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Strategies of prosociality: Comparing Nordic and Slavonic altruism toward Ukrainian refugees

Nordic high-trust societies are underpinned by prosociality, a term denoting cooperation and working for the good of others. State-funded voluntarism provides opportunities for altruism that appears to contribute to the Nordics’ exceptional level of well-being. Altruists are rewarded by a warm, last...

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Autores principales: Larsen, Mads, Witoszek, Nina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10031077/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36968695
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1065889
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author Larsen, Mads
Witoszek, Nina
author_facet Larsen, Mads
Witoszek, Nina
author_sort Larsen, Mads
collection PubMed
description Nordic high-trust societies are underpinned by prosociality, a term denoting cooperation and working for the good of others. State-funded voluntarism provides opportunities for altruism that appears to contribute to the Nordics’ exceptional level of well-being. Altruists are rewarded by a warm, lasting affect that enhances personal well-being, thus motivating further prosociality. Humanity’s evolutionary past coded into us a desire to strengthen our community by helping those in need—a biocultural drive that is corrupted when authoritarian regimes enforce unselfish behavior on disempowered populations. Such coercive altruism has a line of adverse long-term consequences for communal functionality and individual flourishing. Our study examines how sociocultural context influences people’s prosocial strategies, and how sharing insights and practices from democratic and authoritarian traditions can lead to new, revitalized forms of altruism. Our in-depth interviews (n = 32) of Nordic and Slavonic helpers of Ukrainian refugees in Norway (1) illuminate the impact of culture and memory on altruistic practices, (2) define points of tension between systemic and anti-systemic modes of prosociality, and (3) identify cross-cultural interactions that generate trust, well-being, and social innovation. The post-communist experience of the Slavonic informants motivated anti-systemic altruism, which highlights spontaneity, improvisation, and occasional rule breaking. Norwegian systemic altruism is based on trust, efficacy, and rule-following. Our evolutionary approach to cultural psychology substantiates how important it is for development and immigration policies to align our knowledge of human nature with insights into the workings of cultural legacies. A better understanding of the biocultural mainsprings of altruism could be of crucial importance in our era of reemerging authoritarianism and increasing migration.
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spelling pubmed-100310772023-03-23 Strategies of prosociality: Comparing Nordic and Slavonic altruism toward Ukrainian refugees Larsen, Mads Witoszek, Nina Front Psychol Psychology Nordic high-trust societies are underpinned by prosociality, a term denoting cooperation and working for the good of others. State-funded voluntarism provides opportunities for altruism that appears to contribute to the Nordics’ exceptional level of well-being. Altruists are rewarded by a warm, lasting affect that enhances personal well-being, thus motivating further prosociality. Humanity’s evolutionary past coded into us a desire to strengthen our community by helping those in need—a biocultural drive that is corrupted when authoritarian regimes enforce unselfish behavior on disempowered populations. Such coercive altruism has a line of adverse long-term consequences for communal functionality and individual flourishing. Our study examines how sociocultural context influences people’s prosocial strategies, and how sharing insights and practices from democratic and authoritarian traditions can lead to new, revitalized forms of altruism. Our in-depth interviews (n = 32) of Nordic and Slavonic helpers of Ukrainian refugees in Norway (1) illuminate the impact of culture and memory on altruistic practices, (2) define points of tension between systemic and anti-systemic modes of prosociality, and (3) identify cross-cultural interactions that generate trust, well-being, and social innovation. The post-communist experience of the Slavonic informants motivated anti-systemic altruism, which highlights spontaneity, improvisation, and occasional rule breaking. Norwegian systemic altruism is based on trust, efficacy, and rule-following. Our evolutionary approach to cultural psychology substantiates how important it is for development and immigration policies to align our knowledge of human nature with insights into the workings of cultural legacies. A better understanding of the biocultural mainsprings of altruism could be of crucial importance in our era of reemerging authoritarianism and increasing migration. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10031077/ /pubmed/36968695 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1065889 Text en Copyright © 2023 Larsen and Witoszek. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Larsen, Mads
Witoszek, Nina
Strategies of prosociality: Comparing Nordic and Slavonic altruism toward Ukrainian refugees
title Strategies of prosociality: Comparing Nordic and Slavonic altruism toward Ukrainian refugees
title_full Strategies of prosociality: Comparing Nordic and Slavonic altruism toward Ukrainian refugees
title_fullStr Strategies of prosociality: Comparing Nordic and Slavonic altruism toward Ukrainian refugees
title_full_unstemmed Strategies of prosociality: Comparing Nordic and Slavonic altruism toward Ukrainian refugees
title_short Strategies of prosociality: Comparing Nordic and Slavonic altruism toward Ukrainian refugees
title_sort strategies of prosociality: comparing nordic and slavonic altruism toward ukrainian refugees
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10031077/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36968695
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1065889
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