Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1508962

The relationship between moral sensitivity and prosocial behavior in college students: the mediating roles of moral disengagement and reciprocity norms

Provisionally accepted
Zhiyong Li Zhiyong Li 1Danqi Wang Danqi Wang 1*Junhe Liao Junhe Liao 1Zhibin Jin Zhibin Jin 2
  • 1 School of Education, Huainan Normal University, Huainan, China
  • 2 Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, Anhui, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study examined the relationship between moral sensitivity and prosocial behavior, as well as the mediating role of moral disengagement and reciprocity norms. Totally 567 college students completed Dispositional Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire, Moral Disengagement Scale for Chinese Students, Reciprocity Norm Scale, Prosocial Tendencies Measure for Adolescent. The results showed that, moral disengagement and reciprocity norms played multiple mediating roles between moral sensitivity and prosocial behavior. Specifically, moral sensitivity affected prosocial behavior through the independent mediating effect of moral disengagement, reciprocity norms, as well as the chain mediating effect of moral disengagement and reciprocity norms. In summary, this study reveals the mechanism underlying the relationship between moral sensitivity and prosocial behavior, which has certain theoretical and practical significance for promoting college students' prosocial behavior from the perspective of moral sensitivity.

    Keywords: Moral sensitivity, Prosocial Behavior, Moral disengagement, Positive reciprocity, Negative reciprocity

    Received: 10 Oct 2024; Accepted: 23 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Wang, Liao and Jin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Danqi Wang, School of Education, Huainan Normal University, Huainan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.