The sociocultural appraisals, values, and emotions (SAVE) framework of prosociality: Core processes from gene to meme
Abstract
The study of prosocial behavior--altruism, cooperation, trust, and the related moral emotions--has matured enough to produce general scholarly consensus that prosociality is widespread, intuitive, and rooted deeply within our biological makeup. Several evolutionary frameworks model the conditions under which prosocial behavior is evolutionarily viable, yet no unifying treatment exists of the psychological decision-making processes that result in prosociality. Here, we provide such a perspective in the form of the sociocultural appraisals, values, and emotions (SAVE) framework of prosociality. We review evidence for the components of our framework at four levels of analysis: intrapsychic, dyadic, group, and cultural. Within these levels, we consider how phenomena such as altruistic punishment, prosocial contagion, self-other similarity, and numerous others give rise to prosocial behavior. We then extend our reasoning to chart the biological underpinnings of prosociality and apply our framework to understand the role of social class in prosociality.
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Depending upon personal history, including attachment style, exogenous oxytocin can increase antisocial behaviors such as gloating, envy, out-group hostility, and ethnocentrism.
“Depending upon personal history, including attachment style, it can increase antisocial behaviors such as gloating, envy, out-group hostility and ethnocentrism (Keltner et al., 2014).”
From The evolved nest, oxytocin functioning, and prosocial development (2023) · cites this paper as Keltner et al., 2014
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“Depending upon personal history, including attachment style, it can increase antisocial behaviors such as gloating, envy, out-group hostility and ethnocentrism (Keltner et al., 2014).”
Background
- Authors
- Keltner, D., Kogan, A., Piff, P. K., & Saturn, S. R.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Oregon State University (US)
- Venue
- Annual Review of Psychology
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2014-01-03
- Volume
- 65
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 425-460
- ISSN
- 0066-4308 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-2085
- OpenAlex
- W2134484395
- Cited by
- 298
- References
- 58
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 6
- FWCI
- 7.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annual Review of Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Keywords
- prosocial behavior, altruism, cooperation, trust, moral emotions, altruistic punishment, self-other similarity, evolutionary psychology, social class, cultural evolution, ethical decision-making
- MeSH terms
- Altruism, Cooperative Behavior, Emotions, Empathy, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Morals, Trust
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