A Multiplicative Model of the Dispositional Antecedents of a Prosocial Behavior: Predicting More of the People More of the Time

Authors

George Knight, Arizona State UniversityFollow
Lora G. Johnson, Arizona State University
Gustavo Carlo, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Nancy Eisenberg, Arizona State UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

January 1994

Comments

Published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 66:1 (1994), pp. 178–183. Copyright © 1994 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. “This article may not exactly replicate the fi nal version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.” http://www.apa.org/journals/psp/

Abstract

Researchers have demonstrated that individual differences in prosocial behavior may be a function of dispositional or person variables. However, the observed empirical relations have been relatively modest, perhaps because researchers have most often examined simple additive or single predictor models. The present investigation examined a multiplicative model of the relation of dispositional variables to a prosocial behavior. Eighty-six children between 6 and 9 years old completed a monetary donation task and measures of the general tendency to understand and reason about the affective state of others, to be sympathetic, and to understand the units and value of money. As expected, children who scored high in affective reasoning, sympathy, and money knowledge donated considerably more than children who scored low in any of these dispositional variables.