Psychological Bulletin

Yuan, Mingliang; Spadaro, Giuliana; Jin, Shuxian; Wu, Junhui; Kou, Yu; Van Lange, Paul A. M.; Balliet, Daniel

doi: 10.1037/bul0000363pmid: N/A

Cooperation among strangers has been hypothesized to have declined in the United States over the past several decades, an alarming trend that has potential far-reaching societal consequences. To date, most research that supports a decline in cooperation has relied on self-report measures or archival data. Here, we utilize the history of experimental research on cooperation in situations involving conflicting interests (i.e., social dilemmas). We meta-analyzed 511 studies conducted between 1956 and 2017 with 660 unique samples and effect sizes involving 63,342 participants to test whether the average level of cooperation observed in these studies had declined over time. We found no evidence for a decline in cooperation over the 61-year period. Instead, we found a slight increase in cooperation over time. In addition, some societal indicators (e.g., income inequality, societal wealth, urbanization level, and percentage of people living alone) measured 10 to 5 years prior to measures of cooperation were found to be positively associated with cooperation, suggesting that they may be potential societal underpinnings of increases in cooperation. These findings challenge the idea that social capital and civic cooperation among strangers have declined in the United States over time, and we offer directions for future research to understand causes of an increase in cooperation.

Liao, Huiyao; Su, Rong; Ptashnik, Thomas; Nielsen, Jordan

doi: 10.1037/bul0000362pmid: N/A

In recent years, a rapidly growing literature has shed light on important costs and benefits of prosocial motivation in the workplace. However, researchers have studied prosocial motivation using various labels, conceptualizations, and operationalizations, leaving this body of knowledge fragmented. In this study, we contribute to the literature by providing an integrated framework that organizes extant constructs and measures of prosocial motives along two dimensions: level of autonomy (discretionary/obligatory) and level of generality (global/contextual/positional). Drawing upon this framework, we conducted a meta-analysis with 252 samples and 666 effect sizes to examine the effects of prosocial motivation on workplace outcomes. Moderator analyses were performed to resolve inconsistencies in the empirical literature and understand the context under which prosocial motivation had the strongest or weakest effect. We found that prosocial motivation, in general, was beneficial for employee well-being (ρ¯^= .23), prosocial behavior (ρ¯^= .35), job performance (ρ¯^= .20), and career success (ρ¯^= .06). The direction and magnitude of these effects depended on the autonomy, generality, and measurement of prosocial motivation, the nature of the outcome (i.e., type of prosocial behavior, subjectivity of performance measures, and forms of career success), as well as the cultural context. Importantly, prosocial motivation had incremental validity above and beyond general cognitive ability and Big Five personality traits for predicting all four outcomes. We discuss the theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of these findings and offer a guiding framework for future research efforts.

Imuta, Kana; Song, Sumin; Henry, Julie D.; Ruffman, Ted; Peterson, Candida; Slaughter, Virginia

doi: 10.1037/bul0000364pmid: N/A

Bullying is one of the most common peer-relational problems experienced by children and adolescents worldwide. One reason bullying is so widespread is that it is a dynamic, group process that involves multiple roles—namely, bullies, followers, victims, bully-victims, defenders, and outsiders. Given the profoundly negative impact of exposure to bullying on well-being across development, researchers have sought to identify the social–emotional intelligence profiles of the different bullying roles to develop effective interventions. The present meta-analysis integrated findings from 128 studies involving 187,454 children and adolescents between 3 and 18 years of age to investigate how four interrelated but distinct facets of social–emotional intelligence—affective empathy, cognitive empathy, affective theory of mind (ToM), and cognitive ToM—relate to different bullying roles. Significant associations were found for bullies, followers, and defenders, but not for being the victim, bully-victim, or outsider. For bullies and followers, we found negative relations with both affective and cognitive empathy (rs = −.11 to −.22), but no relation with either type of ToM. For defending, we found positive relations with all four facets of social–emotional intelligence (rs = .18–.32). These findings suggest that a successful antibullying program may entail a combination of motivating children and adolescents with bullying tendencies to care about others’ feelings, and empowering their classmates to become strong perspective-takers who can stand up for those in need of help.

Peng, Peng; Zhang, Zheng; Wang, Wei; Lee, Kejin; Wang, Tengfei; Wang, Cuicui; Luo, Jie; Lin, Jiangze

doi: 10.1037/bul0000361pmid: N/A

Based on 378 studies, 541 independent samples, and over 34,000 participants, the current meta-analysis aimed to explore the associations between cognition and reading difficulties (RD). Results showed that compared with age-matched typically developing (TD) peers, RD showed deficits across processing speed, short-term memory, attention, working memory, inhibition, switching, visuospatial skills, and updating (g = −0.72 to −0.48), with more individual differences in inhibition, processing speed, switching, attention, visuospatial skills, and short-term memory (The natural logarithm of ratio of standard deviations [SDR] = .03–.17). The cognitive deficits among those with RD were more severe with age, with lower reading and intelligence (IQ) scores, and with verbal cognitive tasks. Individual differences in cognitive skills among those with RD were larger with age, with comprehensive/nonverbal IQ identification, and with reading comprehension identification. Comorbidity did not affect the cognitive profile of RD strongly. Meta-analytic structural equation modeling showed phonological processing and language comprehension explained over 70% of the variance between RD and TD across cognitive skills, yet executive function and visuospatial skills contributed uniquely to RD. These findings highlight a domain-specific cognitive path to RD. That is, cognitive deficits may lead to insufficient language development, causing RD indirectly. However, the association between cognitive deficits and RD is not unidirectional or static. Across development, insufficient accumulation of language skills among those with RD also affects cognitive development, especially in the verbal domain. Without high-quality and sustained instruction, such reciprocal associations between cognitive deficits and RD, forming a vicious circle, may be one major reason for persistent reading struggles among individuals with RD.

Wang, Leah A. L.; Petrulla, Victoria; Zampella, Casey J.; Waller, Rebecca; Schultz, Robert T.

doi: 10.1037/bul0000358pmid: 35511567

Gross motor ability is associated with profound differences in how children experience and interact with their social world. A rapidly growing literature on motor development in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) indicates that autistic individuals exhibit impairment in gross motor skills. However, due to substantial heterogeneity across studies, it remains unclear which gross motor skills are impaired in ASD, when and for whom these differences emerge, and whether motor and social impairments are related. The present article addressed these questions by synthesizing research on gross motor skills in ASD in two separate meta-analyses. The first examined gross motor deficits in ASD compared to neurotypical (NT) controls, aggregating data from 114 studies representing 6,423 autistic and 2,941 NT individuals. Results demonstrated a significant overall deficit in gross motor skills in ASD (Hedges’ g = −1.04) that was robust to methodological and phenotypic variation and was significant at every level of the tested moderators. However, moderation analyses revealed that this deficit was most pronounced for object control skills (i.e., ball skills), clinical assessment measures, and movements of the upper extremities or the whole body. The second meta-analysis investigated whether gross motor and social skills are related in ASD, synthesizing data from 21 studies representing 654 autistic individuals. Findings revealed a modest but significant overall correlation between gross motor and social skills in ASD (r = 0.27). Collectively, results support the conclusion that motor deficits are tied to the core symptoms of ASD. Further research is needed to test the causality and directionality of this relationship.