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IACM 2022

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Weather to Help: How Sunlight (and the Stock Market) Influence Prosocial Behavior


Abstract: Scholars have shown that sunlight increases riskless prosocial behavior, arguing that sunlight increases positive affect which increases prosocial behavior. This is consistent with “rational altruism”: individuals with more psychological (positive-affect) resources will “spend” more resources on prosocial behavior. In contrast, we propose “affective gamble theory” (AGT): risky (but not riskless) prosocial behaviors are construed as “affective gambles” and will follow prospect-theory altruism (not rational altruism). AGT predicts both positive-affect events and negative-affect events can decrease risky prosocial behavior. We test AGT by conceptualizing sunlight as a positive-affect-inducing event (Study 1), stock market rises (“good news”) as positive-affect-inducing events (Study 2) and stock market falls (“bad news”) as negative-affect-inducing events (Study 2). Sunlight, good news, and bad news all decrease risky prosocial behavior, consistent with AGT.


Keywords: prosocial behavior, natural field experiments, prospect theory

Topic: DEC   |   Format: Full Paper


Polly Kang, National University of Singapore (kang.polly@gmail.com)
Singapore

David Daniels, National University of Singapore (bizdpd@nus.edu.sg)
Singapore

Maurice Schweitzer, Wharton School (schweitz@wharton.upenn.edu)
United States

 


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