Influence Of Caring Thinking Of Confucian Culture On Helping Behavior

Helping behavior is the important acts in the process of socialization, which has great significance to individual moral development and social adaptation. Traditional research defined it as :individual do anything voluntary for the purpose of improving the disadvantage of others .We all accept and encourage it, because it is consistent with the social rules and moral standards .Usually ,we define it as helping behavior when the act is intentional, not inadvertent. Helping behavior is always focused by psychologists and educational experts. After a review of related literature, this paper explores the effects of caring thinking of China's Confucian culture primed on helping behavior.Taking college student as participants, the paper designed two experiments. Experiment 1 adopted a 2×2 between-subject design, and made a distinction in the effects on helping behaviors between two sources of income (conventional income and additional income)and two subliminal prime conditions. Experiment 2 also adopted a 2×2 between-subject design, and made a distinction in the effects on helping behaviors between two sources of income (conventional income and additional income)and two prime conditions which are not subliminal. The experiments show that compared with the participants in controlled condition, the participants who were primed by the caring thinking of Confucian culture showed higher helping behavior,whether the participants were primed subliminally or notThe result of these experiments proves our hypothesis, i.e., the caring thinking of China's Confucian culture can promote helping behavior .The article deepens our understanding of China's Confucian Culture and discusses that caring thinking can help cultivating prosocial behaviors and promoting social harmony.