# Prosocial behavior

Prosocial behavior, or intent to benefit others, is a social behavior that helps people or society as a whole, such as aiding, sharing, donating, volunteering, respecting society's laws and having good manners. Prosocial behavior fosters positive traits that are beneficial for the individual and society.

## Quotes

* ...In the aftermath of natural disasters, most people engage in prosocial, helping behaviors; antisocial behavior is the exception, rather than the rule. The narrative of postdisaster human behavior found in sociological studies is... encouraging: disaster survivors engage in overwhelmingly prosocial behavior and victimsturned-resourceful-first-responders rationally assess danger and work assiduously to save their neighbors and communities.
** Disaster Mythology and the Law, Lisa Grow Sun, Cornell Law Review, (March 2010)
* From an evolutionary perspective, the emotional rewards that people experience when they help others may serve as a proximate mechanism that evolved to facilitate prosocial behavior, which may have carried short-term costs but long-term benefits for survival over human evolutionary history. The robustness of this mechanism is supported by our finding that people experience emotional benefits from sharing their financial resources with others not only in countries where such resources are plentiful, but also in impoverished countries where scarcity might seem to limit the possibilities to reap the gains from giving to others... In highlighting the potential universality of emotional benefits stemming from prosocial spending, the present research adds to the chorus of recent interdisciplinary findings documenting the importance of generosity for human well-being.
** Prosocial Spending and Well-Being: Cross-Cultural Evidence for a Psychological Universal by Lara B. Aknin, Christopher P. Barrington-Leigh, Elizabeth W. Dunn, John F. Helliwell, Justine Burns, Robert Biswas-Diener, Imelda Kemeza, Paul Nyende, Claire E. Ashton-James, and Michael I. Norton, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, (April 2013)
* The term prosocial behavior originated during the 1970s and was introduced by social scientists as an antonym for the term antisocial behavior.
** [https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-prosocial-behavior-2795479 The Basics of Prosocial Behavior By Kendra Cherry[ VeryWellMind, (21 November 2018)
* Prosocial behavior has long posed a challenge to social scientists seeking to understand why people engage in helping behaviors that are beneficial to others, but costly to the individual performing the action. In some cases, people will even put their own lives at risk in order to help other people, even those that are complete strangers. Why would people do something that benefits someone else but offers no immediate benefit to the doer? Psychologists suggest that there are a number of reasons why people engage in prosocial behavior. In many cases, such behaviors are fostered during childhood and adolescence as adults encourage children to share, act kindly, and help others.
** The Basics of Prosocial Behavior By Kendra Cherry, VeryWellMind, (21 November 2018)
* Research shows that kindness can make a huge difference in people’s everyday work experience. So what is kindness? What are the benefits? And how can we generate more of it in the workplace— well beyond today?...The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley... defines Kindness as “orienting our thoughts, feelings, and actions towards care for others and genuinely supportive social bonds. It helps us in trusting, inclusive, and cooperative ways with people...”
* Be Prosocial. Going beyond being respectful, the next step to a kinder workplace is to be proactively social. Prosocial behavior happens when you do something to actively improve the situation of people... around you. Great examples of prosocial behaviors in the workplace are empathy, compassion, and altruism.
** The Power of (Random Acts of) Kindness in the Workplace, Daan van Rossum, [[w:Medium (website)|Medium]], (17 Feb 2020)