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eingereicht von: Michél Hartmann, in englischer Sprache, Masterarbeit Universität Innsbruck 2024

This study looks into the role that eye contact plays in helping people to control themselves in social settings and to avoid breaking social norms. Based on previous research, it is likely that eye contact increases prosocial behavior via heightened self-awareness and increased interpersonal synchrony. In our study, we propose that eye contact can also support constructive social behavior by causing people to experience heightened embarrassment when they are breaking social norms. We tested this in a lab experiment (N = 60) in which participants read insults at the experimenter (i.e., they exhibited norm breaking behavior). In the experimental condition, participants maintained eye contact with the experimenter. In the control condition, the experimenter did not maintain eye contact. We measured embarrassment with a self-report measure, heart rate to capture arousal, and two observational indicators of embarrassment (hesitation and laughter). In line with our hypotheses, having eye contact during norm breaking behavior as compared to no eye contact led to a stronger increase in self-reported embarrassment, a higher heart rate as well as more hesitation and more laughter. We conclude that eye contact does indeed lead to more embarrassment, while breaking social norms. This implies that eye contact gives people the power to punish norm breaking in others by inducing an aversive emotional experience.

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh relegiusitas terhadap sikap anti-free riding jika dimoderasi oleh variable kesejahteraan ekonomi. Penelitian ini menggunakan indikator sikap anti-free riding sebagai proksi perilaku pro-sosial dan memasukkan unsur kesejahteraan ekonomi seseorang sebagai faktor yang memperkuat atau memperlemah pengaruh variabel utamanya (Moderation effect). Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif menggunakan Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) pada data World Values Survey gelombang 7 di Indonesia untuk mengetahui hubungan antara religiusitas seseorang dan sikap anti-free riding serta efek moderasi dari kesejahteraan ekonomi. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa semakin tinggi religiusitas seseorang maka cenderung anti-free riding, namun pengaruhnya akan menguat jika kesejahteraan ekonomi meningkat. Penelitian selanjutnya diharapkan dapat menggali faktor-faktor lain yang dapat mempengaruhi seseorang dapat bersikap anti-free riding ataupun berperilaku prososial.

This paper presents the results of the first-ever representative survey on the demographic and attitudinal legacies of the Armenian genocide. The data, collected in 2018, maps the varied geographical origins of the citizens of contemporary Armenia and traces their links to the genocide. Around half of contemporary Armenians descend from refugees of the genocide, while about a third had family members killed. The data also inform debates on how violence transforms societies. Respondents who lost family members during the genocide show elevated levels of ethnocentrism, and lower levels of prosocial behaviour. However, rather than victimization being associated with militarism and hawkishness, the same individuals tend to be less supportive of military solutions. Even though the genocide took place more than a century ago, its demographic and attitudinal legacies remain clearly visible in contemporary Armenia.

Kinder im Kindergarten- und Grundschulalter befinden sich in einer sensiblen Phase der emotionalen sowie sozialen Entwicklung. Gut entwickelte sozial-emotionale Kompetenzen wirken sich positiv auf viele Bereiche des Lebens aus und sind unabdingbar für ein harmonisches Miteinander. Da die Kinder bei Kindergarten- bzw. Schuleintritt über verschiedene vorschulische Erfahrungen, beispielsweise im Kontakt mit Gleichaltrigen oder aufgrund unterschiedlicher Bindungserfahrungen, verfügen, ist es wichtig, alle Kinder individuell, ausgehend von ihrem Entwicklungsstand, zu fördern. Ausserdem sollen Situationen geschaffen werden, in denen die Kinder die Möglichkeit erhalten, einander kennenzulernen und miteinander zu kooperieren. Zugleich sollen das eigene Emotionsverständnis gefördert, Strategien zur erfolgreichen Emotionsregulation aufgebaut und prosoziales Verhalten gelernt werden. Auf diese Weise sollen positive Peer-Beziehungen gefördert sowie Freundschaften initiiert und Mobbing vorgebeugt werden. In dieser Bachelorarbeit wird der Frage nachgegangen, weshalb die Förderung der sozial-emotionalen Kompetenzen bereits im Zyklus 1 stattfindet und wie eine solche Förderung aussehen soll. Beantwortet wird die Fragestellung auf Grundlage einer Literaturrecherche und mit qualitativen Interviews, durchgeführt mit drei unterrichtenden Lehrpersonen aus dem Zyklus 1.

