The relationship between belief and prosocial behavior

Recent studies have revealed a relationship between different beliefs and prosocial tendencies. Using empirical methods, we investigated whether belief, as a system, can promote prosocial tendencies. We inferred that inspiration plays a moderating role in developing prosocial tendencies. In study 1, we adopted measures from previous studies to probe the potential correlation between belief and prosocial tendencies. In study 2, participants were randomly assigned to belief, neutral, or disbelief conditions to accept a priming task and then completed a prosocial tendencies measure. We further designed study 3 to replicate the results. The results of study 1 showed a strong positive correlation between belief and prosocial tendencies. The results of study 2 demonstrated that belief promotes prosocial tendencies, while disbelief priming yields no effect. And these results were confirmed by study 3. In conclusion, belief was positively correlated with prosocial tendencies. A further study found that belief significantly predicted prosocial tendencies only under the low-inspiration condition, and the moderating role of inspiration was also verified. These results provided a feasible and novel way to reveal the mechanism of the relationship between belief and prosocial tendencies.