Does stress make us more—or less—prosocial?

Autor(en)

Jonas Nitschke, Paul Forbes, Claus Lamm

Abstrakt

Prosocial behaviour is fundamental for our social togetherness. Yet, how acute stress, a common everyday occurrence, influences our behaviours towards one another is still unclear. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to quantitatively investigate the effect of experimentally induced acute stress on prosocial behaviours in economic games. We also probed possible moderators to explain differences in findings. We included 23 studies, 77 individual effects, and 2197 participants in the meta-analysis and found no overall differences between stress and control groups in prosocial behaviours (SMD=−0.06), or costly punishment (SMD=−0.11). There were no moderating effects of stressor type, participants’ gender/sex, or the delay from the stressor to the task. However, the potential recipient of the donated money (person vs. charity) and the complexity of the decision did reveal some differences under stress. The results of this meta-analysis suggest that there is currently no clear answer to the question of whether or not stress increases or decreases prosociality. We highlight important open questions and suggest where the field should go next.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Psychologie der Kognition, Emotion und Methoden

Journal

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews

Band

142

ISSN

0149-7634

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104905

Publikationsdatum

11-2022

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

501030 Kognitionswissenschaft, 501011 Kognitionspsychologie

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Behavioral Neuroscience

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/6091a812-828d-45cd-a59a-b645fba5f067