Relationships between two types of reputational concern and altruistic behavior in daily life

Abstract

Although many studies have shown that reputational cues promote altruism, few studies have focused on individual differences. The present study provides novel evidence indicating that the relationship between reputational concern and altruistic behavior differs according to the type of reputational concern involved and the recipients of altruism. Specifically, the relationships between individual differences of two reputational concerns (i.e., praise seeking and rejection avoidance) and the frequency with which participants exhibited altruistic behavior toward various individuals (i.e., family members, friends/acquaintances, and strangers) were examined. As predicted, neither type of reputational concern was significantly associated with altruistic behavior toward family members. This is understandable, as altruistic behavior toward familiar people is unlikely to lead to a good reputation. Conversely, praise seeking predicted altruistic behavior toward friends/acquaintances and strangers, whereas rejection avoidance did not. These findings are consistent with recent literature suggesting the effectiveness of positive reputation systems to promote generosity, relative to negative reputation systems. Furthermore, rejection avoidance was negatively associated with altruistic behavior toward strangers; we discussed the possibility that this was because such behavior was not very normative. Our findings provide useful insight for future studies examining the relationship between reputation and altruistic behavior.