The Impact of Stress on Prosocial Behaviour and Relevant Factors

Abstract

Stress is a negative and overwhelming psychological feeling that always comes into a human’s mind and bothers one’s life. Prosocial behaviour is a voluntary act/behaviour that is intended to benefit others in society as a whole. According to recent studies, stress, especially acute stress, has shown a significant relationship with prosocial behaviour. This paper is looking deeper at their relationship and analyzing broader about relevant factors. After compiling the relative studies and investigations on this topic, gathering information regarding stress, acute stress and their relationship with prosocial behaviour, studies do suggest the correlation between prosocial behaviour with acute stress. Plus, this paper examined relevant factors that may have different effects on the results, such as kin relationship, empathy, and gender difference. The result indicates the importance of kin relationships, whereas people always care for a person they know more than strangers. It also emphasized how different levels of empathy affect people’s prosocial behaviour and moreover, shows a great gender difference in prosocial behaviour under stress. This review can provide some suggestions to develop intervention programs that can facilitate genuine prosocial behaviours in individuals at risk.