Project

Behavior that benefits the society, such as giving money or blood, volunteering or environmentally friendly behavior, is not only useful but essential - for example, to tackle climate change, reduce poverty and provide health care. So far, different forms of prosocial behavior have mostly been studied in isolation in very specific contexts - for example, giving money to opera houses or donating blood to certain blood banks. As a result, an overarching understanding of how to promote prosocial behavior in general has been lacking. The project aims to fill this gap by identifying effective and widely applicable practical interventions that motivate people to engage in prosocial behavior.

To this end, on the one hand, research on the promotion of prosocial behavior will be systematized and a common conceptual framework with a taxonomy of approaches to promote prosocial behavior will be created. On the other hand, these approaches will be tested in different areas of application to investigate which approaches are generalizable or, if this is not the case, which specific factors favor or limit their applicability.

To begin with, the existing literature is synthesized, and a micro-theoretical economic model of prosocial behavior is developed. Based on this, two large-scale international population surveys and field experiments in cooperation with practice partners will be conducted.

Project start:
01. January 2025

Project end:
31. December 2027

Project management:
Prof. Dr. Mark Andor

Project staff:
Dr. Lukas Tomberg, Leonie Matejko, Eva Hümmecke, Delia Niehues, Dr. Alexander Haering, Dr. Nils Christian Hönow

Project partners:
Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung (PIK), Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Universität Hamburg, Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung von Kriminalität, Sicherheit und Recht, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam , University of Oxford, National University of Singapore, University of Waterloo, Central European University

Funding:
Leibniz-Gemeinschaft