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Social mindfulness and prosociality vary across the globe

Social mindfulness and prosociality vary across the globe
Social mindfulness and prosociality vary across the globe
Humans are social animals, but not everyone will be mindful of
others to the same extent. Individual differences have been found,
but would social mindfulness also be shaped by one’s location in the
world? Expecting cross-national differences to exist, we examined if
and how social mindfulness differs across countries. At little to no material cost, social mindfulness typically entails small acts of attention or
kindness. Even though fairly common, such low-cost cooperation has
received little empirical attention. Measuring social mindfulness across
31 samples from industrialized countries and regions (n = 8,354), we
found considerable variation. Among selected country-level variables,
greater social mindfulness was most strongly associated with countries’
better general performance on environmental protection. Together,
our findings contribute to the literature on prosociality by targeting
the kind of everyday cooperation that is more focused on communicating benevolence than on providing material benefits.
Cross-national differences, Low-cost cooperation, Social mindfulness
0027-8424
Van Doesum, Niels
c1b92793-c295-4731-9d2a-b66c236d57b5
Murphy, Ryan
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Gallucci, Marcello
d574c29d-6ec3-4859-bf19-b88312966758
Aharonov-Majar, Efrat
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Athenstaedt, Ursula
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Au, Wing Tung
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Bai, Liying
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Böhm, Robert
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Bovina, Inna
268c52a8-25d2-43d6-aa77-42595614b9af
Buchan, Nancy
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Chen, Xiao-Ping
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Dumont, Kitty
fd03a65b-24b0-4515-bbe0-4279e9ff8cdd
Engelmann, Jan
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Eriksson, Kimmo
a02b6a74-2b81-4e0d-86aa-b8750936536a
Euh, Hyun
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Wildschut, Tim
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Winter, Fabian
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Wu, Junhui
793b1f4d-be97-4563-b1d9-61facdc4db00
Wong, Jose
f4381a8f-89da-4783-936e-c122d7157ed5
Van Lange, Paul
43d589ba-a278-4191-a8bc-d7397feaba23
Van Doesum, Niels
c1b92793-c295-4731-9d2a-b66c236d57b5
Murphy, Ryan
6d6ddd9a-c6c3-4ca0-89e9-9685979b4f7b
Gallucci, Marcello
d574c29d-6ec3-4859-bf19-b88312966758
Aharonov-Majar, Efrat
31ecc6c2-b17a-4e58-8a9c-0f098a8fb8a5
Athenstaedt, Ursula
cdfca9ba-61d9-4268-b61f-bddc13627a4e
Au, Wing Tung
1ecd21f4-e9a6-4de2-84a0-86f3c0815df9
Bai, Liying
5ac1869a-36f2-4149-b441-979a7a3eb47a
Böhm, Robert
9d40c530-92de-4198-825a-6328a70ddf05
Bovina, Inna
268c52a8-25d2-43d6-aa77-42595614b9af
Buchan, Nancy
e5a2deff-4345-4685-a06a-6d6c82d4c053
Chen, Xiao-Ping
e0f1fd2a-644a-4d07-9f37-0c6b6d11a10f
Dumont, Kitty
fd03a65b-24b0-4515-bbe0-4279e9ff8cdd
Engelmann, Jan
e842bbb5-c61f-4aa1-93a2-71426d09a78d
Eriksson, Kimmo
a02b6a74-2b81-4e0d-86aa-b8750936536a
Euh, Hyun
cba6ccff-9728-4bd2-b44c-e6e74b3206de
Wildschut, Tim
4452a61d-1649-4c4a-bb1d-154ec446ff81
Winter, Fabian
14c485c3-91c9-4818-8190-ab2eab0e48dc
Wu, Junhui
793b1f4d-be97-4563-b1d9-61facdc4db00
Wong, Jose
f4381a8f-89da-4783-936e-c122d7157ed5
Van Lange, Paul
43d589ba-a278-4191-a8bc-d7397feaba23

Van Doesum, Niels, Murphy, Ryan, Gallucci, Marcello, Aharonov-Majar, Efrat, Athenstaedt, Ursula, Au, Wing Tung, Bai, Liying, Böhm, Robert, Bovina, Inna, Buchan, Nancy, Chen, Xiao-Ping, Dumont, Kitty, Engelmann, Jan, Eriksson, Kimmo, Euh, Hyun, Wildschut, Tim, Winter, Fabian, Wu, Junhui, Wong, Jose and Van Lange, Paul (2021) Social mindfulness and prosociality vary across the globe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (35), [e2023846118]. (doi:10.1073/pnas.2023846118).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Humans are social animals, but not everyone will be mindful of
others to the same extent. Individual differences have been found,
but would social mindfulness also be shaped by one’s location in the
world? Expecting cross-national differences to exist, we examined if
and how social mindfulness differs across countries. At little to no material cost, social mindfulness typically entails small acts of attention or
kindness. Even though fairly common, such low-cost cooperation has
received little empirical attention. Measuring social mindfulness across
31 samples from industrialized countries and regions (n = 8,354), we
found considerable variation. Among selected country-level variables,
greater social mindfulness was most strongly associated with countries’
better general performance on environmental protection. Together,
our findings contribute to the literature on prosociality by targeting
the kind of everyday cooperation that is more focused on communicating benevolence than on providing material benefits.

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Social mindfulness and prosociality across the globe_Accepted - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 28 June 2021
Published date: 23 August 2021
Additional Information: Funding Information: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. C.P. passed away during the time we were working on the manuscript; we are grateful for his valuable contributions to this research. We thank Daniel Balliet for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Research was supported in part by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) under Grant No. 022.003.040, awarded to P.A.M.-V.L. The contributions of M.H. and S. Graf were supported by Grant No. 20-01214S from the Czech Science Foundation and by Rozvoj Výzkumné Organ-izace (Development of a Research Organization): RVO 68081740 of the Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences. The contribution of R.G. was supported by the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (ANID/ FONDAL 15130009) and the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (ANID/FONDAP 15110006). The contribution of G.J.L. was supported by Standard Research Grant No. 410-2010-1221 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The contributions of S. Gächter and O.W. were supported by the European Research Council Grant No. ERC-AdG 295707 COOPERATION. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Cross-national differences, Low-cost cooperation, Social mindfulness

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Local EPrints ID: 451395
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/451395
ISSN: 0027-8424
PURE UUID: e57b5fa6-d973-42bb-8659-dde915e4766a
ORCID for Tim Wildschut: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6499-5487

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Date deposited: 23 Sep 2021 16:40
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 06:49

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Contributors

Author: Niels Van Doesum
Author: Ryan Murphy
Author: Marcello Gallucci
Author: Efrat Aharonov-Majar
Author: Ursula Athenstaedt
Author: Wing Tung Au
Author: Liying Bai
Author: Robert Böhm
Author: Inna Bovina
Author: Nancy Buchan
Author: Xiao-Ping Chen
Author: Kitty Dumont
Author: Jan Engelmann
Author: Kimmo Eriksson
Author: Hyun Euh
Author: Tim Wildschut ORCID iD
Author: Fabian Winter
Author: Junhui Wu
Author: Jose Wong
Author: Paul Van Lange

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