The propagation of everyday prosociality in the workplace

Abstract

Prosocial behaviors typically benefit those who perform them but can create mixed emotions in recipients. Yet, how does prosociality affect the well-being of those who merely observe it? The current study aimed to answer this question by experimentally prompting employees to perform prosocial acts at work (Givers), be the recipient of such acts (Receivers), or to do neither (Observers). Our focus was on everyday prosociality, which involves kind acts directed at those in one’s social circle, rather than at individuals in need. Social proximity to Givers, but not Receivers, positively predicted boosts in well-being. Indeed, social proximity to Receivers was associated with a nonsignificant trend toward decreased well-being. However, both social proximity to Givers and social proximity to Receivers predicted increases in prosocial behavior among Observers. These results suggest that prosocial behavior and its emotional benefits propagate through social networks, particularly for those in close social proximity to prosocial actors.

Keywords:

• Everyday prosociality
• well-being
• propagation
• social proximity
• workplace

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In the rare case that summation led to a negative value, this value was changed to zero.

2. Although we randomly assigned Givers and Receivers to two different groups, we could not randomize social relationships to the individuals in those groups, and thus needed to control for any baseline differences that might arise from preexisting differences in personality or other factors.