People prefer to diversify across different types of prosocial behaviour

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Individuals possess numerous daily opportunities for prosocial behavior.
• Limited personal resources (time, effort, money) necessitate strategic allocation of helping efforts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether individuals diversify their prosocial efforts across various types of help.
• To examine the influence of previous prosocial behavior on subsequent helping behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Two daily diary studies were conducted with a total of 711 participants.
• Participants reported on their prosocial behaviors over consecutive days.
• Analysis focused on patterns of helping across different categories: casual, direct, indirect, and emotional support.

Main Results:

• A diversified helping pattern was observed in daily prosocial behaviors.
• Participants were less likely to engage in the same type of prosocial behavior on subsequent days.
• Conversely, participants were more likely to engage in different types of prosocial behavior on subsequent days.

Conclusions:

• Daily prosocial actions reflect a diversification strategy, balancing different forms of help.
• This diversification tendency, particularly the reduction in repeating the same behavior, appears limited to prosocial acts requiring significant effort or time, excluding casual help.