金钱稀缺感对社会善念的影响—基于社会信息线索

Scarcity is the perception of insufficient resources within a specific domain, referring to an individuals perception and cognition when the resources they possess are inadequate compared to what is needed to accomplish a task. Money, as a common incentive in life and a typical example of tangible resource scarcity, has been demonstrated in various studies to impact ones prosocial behaviors. However, past research on the influence of financial scarcity on prosocial behaviors has largely focused on actions that require significant personal cost, such as donations and cooperation, with relatively less attention given to low-cost prosocial actionssocial mindfulness. There is no consensus yet on whether individuals under financial scarcity become more selfish or more generous.Furthermore, social mindfulness, unlike traditional prosocial behaviors, is centrally about perceiving others needs and is thus more likely to be influenced by the social information cues of the recipients themselves, but its operation under conditions of financial scarcity remains unclear. Therefore, this study also primarily examines the moderating role of recipients own social information cues in the relationship between financial scarcity and social mindfulness./t/nThis study, drawing on scarcity theory and social cognition theory, explores the impact of financial scarcity on individual social mindfulness through three experiments. It also examines the moderating role of recipients own social information cues in the relationship between financial scarcity and social mindfulness. Specifically,Experiment 1 is primarily based on the social cognition of others charisma, exploring it from the perspective of attractiveness. It includes Experiments 1a and 1b, which respectively investigate the effects of recipients facial and vocal attractiveness on financial scarcity and social mindfulness. Experiment 2 focuses on the social cognition of self-presentation, exploring through facial expressions and examining the effects of different face types and expressions of the recipients on financial scarcity and social mindfulness. Experiment 3 is based on the social cognition of renown, assessing the impact of the recipients social class status on financial scarcity and social mindfulness./t/nThe experimental results found that compared to the non-financial scarcity group, the financial scarcity group exhibited less social mindfulness. Additionally, the social information cues of the recipients moderated the expression of social mindfulness, with attractive faces, voices, positive emotional expressions, and lower social class status eliciting more social mindfulness. Finally, recipients social information cues facilitated the expression of social mindfulness, with a stronger enhancing effect observed in the non-financial scarcity group./t/nThis study expands the research on the relationship between financial scarcity and prosocial behavior, revealing the moderating role of recipients social information cues. It provides a theoretical reference for developing interventions aimed at fostering social mindfulness in the future.