University of Northern Iowa UNI ScholarWorks Dissertations and Theses @ UNI Student Work 2015 Different levels of negative emotions and their impact on prosocial behavior Tsamchoe Dolma University of Northern Iowa Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy Copyright ©2015 Tsamchoe Dolma Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd Part of the Applied Behavior Analysis Commons, and the Cognitive Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Dolma, Tsamchoe, "Different levels of negative emotions and their impact on prosocial behavior" (2015). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 170. https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/170 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses @ UNI by an authorized administrator of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Copyright by TSAMCHOE DOLMA 2015 All Rights Reserved DIFFERENT LEVELS OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AND THEIR IMPACT ON PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR An Abstract of a Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Tsamchoe Dolma University of Northern Iowa July, 2015 ABSTRACT In this fast and competitive world, people are becoming less likely to help others. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014), the volunteerism rate reached the lowest point in 2013 since 2002. This decrease in prosocial behavior makes the study of prosocial behavior important, especially with the increasing numbers of charitable organizations and their competition to attract more donors and volunteers. Public service advertisements (PSA) are used as a common medium to garner help and support, and many of them use emotional appeals to enhance persuasion. The literature on persuasion shows that emotions have persuasive power to change people's behavior. For example, participants induced with negative emotions are more careful and detailed as compared to those who are induced with positive emotions (Bohner, Crow, Erb, & Schwarz, 1992). Negative emotions can also increase helping behavior. The negative state relief model (Cialdini, Darby, & Vincent, 1973) states that people help in order to alleviate the discomfort caused by negative emotions. For example, guilty participants donate more blood and report a significant reduction in their guilty feeling after the donation (O’Malley & Andrews, 1983). In this study, I expanded on Bagozzi and Moore (1994) to test whether different levels of negative emotions influence empathy and prosocial behavior differently. I also tested whether cognitive reappraisal moderated the relationship between negative emotions and prosocial behavior. Participants ( N= 163) recruited from mTurk completed measures of cognitive reappraisal and social desirability and viewed one of three images (i.e., image of a young girl photoshopped to have no bruises, a few bruises, or many bruises) with a message to support anti-child abuse efforts. Participants self-reported the negative emotions the advertisement made them feel. They also completed an empathy measure and indicated how willing they would be to help the child abuse cause through volunteer efforts and donation pledges. Those who viewed the strong and medium negative emotional images (images of a girl with few or more bruises) reported more negative emotions than those viewed the image in the weak emotional condition (image without bruises). Participants who reported more negative emotions also reported more empathy, but the images seen had no effect on willingness to help or donation. Most people indicated a moderate level of willingness to help, but only 20% pledged a donation. Cognitive reappraisal did not moderate the relationship between negative emotions and helping behavior, but it significantly correlated with both negative emotions and willingness to help. This finding adds to research suggesting that individuals who better regulate their emotions are more prosocial (Eisenberg et al., 1996). Overall, consistent with theories of prosocial behavior (Batson, 19 91; Cialdini et al., 1973 ), negative emotions were related to empathy, and both related to greater self-reported intentions to help, but contrary to both those theories and the research on persuasion, this did not translate into actual behavior. Keywords: Prosocial behavior, empathy, persuasion, negative emotions, cognitive reappraisal DIFFERENT LEVELS OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AND THEIR IMPACT ON PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Tsamchoe Dolma University of Northern Iowa July, 2015 ii This Study by: Tsamchoe Dolma Entitled: Different levels of negative emotions and their impact on prosocial behavior has been approved as meeting the thesis requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts ____________ ___________________________________________________ Date Dr. Helen Harton, Chair, Thesis Committee ____________ ___________________________________________________ Date Dr. Sundé Nesbit, Thesis Committee Member ____________ ___________________________________________________ Date Dr. Nicholas Terpstra-Schwab, Thesis Committee Member ____________ ___________________________________________________ Date Dr. April Chatham-Carpenter, Interim Dean, Graduate College iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS One of the main reasons, why I feel a great sense of accomplishment with this thesis is all because of my advisor, Dr. Helen C. Harton, I can’t thank her enough for her eternal support and guidance throughout the program. I would like to thank my committee members Nicholas Terpstra-Schwab and Sunde Nesbit, for their constructive feedback and being supportive and understanding especially, when I had visa issues. I also want to thank my family and close friends for being an amazing social support. I especially want to thank few special friends, Asha Ganesan, Manuel Salinas and Tenzin Yangchen for standing right beside me all the time. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1 Prosocial Behavior .........................................................................................................2 Role of Emotions in Prosocial Behavior ..................................................................4 Theories of Prosocial Behavior ................................................................................ 6 Empathy .........................................................................................................................8 Emotions and Persuasion .............................................................................................11 Emotion Regulation and Cognitive Reappraisal ..........................................................15 Emotions, Persuasion and Prosocial Behavior.............................................................16 Present Study ...............................................................................................................17 Hypotheses. ................................................................................................................. 19 CHAPTER 2. PILOT STUDY ...........................................................................................21 Method .........................................................................................................................21 Participants .............................................................................................................21 Measures ................................................................................................................22 Demographic questionnaire .............................................................................22 Negative emotions scale ..................................................................................22 PANAS ............................................................................................................22 Semantic differential scale ...............................................................................23 Procedure ...............................................................................................................23 v Results and Discussion ................................................................................................24 Data Cleaning.........................................................................................................24 Statistical Analysis .................................................................................................24 CHAPTER 3. METHOD ...................................................................................................27 Participants ...................................................................................................................27 Measures. .....................................................................................................................27 Cognitive Reappraisal Questionnaire ....................................................................27 The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale ...................................................28 Negative Emotions Scale. ..................................................................................... 28 I-PANAS-SF ..........................................................................................................29