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Published on: November 17, 2018
Deprived, but not depraved: Prosocial behavior is an adaptive response to lower socioeconomic status
Angela R Robinson1, Paul K Piff1
1Department of Psychology & Social Behavior,University of California,Irvine,Irvine,CA 92697-7085.angelarr@uci.eduppiff@uci.eduhttps://angelarobinsonresearch.wordpress.comhttp://paulpiff.wixsite.com/paulpiff.
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.
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