羞愧对亲社会行为影响的三水平元分析

羞愧是一种典型的道德情绪,其对亲社会行为的作用在既往研究中并不一致。本研究首次采用三水平元分析技术整合相关实证研究,检验羞愧对亲社会行为的影响及调节变量在二者关系中的作用。通过文献检索和筛选,共计纳入26篇文献, 85个效应量,总样本量为5823人。主效应检验发现,羞愧组比控制组表现出更多的亲社会行为,羞愧能够促进亲社会行为的产生。调节效应检验发现,暴露情境比掩蔽情境更能诱发羞愧对亲社会行为的促进作用,亲社会行为的产生情境(暴露情境或掩蔽情境)调节作用显著,但年龄、文化背景、羞愧诱发方法、羞愧类型及亲社会行为类型等变量的调节作用不显著。本研究使用三水平元分析方法保证了纳入文献信息的完整性,从而就羞愧对亲社会行为的影响及调节变量在两者关系中的作用得出更为全面可靠的研究结论,有助于拓展人们对于羞愧与亲社会行为关系及调节机制的认识。后续研究可深入探讨认知因素和个体特征在羞愧对亲社会行为影响中的作用,考察羞愧与其他道德情绪对亲社会行为影响的差异。

The effects of shame on prosocial behavior: A systematic review and three-level meta-analysis

Shame is a typical moral emotion whose effects on prosocial behavior were not consistent in previous studies. Some studies have shown its constructive effects on prosocial behavior, while others have demonstrated its destructive effects on prosocial behavior. Thus, some factors may have a potential impact on the role of shame on prosocial behavior. In view of this, this study used the three-level meta-analysis to integrate relevant empirical studies to examine the effects of shame on prosocial behavior and the role of moderating variables in the relationship.The study was conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P). And literature search and screening were conducted using common Chinese and international databases, including CNKI, PubMed, Web of Science, Elsevier, EBSCO, ProQuest, etc. The keywords for shame were “shame”, and for prosocial behavior were “prosocial behavior”, “helping behavior”, “altruistic behavior”, etc. By February 2022, 26 papers (20 in English and 6 in Chinese) with 85 effect sizes were included, with a total sample size of 5823 participants. The research used the metafor package in R to conduct three-level meta-analysis, which solves the problem that the effect size of traditional meta-analysis is not independent, preserves the integrity of information and improves the statistical efficiency.The results of the publication bias test indicated that there was no significant publication bias in this study. Based on the main effect test, the shame group showed much more prosocial behavior than the control group (g = 0.33), suggesting that shame can promote the generation of prosocial behavior. The heterogeneity test found significant differences in both within-study variance (levels 2) and between-study variance (levels 3), which indicates significant heterogeneity between studies. The moderating effect test revealed that shame was more likely to induce prosocial behavior in the expose situation than in the masking situation. However, the moderating effects of age, cultural background, shame-induced method, the type of shame, the type of prosocial behavior, and the generating situation of prosocial behavior (experimental situation or daily situation) were not significant, suggesting that the influence of shame on prosocial behavior has a strong stability. The study is the first to demonstrate that shame promotes prosocial behavior by using a three-level meta-analysis method, which responds to the controversy of the existing theories and research findings on the topic and provides support for the theory that shame facilitates prosocial behavior. Moreover, for the first time, cultural background, the type of shame, and generating situation of prosocial behavior were examined as moderating variables to investigate the relationship between the two, revealing the reasons for the heterogeneity of shame's influence on prosocial behavior. It provides a new perspective or theoretical interpretation of the inconsistent conclusions of the existing studies on the relationship between the two, and contributes to the theoretical construction of indigenous research on the topic. Based on the findings of this study, future explorations of this topic need to be examined combined with situational factors. Subsequent research could further investigate the influence of cognitive factors and individual characteristics in the effects of shame on prosocial behavior, and examine the different effects of shame and other moral emotions on prosocial behavior.