286 / 2024-04-24 09:50:27

The effect of help-seekers’ discrete emotional expression on helpers’ online prosocial behavior: evidence from Chinese online mutual help community

Gratitude,anxiety,prosocial beahvior,emotion expression

The functioning of a social collective depends on the willingness of its members to cooperate and to help those in need. Various theoretical perspectives suggest that prosocial behavior is shaped by emotional processes. We provided theoretical arguments and empirical results on how the discrete emotional expressions (gratitude, anxiety) of help-seekers affect various aspects of potential helpers’ prosocial behavior (helping quality, quantity, and timeliness). Our research findings indicate that the expression of gratitude by help seekers has a positive effect on the helping quality and quantity, while it harms the helping timeliness. Furthermore, the impact of help-seekers' anxiety expression on helpers' prosocial behavior needs to be discussed based on the classification of event severity. Specifically, in general help-seeking events, the anxiety expression by help-seekers has no significant effect on helping quality and timeliness but has a positive effect on helping quantity. In severe help-seeking events, the expression of anxiety by help-seekers has a positive effect on the helping quality and timeliness but harms the helping quantity. Using 581,974 naturally occurring help-seeking events in a mutual help community as research samples, we quantified expressions of gratitude and anxiety embedded in help-seeking posts in a dictionary manner and explored their interpersonal effects. Our study deepens the understanding of the social functional roles of expressions of gratitude and anxiety in prosocial behavior, enriches the literature on the interpersonal effects of emotions, and expands the methodology of research on the relationship between emotional expressions and prosociality.