Date of Award

5-2026

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

School

Psychology

Committee Chair

Dr. Donald Sacco

Committee Chair School

Psychology

Committee Member 2

Dr. Kenji Noguchi

Committee Member 2 School

Psychology

Committee Member 3

Dr. Mitch Brown

Committee Member 3 School

Psychology

Abstract

Prosocial behaviors, because they are initially costly and do not guarantee a direct benefit to the actor, can nonetheless increase social status by signaling a willingness to incur cost on behalf of another. Given this signal value, nonprofit organizations may be able to leverage this knowledge to increase donations, such as through the provisioning of attention to, and recognition of, volunteers through social media. I predicted that the costliness of spotlighted behavior and the target signal clarity (i.e., individual vs. group spotlight) would interact with participants’ dispositional dominance and prestige-based status motives to influence volunteerism interest. To explore these associations, participants were randomly assigned to one of four spotlight media post conditions on a between participants basis that manipulated target signal clarity (individual or a group) and volunteerism costliness (low cost: volunteered one weekend versus high cost: volunteered every weekend this year). I predicted that individuals reporting higher dominance status motives would report the greatest volunteer interest when exposed to the low cost, individual spotlight (and least volunteer interest when exposed to the high cost, group spotlight). Conversely, I predicted that individuals reporting higher prestige status motives would report the greatest volunteer interest when exposed to the high cost, group spotlight (and least volunteer interest when exposed to the low cost, individual spotlight). Findings partially supported study hypotheses in that exposure to higher cost helping was associated with greater volunteer interest among individuals higher in prestige status motives. These findings provide opportunities for volunteer organizations to create messaging that matches individuals’ dispositional status motives.

ORCID ID

0009-0000-3214-4517

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