The Influence Of Cognitive Style And Information Processing On Individual Prosociality

The cognitive style and information processing mode from the perspective of intuition-analysis provide a new way to explain "Human is naturally evil or good".As a stable individual trait variable,cognitive style has been mainly studied as an influencing factor in the field of organization,management and education in the past,lacking exploration in the prosocial research field.As an important part of individual socialization,it is of theoretical and practical significance to explore the influence of cognitive style on prosociality.Information processing mode,as a stateful factor,has been widely studied on prosocial behavior,but the conclusion has been widely disputed.Later,researchers proposed the Social Heuristics Hypothesis(SHH)to explain the influence of the dual-processing system on prosocial behavior in information processing.However,the intuitive decision-making part of this hypothesis was mostly verified by predecessors,and the post-intuitive analytical decision has not been verified yet.In addition,considering that the contradiction between information processing mode and prosocial behavior is focused on the information acquisition process before decision-making,but no independent research has been conducted before,we take it into consideration in this study.To sum up,this study attempts to explore the influence of cognitive style and information processing mode on prosociality from the perspectives of traits and statefulness.The first study examined the effects of cognitive style on self-reported prosocial tendencies and authentic donation behavior using a questionnaire.In study 2,the survey-experiment method was adopted.Both experiments separated the intuition and analysis processing system through the instructions and the time limit,to investigate its influence on the level of cooperation in the public goods game paradigm.The experiment 1 examines the impact of intuitive and analytical processing on the level of cooperation,then investigates the influence of cognitive style on the level of cooperation by controlling the experimental group,to supplement the results of study 1.Experiment 2 improved the rules of "information acquisition process" in the game on the basis of experiment 1,investigated the level of cooperation under two decision-making conditions(Intuitive decision-making followed by analysis decision),to conduct cross-cultural verification of the Social Heuristics Hypothesis.Finally,based on the improvement of experiment 2 and the data of the two experiments,the variable "processing mode of information acquisition process" was introduced to explore whether the influence of this factor and "processing mode of decision-making process" on the level of cooperation was consistent.Eventually,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)Cognitive style has a significant impact on prosociality and is related to the type of prosocial behaviors.The intuitive style has a lower prosocial tendency and a higher level of cooperation,while the analytical style has a higher prosocial tendency.Both intuitive and analytical style had nothing to do with the level of donation,and analytical style had nothing to do with the level of cooperation.(2)Intuitive decisions that occur first have a selfish effect,and analytical decisions that occur later have a prosocial effect,indicating that the "intuitive prosocial effect" considered by the Social Heuristic Hypothesis does not necessarily occur.(3)Both intuitive and analytical systems can promote prosocial behavior,but the stages of their effects are different.Analytical processing is working in the "information acquisition stage",while intuitive processing is working in the "decision-making process stage".In short,individuals with slow acquisition and fast decision making have higher prosocial level.(4)The intuitive and analytical cognitive style and dual processing system have a complex influence on prosocial behavior,which cannot be summarized in a word.Theoretically,the findings of this study can supplement the deficiencies of cognitive style in prosocial field to some extent.It further increases the cross-cultural test of social heuristic hypothesis,makes up for the lack of current research on the process of information acquisition,provides explanations for the controversy and contradictions of predecessors.From the perspective of practice,this study deeply explores the "harmony"(cooperation)and "friendship"(donation)in the core socialist values in the intuition-analysis cognitive framework,providing theoretical guidance and practical basis for understanding and cultivating our citizens’ prosocial behaviors and promoting their intuitive prosociality.