Intuitive Processing Promotes Altruistic Behavior Among Chinese College Students: The Role of Social Value Orientation

The question of whether altruistic behavior is driven more by intuitive or reflective processing has sparked debate. To shed light on this issue, two experiments were conducted with college students to investigate the effects of these two types of processing on altruistic behavior, and to determine whether social value orientation (SVO) plays a role. The study manipulated intuitive versus reflective processing by varying decision time (through time pressure and time delay), classified participants' SVO using the SVO slider test, and measured altruistic behavior using the modified dictator game in both simple and specific decision-making contexts. Results indicated that intuitive processing led to increased altruistic behavior in specific decision contexts, but not in simple ones. Additionally, SVO moderated the effects of both intuitive and reflective processing on altruistic behavior. Notably, there was no significant difference in altruistic behavior between pro-social individuals in intuitive versus reflective processing, but pro-self individuals exhibited significantly lower levels of altruistic behavior under reflective processing.