Abstract
Physiological studies of prosocial behaviour have indicated an association between resting heart rate variability and prosocial behaviour. Little is known about whether real-time heart rate in prosocial behavioural processes is associated with prosocial behaviour and whether their association depends on subjective experiences in prosocial behavioural processes. To clarify these issues, 60 adults were recruited in the present study and completed the dictator game, trust game and social value orientation game, which measure prosocial behaviour. Their real-time heart rate was measured with the electrocardiogram (ECG) module of Biopac MP150, and their perceived stress was self-reported. The results showed regular changes in heart rate in the prosocial behavioural processes, with heart rate reaching a peak at the prosocial decision-making stage. Moreover, only for individuals with higher perceived stress at the prosocial decision-making stage was there an inverted U-shaped relationship between heart rate at the prosocial decision-making stage and dictator game scores, which reflect altruistic prosocial behaviour. These findings revealed that real-time physiological arousal and subjective experience jointly determine altruistic prosocial behaviour.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Jian Hao, upon reasonable request.
Notes
A donation task was also used to measure prosocial behaviour in the whole experiment. Because the donation task was not presented with a game paradigm as were the economic games, the donation task scores were not analysed in the present study.
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Zhaoquan Yu and Jian Hao contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Zhaoquan Yu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Zhaoquan Yu and Jian Hao, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Yu, Z., Hao, J. Heart rate, perceived stress and prosocial behaviour: real-time psychophysiological correlates of prosocial behaviour. Curr Psychol 42, 27550–27561 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03881-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03881-7