Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 56, Issue 5, Pages 710-715Publisher
JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD
DOI: 10.1002/ijop.12733
Keywords
Objective self-awareness theory; Experimenter demand; Self-presentation; Prosocial behaviour
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Many studies suggest that increasing self-awareness leads to more prosocial behavior, but previous research has been confounded by experimenter pressure. By manipulating self-awareness in a novel experimental paradigm, it was found that self-reflection does indeed promote prosocial behavior.
Many studies indicate that increasing self-awareness leads to individuals reflecting on their values and ideals (Silvia & Duval, 2001). This self-reflection appears to increase prosocial behaviour (Berkowitz, 1987). However, previously studies typically manipulated self-awareness in situations in which the individual may have felt pressure from the researcher to help. Thus, experimenter pressure to behave prosocially confounds the self-awareness explanation provided in past research. We used a novel experimental paradigm to manipulate self-awareness and remove the researcher's presence to decrease the likelihood that the participant would conform to experimenter demand. Participants were 36 college students (M-age = 19.52; 25 women). The results indicated a strong probability that the experimental condition participants were more prosocial than control condition participants. These findings provide additional support for the hypothesis that self-reflection increases prosocial behaviour, even without experimenter demands. These findings and the importance of studying objective self-awareness in light of the coronavirus are discussed.
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