This summary is designed to serve as an initial source of information on the topic of civil society for elected officials, political advisors, the media and other interested citizens. Designed as a working document, it builds on the standard international definition of civil society. It deliberately omits the discourses conducted among experts and, although published in the academic series OPUSCULA, it omits intertextual references in the interest of readability. The selection of literature at the end is intended to stimulate further study of the topic. The staff of the Maecenata Institute for Philanthropy and Civil Society will be happy to provide further information.

Why do moral religions exist? An influential psychological explanation is that religious beliefs in supernatural punishment is cultural group adaptation enhancing prosocial attitudes and thereby large-scale cooperation. An alternative explanation is that religiosity is an individual strategy that results from high level of mistrust and the need for individuals to control others’ behaviors through moralizing. Existing evidence is mixed but most works are limited by sample size and generalizability issues. The present study overcomes these limitations by applying k-fold cross-validation on multivariate modeling of data from >295,000 individuals in 108 countries of the World Values Surveys and the European Value Study. First, this methodology reveals no evidence that European and non-European religious people invest more in collective actions and are more trustful of unrelated conspecifics. Instead, the individuals’ level of religiosity is found to be weakly but positively associated with social mistrust and negatively associated with the production of behaviors, which benefit unrelated members of the large-scale community. Second, our models show that individual variation in religiosity is well explained by the interaction of increased levels of social mistrust and increased needs to moralize other people’s sexual behaviors. Finally, stratified k-fold cross-validation demonstrates that the structures of these association patterns are robust to sampling variability and reliable enough to generalize to out-of-sample data.

Analyses of the 2020 combined European and World Values Surveys (124,958 respondents from 77 countries) found that people who believed in God tended to be happier, more satisfied with lives, and healthier than non-believers. Believers trusted people close to them (e.g., neighbors) more than non-believers, although non-believers tended to trust people in general and trust people from other countries more than believers. Non-believers tended to be more ideologically prosocial than non-believers (e.g., belonging to an environmental organization, advocating freedom of speech vs. control). Such differences were stronger in countries in which there were more vs fewer believers. Moreover, these differences remained after controlling for individual differences in sex, age, education, income, and left-right political orientation.

Recent migration from Muslim-majority countries has sparked discussions across Europe about the supposed threat posed by new immigrants. Young men make up the largest share of newly arrived immigrants and this demographic is often perceived to be particularly threatening. In this article, we compare pro-sociality and trust toward immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, focusing on gender differences in treatment. We study these questions using behavioral games that measure strategic (trusting) and non-strategic (pro-social) behavior. Our data comes from measures embedded in a large survey of residents of Germany's eastern regions, where anti-immigrant sentiments are high. We find that Germans are similarly pro-social toward immigrant men and women in non-strategic situations, but are significantly less likely to trust immigrant men (but not women) in strategic encounters. These findings provide evidence that immigrants' gender can be an important factor conditioning the behavior of the majority population, but also caution that (gendered) ethnic discrimination may be situationally dependent. Future research should further examine the exact mechanisms underlying this variation in discriminatory behavior.

Stella Sophie Lackner, Masterarbeit University Innsbruck 2022

Loneliness is a central predictor of depression and major factor of all-cause mortality. Loneliness is supposed to be a warning signal prompting individuals to seek out social connections. However, lonely individuals seem to be less likely to engage in prosocial activities and are overall more socially withdrawn. Hence, it is yet unclear whether and how loneliness affects an individual’s social motivations. Prosocial attitudes and expectations about social interactions of lonely individuals might shed light on whether lonely individuals are more prone to connect or withdraw from social activities. Here, results from a large dataset (~ 15,500 individuals) provide evidence for both. In particular, lonely individuals indicate stronger altruistic attitudes, suggesting a positive tendency to build and maintain social bonds. However, they also report more negative expectations about others, as they believe their social partners be less fair and trustworthy, suggesting less favorable evaluations of social interactions. By highlighting an important link between loneliness, prosocial attitudes and social expectations, this work stresses the role of loneliness in social motivations, points to potential consequences for social behaviors, and proposes a mechanism for the paradoxical effects of loneliness on an individual’s social attitudes and expectations, with important implications for future basic and clinical research, as well as education, economics and public policy.

