A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133193
• Publication Date: 2015-07-20T17:51:47Z
• Authors: Martin Korndörfer; Boris Egloff; Stefan C. Schmukle
• Keywords: Prosocial Behavior; Social Preferences

Does being from a higher social class lead person to engage in more or less prosocial behavior? Psychological research has recently provided support for negative effect of on behavior. However, outside the field psychology mainly found evidence positive u-shaped relations. In present research, we therefore thoroughly examined Moreover, analyzed whether this was moderated by kind observed behavior, country, and measure class. Across eight studies with large representative international samples, predominantly effects prosociality: Higher individuals were likely make charitable donation contribute percentage their family income charity (32,090 ≥ N 3,957; Studies 1–3), volunteer (37,136 ≥N 3,964; 4–6), helpful (N = 3,902; Study 7), trusting trustworthy an economic game when interacting stranger 1,421; 8) than lower individuals. Although varied somewhat across kinds countries, measures class, under no condition did find that would have been expected basis previous results reported psychological literature. Possible explanations divergence implications are discussed.