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The salience of children increases adult prosocial values

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Version 2 2023-06-12, 08:09
Version 1 2023-06-10, 01:30
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-12, 08:09 authored by Lukas J Wolf, Sapphira R Thorne, Marina Iosifyan, Colin Foad, Samuel Taylor, Vlad CostinVlad Costin, Johan C Karremans, Geoffrey Haddock, Gregory R Maio
Organizations often put children front and center in campaigns to elicit interest and support for prosocial causes. Such initiatives raise a key theoretical and applied question that has yet to be addressed directly: Does the salience of children increase prosocial motivation and behavior in adults? We present findings aggregated across eight experiments involving 2,054 adult participants: Prosocial values became more important after completing tasks that made children salient compared to tasks that made adults (or a mundane event) salient or compared to a no-task baseline. An additional field study showed that adults were more likely to donate money to a child-unrelated cause when children were more salient on a shopping street. The findings suggest broad, reliable interconnections between human mental representations of children and prosocial motives, as the child salience effect was not moderated by participants’ gender, age, attitudes, or contact with children.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Social Psychological and Personality Science

ISSN

1948-5506

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Page range

1-10

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2021-10-26

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2021-10-26

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2021-10-25

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