The core tendencies underlying prosocial behavior: Testing a person–situation framework

Abstract Objective and Background According to a recently proposed theoretical framework, different personality traits should explain pro‐social behavior in different situations. We empirically tested the key proposition of this framework that each of four “core tendencies” (i.e., the shared variance of related traits) specifically predicts pro‐social behavior in the presence of a different situational affordance. Methods We used a large‐scale dataset ( N = 2479) including measures of various personality traits and six incentivized economic games assessing pro‐social behavior in different social situations. Using bifactor modeling, we extracted four latent core tendencies and tested their predictive validity for pro‐social behavior. Results We found mixed support for the theoretically derived, preregistered hypotheses. The core tendency of beliefs about others' pro‐sociality predicted pro‐social behavior in both games involving dependence under uncertainty, as expected. Unconditional concern for others' welfare predicted pro‐social behavior in only one of two games providing a possibility for exploitation. For conditional concern for others' welfare and self‐regulation, in turn, evidence relating them to pro‐social behavior in the presence of a possibility for reciprocity and temporal conflict was relatively weak. Conclusion Different features of social situations may activate different personality traits to influence pro‐social behavior, but more research is needed to fully understand these person–situation interactions.