The Psychology of Selective Prosociality

Whom people help, when, and why

Background
Prosocial behavior is crucial for societal well-being. However, people are often selective in whom they help. From everyday acts of kindness to consequential decisions such as donating after a natural disaster, individuals routinely prioritize some potential recipients over others. Such selectivity can promote fairness and effective allocation of resources, but it can also result in exclusion, discrimination, and social conflict.

Despite its prevalence and societal relevance, the psychology of selective prosociality remains insufficiently understood. Existing research has often focused on whether people act prosocially at all, rather than on how they decide whom to help and whom not to help. As a result, there is limited insight into the psychological factors through which prosocial behavior becomes selective across contexts. This includes a lack of systematic research on individual differences in selective prosociality and on the conditions under which personality characteristics shape selective helping. Prior work on selective prosociality has also remained fragmented across disciplines, which has limited the development of a coherent psychological framework.

This project addresses these gaps by systematically examining the various drivers guiding decisions about whom to help, and whom not to help.

Project Aims and Research Questions
The project addresses the following central questions:

1. Which psychological processes underlie selective prosociality, and how do people justify their helping decisions?
2. How do people differ in the selectivity of their prosocial behavior, and how consistent are these patterns across situations and over time?
3. How do personality characteristics and contextual features jointly shape selective prosociality?
4. When does selective prosociality promote fairness and effective resource allocation, and when does it contribute to exclusion, discrimination, or conflict?

Methodology
The project employs a multi-method approach combining controlled experimental studies, naturalistic assessments of behavior in real-world contexts, and integrative theory development. To measure selective prosociality, we use decision-making tasks in which participants allocate real resources across multiple potential recipients who differ in relevant characteristics, such as group membership or need. Across methods, selective prosociality is quantified by examining how strongly individuals vary their helping behavior depending on recipients and situations, thereby capturing systematic patterns in whom people choose to help, and whom they do not. 

Expected Impact
This project advances theory on prosocial behavior by establishing selective prosociality as a central and systematic feature of social behavior rather than a set of isolated phenomena. By integrating insights from psychology, behavioral economics, and related fields, it helps bridge currently fragmented literatures and provides a coherent psychological framework for understanding selective prosociality. In doing so, the project clarifies the diverse forms and functions of selective prosociality and the psychological processes that underlie them, offering a foundation for distinguishing between selectivity that promotes fairness and effective aid and selectivity that contributes to exclusion, discrimination, or conflict.

Key Publications

Newspaper Articles (in German)