IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/psydev/v34y2022i1p79-103.html

The Scarcity–Prosociality Link: Ambiguous, Yet Thought-provoking

Author

Listed:
  • Lilavati Krishnan

Abstract

The present essay examines the scarcity–prosociality link, that is, the conditions in which scarcity leads to self-interest and competitiveness or to other-oriented prosociality and cooperativeness. Adopting a social-psychological approach, the findings of the major investigations of reactions to scarcity are summarised. These studies show both self-interest and prosociality as reactions to scarcity, depending on various mediating factors, although a scarcity mindset or limited-good perception is not revealed directly. This link needs to be interpreted in the light of social-psychological, cognitive, economic and cultural factors. In general, the scarcity–prosociality relationship is found to be ambiguous, yet thought-provoking. Some aspects that require detailed exploration and the multi-pronged implications of the scarcity–prosociality association for societal development are highlighted. It is suggested that effective coping with scarcity in resource-constrained economies will be possible if socialisation and social policies promote practices that enhance resource availability, encourage an optimal use of resources, and modify a competitive stance to a cooperative one, and a zero-sum game perception of resource exchange to one of non-zero-sum game.

Suggested Citation

  • Lilavati Krishnan, 2022. "The Scarcity–Prosociality Link: Ambiguous, Yet Thought-provoking," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 34(1), pages 79-103, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:psydev:v:34:y:2022:i:1:p:79-103
    DOI: 10.1177/09713336221080648
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09713336221080648
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09713336221080648?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Prediger, Sebastian & Vollan, Björn & Herrmann, Benedikt, 2013. "Resource Scarcity, Spite and Cooperation," GIGA Working Papers 227, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    2. Juliette L. Ratchford & Sarah A. Schnitker & Paul Reppas, 2021. "The Virtue of Thrift: A Person-Centered Conceptualization and Measure Development," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 385-411, January.
    3. Kelly Goldsmith & Vladas Griskevicius & Rebecca Hamilton, 2020. "Scarcity and Consumer Decision Making: Is Scarcity a Mindset, a Threat, a Reference Point, or a Journey?," Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 358-364.
    4. Jan A. Häusser & Christina Stahlecker & Andreas Mojzisch & Johannes Leder & Paul A. M. Lange & Nadira S. Faber, 2019. "Acute hunger does not always undermine prosociality," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Nie, Zihan & Yang, Xiaojun & Tu, Qin, 2020. "Resource scarcity and cooperation: Evidence from a gravity irrigation system in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bahadır Ayar & Huriye Şebnem Burnaz, 2025. "The nexus of scarcity and donation: exploring the interplay of construal of resources, well-being, trust, and efficacy in nonprofit fundraising," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 22(2), pages 373-411, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aubrac, Charlotte J. & Harou, Aurelie P. & Balasubramanya, Soumya & Magomba, Christopher & Vasilaky, Kathryn, 2023. "Realized and elicited cooperation under water scarcity: evidence from a field experiment in Tanzania," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335545, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Leroy, David, 2023. "An empirical assessment of the institutional performance of community-based water management in a large-scale irrigation system in southern Mexico," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    3. Boonmanunt, Suparee & Meier, Stephan, 2023. "The effect of financial constraints on in-group bias: Evidence from rice farmers in Thailand," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 96-109.
    4. Alipour, Ali & Yaprak, Attila, 2022. "Indulgence and risk-taking behavior of firms: Direct and interactive influences," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(2).
    5. Malika Malika & Tanuka Ghoshal & Pragya Mathur & Durairaj Maheswaran, 2024. "Does scarcity increase or decrease donation behaviors? An investigation considering resource-specific scarcity and individual person-thing orientation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 426-448, March.
    6. Siyu Zhang & Weiyan Hu & Li Chen & Yu Zhang & Liye Wang, 2024. "What Kind of Institutional Configuration Incentivizes Farmers’ Behavior in Ecological Value Co-Creation of Cultivated Land?," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, December.
    7. Prediger, Sebastian & Vollan, Björn & Herrmann, Benedikt, 2013. "Resource Scarcity, Spite and Cooperation," GIGA Working Papers 227, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    8. Haowen Xiao & Jiayi Guo & Junyi Fang & Ting Xiao & Guocheng Li, 2023. "Impact of resource scarcity on general categorization tendency: The moderating role of perceived mutability," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(8), pages 1-13, August.
    9. Rebecca W. Hamilton & A. R. Shaheen Hosany, 2023. "On the strategic use of product scarcity in marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(6), pages 1203-1213, November.
    10. Prediger, Sebastian & Vollan, Björn & Herrmann, Benedikt, 2014. "Resource scarcity and antisocial behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 1-9.
    11. Russell W. Belk & Gopal Das & Shailendra Pratap Jain, 2023. "The ubiquity of scarcity," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(6), pages 1191-1196, November.
    12. Caiqi Jiao, 2025. "National Culture and Digitalization: A Moderating Effect of Trust ," GATR Journals gjbssr661, Global Academy of Training and Research (GATR) Enterprise.
    13. Geschwind, Stephan & Graf Lambsdorff, Johann, 2025. "Does scarcity induce hostility? An experimental investigation of common-pool resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    14. Binglu Wu & Di Mu & Yi Luo & Zhengguang Xiao & Jilong Zhao & Dongxu Cui, 2022. "Rural Ecological Problems in China from 2013 to 2022: A Review of Research Hotspots, Geographical Distribution, and Countermeasures," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-22, August.
    15. Bahadır Ayar & Huriye Şebnem Burnaz, 2025. "The nexus of scarcity and donation: exploring the interplay of construal of resources, well-being, trust, and efficacy in nonprofit fundraising," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 22(2), pages 373-411, June.
    16. O'Dell, Dallas & Contu, Davide & Shreedhar, Ganga, 2025. "Public support for degrowth policies and sufficiency behaviours in the United States: a discrete choice experiment," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 126084, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Rudsari, Saba & Fuqua, Donovan & Pimentel, Victor & Brewer, Barry, 2023. "Resilience and Recovery: Understanding the Underlying Drivers of Long-term Instability in Food Supply Chains," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 54(2), July.
    18. Ho, Thong Q. & Nguyen, Linh T-P. & Grote, Ulrike & Rahut, Dil B. & Sonobe, Tetsushi & Nguyen, Thanh T., 2024. "Gender and generosity: How contribution information triggers solidarity behavior during a crisis," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    19. Gidlöf, Kerstin & Lahm, Erik Stoltenberg & Wallin, Annika & Otterbring, Tobias, 2021. "Eco depletion: The impact of hunger on prosociality by means of environmentally friendly attitudes and behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    20. Guthrie, Cameron & Fosso-Wamba, Samuel & Arnaud, Jean Brice, 2021. "Online consumer resilience during a pandemic: An exploratory study of e-commerce behavior before, during and after a COVID-19 lockdown," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:psydev:v:34:y:2022:i:1:p:79-103. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.