Understanding prosocial behaviour: perspectives from different cultures and generations.

Objective: Prosocial behaviour is essential for human existence such that it is expected in every society. However, different pathways of social change experienced by different societies over time may implicate different ways in which prosocial behaviour is understood and experienced. The current study aims to understand how societies experiencing different contexts of social changes hold their perspectives towards the meaning and practices of prosocial behaviour.

Method: A total of 42 participants from Indonesian and Australian younger and older generations participated in a focus group designed to explore cultural and generational diversity in prosociality. Themes were generated using thematic analysis and the multiple meaning of the data were discussed using a consensual qualitative research-modified (CQR-M) approach.

Results: Four themes and 23 subthemes were identified in the dataset. Findings from this study suggest that forms of prosocial behaviours are similar across cultures and generations. However, cultural differences observed in the older and younger generations reflect that Australia and Indonesia may hold different perspectives of prosocial behaviour. Interestingly, generational differences were evident in Indonesian but not in Australian participants.

Conclusions: The current study suggests that understanding and experience of prosocial behaviour are not congruent between societies going through different experiences of sociocultural changes.