ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1601936
Distinct Benefit Frames Engender Divergent Effects of Time Scarcity Mindset on
Provisionally accepted
- Qilu Normal University, Jinan, China
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Previous research has explored how time scarcity mindset influences prosocial behavior; however, the results have been mixed. The current research aimed to introduce the benefit frames to examine the effect of time scarcity mindset on prosocial behavior. Inspired by the proposal that time scarcity mindset strengthens agentic (i.e., self-oriented) goals while weakens communal (i.e., other-oriented) goals, we assume that benefit frames would moderate the impact of time scarcity mindset on prosocial behavior. We conducted a survey study (N = 282 participants) and an experimental study (N = 299 participants) to test this assumption. Our results indicated that under an others-benefit frame (i.e., benefits only to others), time scarcity mindset inhibits prosocial behavior, whereas this effect is attenuated under a self-and-other benefit frame (benefits to both oneself and others). These findings not only broaden the understanding of the effect of time scarcity mindset but also offer practical insights to mitigate the detrimental effect of time scarcity mindset on prosocial behavior.
Keywords: time scarcity mindset, benefit frames, Prosocial Behavior, other-benefit frame, self-and-other benefit frame
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 13 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang. 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: Chen Yang, Qilu Normal University, Jinan, China
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