocial behavior. In relation to pro-environmental behavior, our results seem to corroborate the theories which hold that selfish and self-sufficient behaviors are increased in competitive situations and that such self-sufficient behavior has a negative impact in the long- term for individuals and groups which act self-sufficiently, and for society in general. Moreover, our findings point to the relevance of deepening students¿ disciplinary concentration on the pro-environmental topics. Finally, we would like to highlight the relevance of programs that provide learning about cooperative contexts that may form cooperative frameworks on which individuals could base their behaviors. This would promote more prosocial and pro-environmental actions at both the individual and collective levels, which, in turn, would have benefits for the society and the planet.