Dieser Beitrag betrachtet den Zusammenhang von sozialer Unterstützung, im Sinne tatsächlicher Unterstützungsleistungen, und der Befriedigung psychologischer Grundbedürfnisse. Die Erforschung sozialer Unterstützung in Online-Kommunikationsmodi fokussiert bisher vor allem die Perspektive der Unterstützungsempfänger*innen. Tatsächlich hat die geleistete Unterstützung jedoch einen größeren Anteil an der Online-Kommunikation als die Suche danach. In der vorliegenden Studie werden deshalb beide Seiten unterstützender Interaktionen berücksichtigt. Das angenommene Modell wurde anhand von Befragungsdaten zur Nutzung von Online-Foren zum Thema Elternschaft (n = 332) und mentale Gesundheit (n = 138) geprüft. Eine Strukturgleichungsanalyse nach dem PLS-Ansatz zeigt, dass sowohl die empfangene als auch die geleistete Unterstützung, zum Teil mediiert über deren Effektivität, zur Befriedigung psychologischer Grundbedürfnisse beitragen konnte. Der Zusammenhang mit der geleisteten Unterstützung ist dabei stärker als jener mit der empfangenen Unterstützung. Wissenschaftliche Implikationen für die Erforschung sozialer Unterstützung und praktische Implikationen für Online-Interventionen werden diskutiert., This paper examines the relationship between social support, here in the sense of enacted support, and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs. Research on online social support has so far mainly focused on the perspective of the support recipient. However, the support provided has in fact a larger share in online communication than the search for it. Therefore, both sides of supportive interactions are examined in this study. The hypothesized model was tested using survey data on the use of online forums on parenting (n = 332) and mental health (n = 138). Structural equation analysis using the PLS approach showed that both, support received and support provided, mediated in part by their effectiveness, were able to contribute to the satisfaction of basic psychological needs. Moreover, the relationship with the support provided is stronger than the one with the support received. Scientific implications for social support research and practical implications for online interventions are discussed.

vorgelegt von: Alexander Fischinger, Masterarbeit Universität Innsbruck 2021

vorgelegt von: Gregor Hugger, in englischer Sprache, Universität Innsbruck, Masterarbeit, 2020, (VLID)5311711

eingereicht von: Johannes Kaspar Anzenberger, in englischer Sprache, Universität Innsbruck, Masterarbeit, 2020, (VLID)5205773

What undermines cooperation in ethnically diverse communities? Scholars have focused on factors that explain the lack of inter-ethnic cooperation, such as prejudice or the difficulty to communicate and sanction across group boundaries. We direct attention to the fact that diverse communities are also often poor and ask whether poverty, rather than diversity, reduces cooperation. We developed a strategic cooperation game where we vary the income and racial identity of the interaction partner. We find that beliefs about how poor people behave have clear detrimental effects on cooperation: cooperation is lower when people are paired with low-income partners, and the effect is particularly strong when low-income people interact among themselves. We observe additional discrimination along racial lines when the interaction partner is poor. These findings imply that poverty and rising inequality may be a serious threat to social cohesion, especially under conditions of high socioeconomic segregation.

Der Effektive Altruismus (EA) ist eine im angelsächsischen Raum entstandene Philosophie bzw. Bewegung, die es für ethisch zentral hält, anderen aktiv zu helfen, indem die Anhänger so viel Gutes tun wie möglich. Das Spenden von Geld ist dabei das wichtigste Instrument. Im Fokus steht die Effektivität, die größtmögliche Wirkung einer Spende sowie eine hohe Reichweite. Einflussfaktoren auf den Spender, seine Einstellungen und Motive werden hierbei ausgeblendet und so spielen auch und gerade Emotionen im EA keine Rolle. Stattdessen werden betriebswirtschaftliche Rechnungen auf das Spenden angewandt. Darüber hinaus geht es im EA darum, ein möglichst ethisches Leben zu führen. Die Bewegung ist seit wenigen Jahren auch in Deutschland angekommen und im Begriff, sich zu verbreiten. Der Einfluss auf klassische, etablierte Nichtregierungsorganisationen (NRO), bei denen auch andere Faktoren als die reine Effektivität einer Spende im Mittelpunkt stehen, ist bisher nicht untersucht worden. Der Spendenmarkt ist durch einen hohen Wettbewerb gekennzeichnet. Ein neuer Akteur, wie der EA, könnte diesen weiter intensivieren. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es herauszufinden, welchen möglichen Einfluss der EA auf den Spender, und damit auf den Spendenmarkt, in Deutschland hat. Es wird deshalb analysiert, welche Motivation Spender antreibt und welche Leistungsmerkmale der spendenempfangenden NRO ihre Entscheidung beeinflussen. Der Fokus liegt auf privaten Spendern und engagierten Unternehmen. Der erste Teil der Arbeit besteht aus einer Literaturrecherche zum EA und stellt die theoretischen Grundlagen zum Spendenverhalten von Privatspendern und Unternehmen vor. Im Anschluss werden die aktuellen Daten des deutschen Spendenmarktes und die Trends vorgestellt. Der zweite Teil untersucht mithilfe von qualitativen Experteninterviews die hinter der Spendenhandlung stehenden Einstellungen und Motive. Die Ergebnisse der Interviews ergeben einen geringen Einfluss des EA auf die Privatspender im Al

