时间知觉取向对跨民族群际帮助行为的影响
The effects of time orientation on interethnic helping behavior
陈兰双 1王祯 1宋莉莉 2周肃军 3管健1
作者信息
- 1. 南开大学社会学院社会心理学系
- 2. 中国科学院心理研究所心理健康应用中心
- 3. 喀什大学教育科学学院;南开大学社会学院社会心理学系
- 折叠
摘要
跨民族群际帮助行为是促进群际融合的重要社会行为。本研究将时间知觉取向从传统的“小我”三视角（自我过去、自我现在、自我未来）初步拓展至包含“自我先辈”与“自我后代”的“大我”五视角，通过4个实验（N = 1159）探讨了不同时间知觉取向对跨民族群际帮助行为的影响及机制。结果发现，五种时间知觉取向均能提升跨民族群际帮助行为，尤其是自我先辈取向的促进效应更优。过去自我连续性在其中起中介作用，民族互助方向在其中起调节作用：自我先辈取向通过过去自我连续性影响跨民族群际帮助行为的中介效应仅在汉族帮助少数民族的情境下成立，而在少数民族帮助汉族的情境下不成立。本研究对时间知觉取向的理论视角进行了探索性补充，同时将连续动机理论的应用拓展至跨民族群际帮助行为领域，为增强跨民族友谊、促进民族交往交流交融提供了重要实践启示
Abstract
Interethnic helping behavior plays a critical role in promoting interethnic interactions, exchanges, and integration, as well as in fostering a stronger sense of community for the Chinese nation. However, despite the fundamental role of time in shaping social cognition and decision making, little is known about how individuals time orientation affects interethnic helping. Time orientation refers to individuals relative attention to and preference for the past, present, and future. Previous research has largely focused on a small-self three-perspective model, conceptualizing time orientation in terms of the past-self, present-self, and future-self. Extending this perspective, the present research advances a large-self five-perspective model that incorporates two additional temporal perspectives: the ancestral-self and descendant-self. Across four experiments (N = 1,159), we investigated how different time orientations influence interethnic helping behavior, identified the time orientation most conducive to such helping, and further examined the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of this effect.In Studies 1a and 1b, we used a writing task and an imagination task, respectively, to examine whether time orientation promotes interethnic helping behavior. By systematically comparing the effects of five time orientationsancestral-self, past-self, present-self, future-self, and descendant-selfon interethnic helping behavior, we identified the orientation with the strongest promotive effect. Study 2 investigated whether self-continuity mediates the relationship between ancestral-self orientation and interethnic helping behavior. Finally, Study 3 examined whether the direction of interethnic helping (i.e., Han individuals helping ethnic minority members vs. ethnic minority members helping Han individuals) moderates the effect of ancestral-self orientation on interethnic helping behavior.The results showed that participants in all five time-orientation groups (ancestral-self, past-self, present-self, future-self, descendant-self) reported significantly greater intentions to engage in interethnic helping, monetary helping, and time-based helping than those in the control group. Among the five orientations, ancestral-self orientation exerted the strongest promotive effects across all three dependent outcomes. Furthermore, ancestral-self orientation promoted interethnic helping behavior by enhancing individuals sense of past self-continuity. The direction of interethnic helping significantly moderated this mediation process. Specifically, the mediating effect of past self-continuity emerged when Han individuals helped ethnic minority individuals, but not when ethnic minority individuals helped Han individuals. In contrast, the direction of interethnic helping did not significantly moderate the direct effect of ancestral-self orientation on interethnic helping behavior.This research has the following contributions. First, by extending the conceptualization of time orientation from the traditional small-self three-perspective model to a large-self five-perspective model, we provide a more culturally adaptive framework for understanding the multidimensional structure of time orientation. Second, by systematically comparing the effects of five time orientations, we demonstrate the unique advantage of ancestral-self orientation in promoting interethnic helping behavior. Third, drawing on continuity motivation theory, we reveal past self-continuity as a mediator of the relationship between ancestral-self orientation and interethnic helping behavior, thereby advancing our understanding of how time orientation influences interethnic helping behavior. Fourth, we identify the direction of interethnic helping as an important boundary condition: the mediating effect of past self-continuity emerges when Han individuals help ethnic minority individuals but not when ethnic minority individuals help Han individuals. In summary, these findings extend the psychological study of time orientation and offer theoretical and practical insights into promoting ethnic unity and strengthening a sense of community for the Chinese nation.关键词
时间知觉取向/自我先辈/自我连续性/跨民族群际帮助行为/民族互助方向Key words
time orientation/ancestral-self/self-continuity/inter-ethnic helping behavior/direction of interethnic helping引用本文复制引用
陈兰双,王祯,宋莉莉,周肃军,管健.时间知觉取向对跨民族群际帮助行为的影响[EB/OL].(2026-08-19)[2026-08-24].https://chinaxiv.org/abs/202608.00097.学科分类
文化理论/科学、科学研究
