Prosocial Risk Taking as a Predictor of Social Inclusion Across Group Lines

亲社会风险承担是跨群体社会包容的预测因素

• 批准号: ES/X00600X/1
• 负责人: Bethany Corbett
• 金额: $ 11.45万
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX00600X%2F1
• 关键词: Prosocial; Risk; Taking; Predictor; Social

Prosocial behaviour is behaviour which is performed to benefit other people (e.g. sharing, helping, comforting). Performing prosocial behaviour has positive effects within individuals (e.g. mental wellbeing), between individuals (e.g. bullying reduction), between groups (e.g. conflict reduction) and at a societal level (e.g. tolerance and collective action). Different sub-types of prosocial behaviour are associated with different antecedents and outcomes, and so it is important for researchers to consider these individually, if they are to influence their occurrence. Yet, one newly proposed type of prosocial behaviour has been largely ignored: prosocial risk taking (PSRT). That is, helping other individuals at a potential risk to oneself (Do et al., 2017). Clear examples of PSRT have been seen in recent world events (e.g. the Covid-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine), and other every-day examples can be brought to mind (e.g. a child defending a friend from a bully). Given that PSRT can be seen all around us, it is surprising that very few studies have examined this construct or proposed a method to capture it. This was the focus of my PhD research, in which I developed a behavioural task to measure children's willingness to take a prosocial risk. Children could play a game that guaranteed they would win a good prize but that a peer won a bad prize, or could choose another game giving each child a 50/50 chance of winning a good/bad prize (Corbett et al., 2021). The first aim of the fellowship is to disseminate what I have already learned about children's PSRT by publishing further work from my PhD, and presenting at leading conferences in the field. New research will generate knowledge regarding the social implications of PSRT by examining it as a predictor of social inclusion. Groups tend to differ in power and status; regarding inclusion, lower status group members risk rejection from higher status group members, while the latter risk reputation damage through association with the former. Individuals who are highly prosocial in other domains (e.g. sharing) may not include in this context (i.e. across a group boundary) because they are relatively risk averse; thus, what may be required is an interaction between prosocial and risk taking traits. Thus, PSRT may be an unexplored antecedent of social inclusion - a persistent social problem globally. Northern Ireland and Queen's University Belfast is the ideal setting to carry out this research given the presence of two salient ethnic groups (Catholics and Protestants), who remain largely segregated from one another. By considering the social implications for real groups, we address an important limitation of many existing studies of prosocial behaviour (Taylor, 2020). A further aim is to forge links with an extensive network of researchers, which will be achieved by leveraging my mentors' existing networks. I will collaborate on secondary data to develop hard skills: (i) advanced statistical analysis, and (ii) manuscript development, which will be accelerated due to existing available data and my prior knowledge of the subject area. Impact and public engagement activities will also be a key part of this fellowship; these activities will provide an opportunity to achieve impact from my findings by establishing two-way communication with the local community, benefiting my personal development, the quality of research, and the public. I will develop a local advisory council representing different stakeholders, e.g. youth, educators, NGOs. I will develop future funding proposals from findings across my PhD and this fellowship, which would allow me to carry out an independent program of research around prosocial development, with a particular focus on prosocial risk taking, given its largely neglected status and potential for societal impact.

亲社会行为是一种有利于他人的行为（例如分享、帮助、安慰）。实施亲社会行为对个人内部（如心理健康）、个人之间（如减少欺凌）、群体之间（如减少冲突）和社会层面（如宽容和集体行动）都有积极影响。不同类型的亲社会行为与不同的前因和结果相关联，因此，如果研究人员要影响亲社会行为的发生，就必须单独考虑这些行为。然而，一种新提出的亲社会行为类型在很大程度上被忽视了：亲社会风险承担（PSRT）。也就是说，帮助自己面临潜在风险的其他人（Do et al., 2017）。在最近的世界事件（例如Covid-19大流行和乌克兰冲突）中可以看到PSRT的明显例子，也可以想到其他日常例子（例如，儿童保护朋友免受欺凌）。鉴于PSRT在我们周围随处可见，令人惊讶的是，很少有研究检验过这种结构或提出一种捕捉它的方法。这是我博士研究的重点，在研究中，我开发了一个行为任务来衡量儿童承担亲社会风险的意愿。孩子们可以玩一个游戏，保证他们会赢得好奖品，但同伴会赢得坏奖品，或者可以选择另一个游戏，让每个孩子有50/50的机会赢得好/坏奖品（Corbett et al., 2021）。该奖学金的第一个目标是通过发表我博士学位的进一步工作，并在该领域的主要会议上发表演讲，传播我已经了解到的关于儿童PSRT的知识。新的研究将通过检验PSRT作为社会包容的预测因子来产生关于PSRT的社会影响的知识。群体往往在权力和地位上有所不同；在包容方面，地位较低的群体成员有被地位较高的群体成员拒绝的风险，而地位较高的群体成员则有因与地位较低的群体成员交往而声誉受损的风险。在其他领域（如分享）高度亲社会的个体可能不包括在这种情况下（即跨越群体边界），因为他们相对厌恶风险；因此，可能需要的是亲社会和冒险特征之间的相互作用。因此，PSRT可能是一个未被探索的社会包容的先决条件-一个全球性的持久的社会问题。北爱尔兰和贝尔法斯特女王大学是开展这项研究的理想场所，因为这里有两个突出的种族群体（天主教徒和新教徒），他们在很大程度上彼此隔离。通过考虑对真实群体的社会影响，我们解决了许多现有的亲社会行为研究的一个重要限制（Taylor, 2020）。进一步的目标是与广泛的研究人员网络建立联系，这将通过利用我的导师现有的网络来实现。我将在二手数据上进行合作，以培养硬技能：(I)高级统计分析，（ii）手稿开发，由于现有的可用数据和我对主题领域的先前知识，这将加速。影响和公众参与活动也将是该奖学金的重要组成部分；这些活动将提供一个机会，通过与当地社区建立双向沟通，使我的发现产生影响，有利于我的个人发展，研究质量和公众。我将成立一个代表不同利益相关者的地方咨询委员会，例如青年、教育工作者、非政府组织。我将根据我的博士学位和这项奖学金的研究结果，提出未来的资助建议，这将使我能够围绕亲社会发展开展一个独立的研究项目，特别关注亲社会风险承担，因为它在很大程度上被忽视了，具有潜在的社会影响。