Gender differences in altruism, hope, and emotional contagion

Abstract

There has been an increasing focus on Positive Psychology as there is a shift from mental illness, which was a major area concerning the field of Psychology, to positive aspects of human experiences. The study aims to assess if Emotional Contagion, a phenomenon in which behaviors or emotions of other people triggers the same in a person, has any relationship with Altruism and Hope along with gender differences between the same. The sample includes 138 individuals belonging to the age group 18-40 years (78 females and 60 males) residing in India. Three scales, namely, Rushton’s Altruistic Personality Scale (1981), Snyder’s The Trait Hope Scale (1991) and Doherty’s Emotional Contagion Scale (1997) were administered to the subjects to assess Altruism, Hope and Emotional Contagion. Data was analyzed by using normality tests, tests of mean difference and correlation. Independent t-Test was used for Altruism and Hope while Mann-whitney U-Test was used for Emotional Contagion along with Spearman’s Rank Correlation. The results indicate significant differences between male and females with respect to Altruism (p<0.01), Hope (p<0.01) and Emotional Contagion (p<0.05). Correlation between Hope and Emotional Contagion (p<0.01) was also significant. Findings helps us understand the relationship between the variables and further evaluate the role of the same in the context of Positive Psychology.