Unpredictable and competitive cues affect prosocial behaviors and judgments

Zhu, Nan; Hawk, Skyler T.; Chang, Lei

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2018.10.006

Cited by 18 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Our results show that this “sense of felt security” (Sroufe and Waters, 1977) is different from one’s safety perception. Echoing previous research concerning individuals’ beliefs about future predictability (Hill et al, 1997; Zhu et al, 2019), our result suggests that insecurely attached individuals, having been raised in an unpredictable environment, adopt fast life strategies that focus on short-term benefits and neglect long-term ones, and form distorted perceptions of risk/safety.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Feel Safe to Take More Risks? Insecure Attachment Increases Consumer Risk-Taking Behavior

Lan

et al. 2019

Front. Psychol.

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Attachment styles, originated from early childhood experience, have been documented to influence human behaviors among adults. Drawing on life history theory, we examined whether or not, and how, attachment styles impact risk-taking behaviors beyond evolutionary valid domains, and explored the moderation role of parental status. In the consumer behavior context, three correlational studies provide convergent evidence that insecurely attached (vs. securely attached) consumers are more risk-taking in consumption situations like dining in a toilet-themed restaurant or buying genetically modified products. Specifically, insecurely attached consumers were more likely to take risks in two experiential purchase scenarios (Study 1) and this effect was not domain-specific (Study 2). In Study 3, we showed that safety perception mediated the relationship between attachment insecurity and risk-taking, which was manifested by purchase intentions toward genetically modified products. Specifically, insecurely attached individuals perceived genetically modified products to be safer and were more willing to make a purchase. Additionally, parental status moderates the relationship (Studies 2 and 3). We conclude with a discussion on the implications of attachment theory on consumer risk-taking behaviors from a life history perspective.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Feel Safe to Take More Risks? Insecure Attachment Increases Consumer Risk-Taking Behavior

Lan

et al. 2019

Front. Psychol.

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“…For instance, experimental evidence shows that situational cues of extrinsic risks might induce more present-oriented reproductive planning in individuals with childhood or chronic exposure to resource insecurity than in those who did not experience resource insecurity (Griskevicius et al, 2011). Similarly, a recent study revealed that individuals facing chronic resource disadvantages reduced their prosocial behaviors when exposed to competitive scenarios, whereas the opposite was true for advantaged individuals (Zhu et al, 2019). Moreover, although the current account focus on only two overarching environmental forces, it does not rule out other environmental factors with more proximate influences on gender relations, such as socially-imposed marital systems, the availability of contraception and alloparents, cooperative breeding, and advances in education, legislation, and technology.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Early experiences of these events serve to calibrate individual life history strategies through development (Chisholm, 1999; Belsky et al, 2012). Meanwhile, these events might also serve as external cues to elicit behaviors congruent with the relevant life history strategy in transient situations (Griskevicius et al, 2011; Zhu et al, 2019).…”

Section: A Life History Account Of Gender Roles and Gender Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolved but Not Fixed: A Life History Account of Gender Roles and Gender Inequality

Zhu

Chang

2019

Front. Psychol.

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The rift between evolutionary psychology and the biosocial model of gender relations impedes a fuller understanding of gender roles and gender inequality. In a novel evolutionary account that complements both existing theories, we highlight life history strategies as intermediate mechanism linking distal environmental forces to variations in gender relations. Specifically, traditional versus modernized gender roles are seen as shaped by present-oriented versus future-oriented reproductive strategies, which are sensitive to uncontrollable morbidity-mortality risks. Gender inequality stems from a combination of present-oriented reproductive strategies adapted to high-risk environments and dominance hierarchies resulting from societal competition (i.e., the probability of obtaining resources desired by others through personal efforts). By contrast, gender egalitarian values develop as people increasingly enact future-oriented reproductive strategies in a competitive but orderly and controllable environment, which is conducive to prestige hierarchies. The current account provides novel interpretations of phenomena ranging from sex differences in mate preference, sociosexuality, and sexism to cross-cultural variability in marital systems and cultural practices. All of these serve to support the view that gender relations are evolved, changeable, and influenced by the interaction between ecological and social environments in ways predicted by the life history mechanism.

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“…With reduced extrinsic risks and increased environmental predictability and controllability, on the other hand, human social schemata orient toward coexistence, cooperation, and orderly competition to maximize resource acquisition through collaboration (Chen & Chang, 2012;Zhu, Hawk, & Chang, 2019;Zhu et al, 2018). Cross-cultural evidence bolsters the linkage between experiences of environmental unpredictability (e.g., family instability) and antisocial, externalizing behavior .…”

Section: Research Highlightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such social strategies result in crime and violence or disrespecting others and disregarding social propriety all of which inevitably aggravate environmental unpredictability and perpetuate the cycle of fast LH driving antagonistic sociality. With reduced extrinsic risks and increased environmental predictability and controllability, on the other hand, human social schemata orient toward coexistence, cooperation, and orderly competition to maximize resource acquisition through collaboration (Chen & Chang, ; Zhu, Hawk, & Chang, ; Zhu et al, ). Cross‐cultural evidence bolsters the linkage between experiences of environmental unpredictability (e.g., family instability) and antisocial, externalizing behavior (Chang et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aggression and risk‐taking as adaptive implementations of fast life history strategy

Chang

2019

Developmental Science

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Within the evolutionary life history (LH) framework, aggression and risk‐taking are adaptive implementations of a fast LH strategy to adapt to environmental unsafety and unpredictability. Based on a longitudinal sample of 198 Chinese adolescents living in rural areas, half of whom were separated from their parents, this study tested LH hypotheses about aggression and risk‐taking in relation to safety constraints in the childhood living environments. The results showed that proxies of environmental unpredictability, including parental separation, were positively associated with aggression and risk‐taking and negatively associated with slow LH strategy, which in turn was negatively associated with aggression and risk‐taking. Children separated from their parents scored lower on slow LH strategies and higher on aggression and risk‐taking. These findings support the evolutionary assumption that human development responds to safety cues through behavioral implementations of LH strategies.

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Unpredictable and competitive cues affect prosocial behaviors and judgments

Cited by 18 publications

References 36 publications

Feel Safe to Take More Risks? Insecure Attachment Increases Consumer Risk-Taking Behavior

Feel Safe to Take More Risks? Insecure Attachment Increases Consumer Risk-Taking Behavior

Evolved but Not Fixed: A Life History Account of Gender Roles and Gender Inequality

Aggression and risk‐taking as adaptive implementations of fast life history strategy

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