Strategies to Promote Prosocial Behaviour (DP IB Psychology)

Prior commitment to promote prosocial behaviour 

• The ultimate aim behind promoting prosocial behaviour is to reach a wide audience, to communicate the core values behind prosocial behaviour, for example:

  • to exercise care of and kindness to others

  • to be a responsible citizen, a custodian of the planet

  • to uphold the legal, moral and ethical values/guides of society (e.g. one’s home city, country or the world in general)

• Prosocial behaviour may be promoted via several different sources, for example:

  • governments (e.g. TV adverts asking people to recycle)

  • schools (e.g. nurturing key prosocial behavioural traits in children)

  • global corporations (e.g. Coca Cola’s ‘Open Happiness’ campaign that put the emphasis on spreading positive ‘vibes’ and prosocial acts rather than on profit) 

• Prior commitment is based on the idea that people are more likely to behave in a prosocial way if they have already been encouraged to feel responsible for providing assistance to someone or to a cause

• Prior commitment involves getting active and willing participation in a prosocial act from someone who may not have initially set out to behave prosocially 

• The operationalising of prior commitment in people is a key step towards prosocial behaviours such as crime prevention as it fosters in people the idea of shared responsibility and a duty of care towards others

• In essence, prior commitment involves securing an agreement or intention from people to behave prosocially 

Promoting prosocial behaviour in school settings

• School exerts a great influence on children:

  • friendships are formed

  • skills and talents are honed

  • interpersonal skills are practised

• A child’s experience of school sets them up for life academically and socially  

• The promotion of prosocial behaviour can be seen in initiatives such as:

  • anti-bullying programmes‘

  • ‘buddy’ mentoring systems

  • community programmes e.g. picking up litter, raising money for good causes

• Promoting prosocial behaviour in schools can have valuable outcomes which go beyond academic attainment, for example:

  • Understanding that focusing on the self above all else is ultimately detrimental for everyone

  • Behaving prosocially brings huge benefits to an individual

  • Deriving a sense of community and belonging

Research which investigates promoting prosocial behaviour

• Dickerson et al. (1992): operationalising prior commitment to using less water

• Flook et al. (2015): instigation of a kindness-based curriculum in a primary school

Dickerson et al. (1992) and Flook et al. (2015) are available as ‘Two Key Studies of Promoting Prosocial Behaviour’ – just navigate the Social Responsibility section to find them.