The Effect of Uncertainty about People on Conformity to Prosocial Behavior and the Moderating Role of Gender and Need for Closure

This research was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of uncertainty about others on conformity to prosocial behavior and the moderating role of gender and need for closure.

The statistical population of this study included men and women aged 20 to 40, which 120 subjects were selected through available sampling. A computer-based task in the form of a profitable game was designed using the Psychopy software to assess the prosocial behavior of the participants in different conditions of ambiguous stimulus exposure. Also, a short form of the Need for Closure Questionnaire by Reiss and Pilati (2020) was employed. The data were modeled using mixed models' methods in the R software.

In the modeling of the results of the research, the most favorable model showed that exposure to an ambiguous stimulus with a coefficient of 0.84 and the variable of the need to be closure with a coefficient of 0.54 led to an increase in conformity behavior in conformity of prosocial behavior. and the need to closure has a moderating role. Also, gender was not included in the optimal model and its effect was not significant.

The results of the current study showed that exposure to ambiguous conditions causes an increase in conformity of prosocial behavior and that the need for closure has a positive role in this effect; however, gender does not play a role in this effect.