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WHDL - 00011711

What People Volunteer?: A Look Into How Race, Gender, Religion and Socioeconomic Status Effect Prosociality in America

Michael Gracia

Resource Types

Academic (Thesis, Dissertation, Etc.)

Resource Languages

English

Institutional Repository

Description / Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate how one’s race, religious background, socioeconomic class, and gender affect how likely one is to volunteer. In this project, prosociality is defined as how often someone has volunteered within the past year. Previous literature shows little relationship between prosocial behavior and gender or race. With regard to socioeconomic class, results are mixed and vary depending on the economic system in the country the studies are performed in; i.e. socialist, capitalist, etc. However, many findings support a correlation between prosociality and religious participation or priming. I predict that regardless of race or gender, those in lower socioeconomic statuses and/or identify as growing up with a particular religion will be more prosocial than those of other classes. The data was collected from GSS for the year 2012 and tests were performed in SPSS. My findings demonstrate a statistically significant mixed correlation between socioeconomic class and prosociality. The findings provide no clear-cut answer because the quantitative analysis found to be in between the previous findings in similar studies. Further research in America could determine the volunteerism rates.

Arete: The PLNU Honors Journal