Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:00:06.129Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Deprived, but not depraved: Prosocial behavior is an adaptive response to lower socioeconomic status

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2017

Angela R. Robinson  and
Paul K. Piff
Angela R. Robinson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology & Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-7085. [email protected]@uci.eduhttps://angelarobinsonresearch.wordpress.comhttp://paulpiff.wixsite.com/paulpiff
Paul K. Piff
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology & Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-7085. [email protected]@uci.eduhttps://angelarobinsonresearch.wordpress.comhttp://paulpiff.wixsite.com/paulpiff
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Individuals of lower socioeconomic status (SES) display increased attentiveness to others and greater prosocial behavior compared to individuals of higher SES. We situate these effects within Pepper & Nettle's contextually appropriate response framework of SES. We argue that increased prosocial behavior is a contextually adaptive response for lower-SES individuals that serves to increase control over their more threatening social environments.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e341
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dietze, P. & Knowles, E. D. (2016) Social class and the motivational relevance of other human beings: Evidence from visual attention. Psychological Science 27(11):1517–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dubois, D., Rucker, D. D. & Galinsky, A. D. (2015) Social class, power, and selfishness: When and why upper and lower class individuals behave unethically. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 108(3):436–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, G. W., Gonnella, C., Marcynyszyn, L. A., Gentile, L. & Salpekar, N. (2005) The role of chaos in poverty and children's socioemotional adjustment. Psychological Science 16(7):560–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fritsche, I., Jonas, E., Ablasser, C., Beyer, M., Kuban, J., Manger, A. M. & Schultz, M. (2013) The power of we: Evidence for group-based control. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 49(1):19–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogg, M. A., Sherman, D. K., Dierselhuis, J., Maitner, A. T. & Moffitt, G. (2007) Uncertainty, entitativity, and group identification. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43(1):135–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, W. & Krueger, R. F. (2005) Genetic effects on physical health: Lower at higher income levels. Behavior Genetics 35(5):579–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, W. & Krueger, R. F. (2006) How money buys happiness: Genetic and environmental processes linking finances and life satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 90(4):680–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jonas, E., McGregor, I., Klackl, J., Agroskin, D., Fritsche, I., Holbrook, C. & Quirin, M. (2014) Threat and defense: From anxiety to approach. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 49:219–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraus, M. W. & Keltner, D. (2009) Signs of socioeconomic status: A thin-slicing approach. Psychological Science 20(1):99–106.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K. & Keltner, D. (2009) Social class, sense of control, and social explanation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 97(6):992–1004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., Mendoza-Denton, R., Rheinschmidt, M. L. & Keltner, D. (2012) Social class, solipsism, and contextualism: How the rich are different from the poor. Psychological Review 119(3):546–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lamont, M. (2000) The dignity of working men. Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, J., Kahle, S. & Hastings, P. (2015) Roots and benefits of costly giving: Young children's altruism is related to having less family wealth and more autonomic flexibility. Psychological Science 26(7):1038–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piff, P. K. (2014) Wealth and the inflated self: Class, entitlement, and narcissism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 40(1):34–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piff, P. K., Kraus, M. W., Côté, S., Cheng, B. H. & Keltner, D. (2010) Having less, giving more: The influence of social class on prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 99(5):771–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piff, P. K. & Moskowitz, J. (2017) The class-compassion gap: How socioeconomic factors influence compassion. In: Oxford handbook of compassion science, ed. Seppala, E., Doty, J., Worline, M., Cameron, D., Brown, S. & Simon-Thomas, E., pp. 317–30. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Piff, P. K., Stancato, D. M., Côté, S., Mendoza-Denton, R. & Keltner, D. (2012a) Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109(11):4086–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piff, P. K., Stancato, D. M. & Horberg, E. J. (2016) Wealth and wrongdoing: Social class differences in ethical reasoning and behavior. In: Cheating, corruption, and concealment: The roots of dishonest behavior, ed. Van Prooijen, J.-W. & van Lange, P. A. M., pp. 185–207. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piff, P. K., Stancato, D. M., Martinez, A. G., Kraus, M. W. & Keltner, D. (2012b) Class, chaos, and the construction of community. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103(6):949–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shuper, P. A., Sorrentino, R. M., Otsubo, Y., Hodson, G. & Walker, A. M. (2004) A theory of uncertainty orientation: Implications for the study of individual differences within and across cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 35(4):460–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stellar, J. E., Manzo, V. M., Kraus, M. W. & Keltner, D. (2012) Class and compassion: Socioeconomic factors predict responses to suffering. Emotion 12(3):449–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Varnum, M. E. W., Blais, C., Hampton, R. S. & Brewer, G. A. (2015) Social class affects neural empathic responses. Culture and Brain 3(2):122–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar