To Lend Helping Hands In-Group Favoritism, Uncertainty Avoidance, and the National Frequency of Pro-Social Behaviors

Nation-level differences in individuals’ reports of helping strangers, donating money to charity, and volunteering time were analyzed, drawing on nationally representative survey data from 135 nations. Frequency of these three behaviors yielded a reliable index of pro-social behavior. All three beha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of cross-cultural psychology Vol. 46; no. 6; pp. 759 - 771
Main Author Smith, Peter B.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2015
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Behavior
Cultural differences
In-group
Income inequality
Personality traits
Philanthropy
Social action
Social behaviour
Voluntary work
Wealth
in-group favoritism
wealth
pro-social behavior
uncertainty avoidance
cross-cultural
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Summary:Nation-level differences in individuals’ reports of helping strangers, donating money to charity, and volunteering time were analyzed, drawing on nationally representative survey data from 135 nations. Frequency of these three behaviors yielded a reliable index of pro-social behavior. All three behaviors were found to be more frequent in nations that score low on an index of in-group favoritism and score low on uncertainty avoidance. Helping a stranger was also more frequent in nations with greater income inequality. The use of a wide sample of nations provides a more valid understanding of what kinds of cultures favor pro-social actions and indicates that national wealth is a less important contributor to the differences that are found than is the case in other aspects of cultural difference.
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ISSN:0022-0221
1552-5422
DOI:10.1177/0022022115585141