Despite numerous studies on the social and political impact of refugees in Europe, we have very little systematic evidence on the impact of refugee settlement on social cohesion in the developing world. Using data gathered in Northern Lebanon, we show that increased salience of the "refugee crisis" decreases natives' trust and prosocial preferences toward refugees, suggesting a negative impact of mass refugee settlement. However, this negative impact is driven exclusively by respondents with no individual exposure to refugees. In fact, despite concerns that refugee settlements may result in local conflict, we find that individual proximity to refugees is positively correlated with trust towards refugees, and that proximity has a positive spillover effect on social capital towards other migrants. This implies that, while the refugee crisis may have had a negative impact on social cohesion, this negative impact is mitigated in areas where natives are in contact with refugees.

Prosoziales Handeln ist eine Grundvoraussetzung für den Zusammenhalt in demokratisch verfassten Gesellschaften und eng mit Kommunikation verknüpft. So werden beispielsweise emotionale und informationelle Unterstützung über wechselseitige Gespräche verwirklicht, aber auch andere prosoziale Handlungen häufig zusätzlich verbalisiert. Medial vermittelte Kommunikationsmodi erweitern die Anzahl möglicher Interaktionspartner und damit die prosozialen Handlungsmöglichkeiten. Der Beitrag widmet sich der Frage, wie prosoziales Handeln im Zusammenhang mit Kommunikation in den Alltag der Menschen integriert ist: Welche Arten prosozialen Handelns lassen sich beobachten, welche Kommunikationsmodi werden dafür genutzt und in welcher Relation stehen diese beiden Aspekte? Ergebnisse einer teilstandardisierten Tagebuchstudie mit 57 Teilnehmenden zeigen, dass ein Großteil der prosozialen Handlungen Face-to-Face realisiert wurde, aber auch eine Reihe medienvermittelter Modi zum Austausch von emotionaler, informationeller und instrumenteller Unterstützung genutzt wurden. Neben der Umsetzung von Unterstützungsleistungen an sich haben medienvermittelte Kommunikationsmodi außerdem eine große Bedeutung für deren Absprache und Ankündigung., Prosocial behavior is a basic requirement for the cohesion of democratic societies and closely linked to communication. Emotional and informational support, for example, are realized within reciprocal conversations, instrumental support may be accompanied by additional verbalization. Mediated communication modes amplify the amount of possible interaction partners and therefore the possibilities to behave prosocially. This study addresses the question of how prosocial behavior in relation to communicative behavior is integrated in people’s everyday life: Which types of prosocial behavior can be observed, which communication modes are used for this purpose and how are these two aspects related? Results of a partly standardized diary study with 57 participants show that the bigger part of prosocial behavior was realized face-to-face, while a number of mediated communication modes was used as well to exchange emotional, informational and instrumental support. Mediated communication modes were not just used to enact support but also in order to notify or arrange them in advance.

Milton Friedman has famously claimed that the responsibility of a manager who is not the owner of a firm is "to conduct the business in accordance with their [the shareholders'] desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible." In this paper we argue that when contracts are incomplete it is not necessarily in the interest even of money maximizing shareholders to pick a manager who pursues this goal. We show in a formal model and in a series of lab experiments that choosing a manager who has a preference to spend resources for social causes can increase employee motivation. In turn, ex-post losses in shareholder value may be offset by ex-ante gains in performance through higher employee motivation.