Shall I Help a Stranger?: Spiritual Intelligence and its Relation to Altruism, Ethnocentrism, Intercultural Willingness to Communicate, and the Intention to Act

Abstract

This research explored the relationships among spiritual intelligence (SI), altruism, ethnocentrism, and intercultural willingness to communicate (IWTC), and how these related to the intention to help a culturally different stranger. Controlling for gender and age, the findings for the 281 student participants’ responses revealed that those with higher levels of SI tended to have higher levels of altruism and higher levels of IWTC. Regarding the intention to help, higher levels of altruism were linked to lower avoidance of interacting with a stranger while higher levels of ethnocentrism were linked to a greater likelihood of leaving without acting to help.

Keywords:

• Spiritual Intelligence
• Altruism
• Ethnocentrism
• Intercultural Willingness to Communicate
• Intention to Act

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank our reviewers for their thoughtful feedback, which helped us to clarify and develop this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kathleen D. Clark

Kathleen D. Clark (PhD, The Ohio State University) is an associate professor in the School of Communication at the University of Akron, Akron, OH, USA.

Yang Lin

Yang Lin (PhD, University of Oklahoma) is a professor in the School of Communication, University of Akron.

Virginia Maher

Virgina Maher is a master’s student in the School of Communication, University of Akron.