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The present situation is marked by the threat of COVID-19 pandemic on entire humankind and researchers across the globe are looking forward to vaccines or medicines to tackle COVID-19. However, according to the scholars and health-care agencies, vaccines alone would not be of much help and in the longer run adhering to the physical distancing policy along with sanitation could be the only solution. Moreover, extant studies across different areas have noted a positive association between various human psychological factors and prosocial behaviours. Additionally, an empirical study undertaken in the western context has tried exploring the association between human psychological factors and physical distancing behaviour (a kind of prosocial behaviour) in the COVID-19 context. The results of the extant study seem intriguing and encouraging enough to undertake a more robust exploratory study in this developing area. Against this background, this study aims to explore the relationship between individuals’ mindfulness and physical distancing behaviour, along with the mediating role of empathy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To achieve the study objectives, this study has used an online survey method and has collected responses from the general adult population in India spread across all six regions. The survey was conducted during May 2020 when India was under a nationwide lockdown to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 pandemic. The respondents were identified based on convenience and snowball sampling techniques. Using social media platforms, the prospective respondents were contacted through WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Facebook or e-mails. Post data cleaning, a total of 315 responses were found to be suitable for analysis. For analysis, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to establish the validity and reliability of the conceptual model, whereas Pearson correlation was undertaken to study the relationship between variables and mediation was examined using the PROCESS macro of Hayes.

The findings were encouraging and could become the foundation stone for further research and a practical guide for policymakers, agencies working in the health-care areas and even corporate leaders. As expected, an individual’s mindfulness was noted to be positively-related and influencing physical distancing behaviour. The mediation analysis indicated the intervening role of empathy in the association between an individual’s mindfulness and physical distancing behaviour.

The findings of the present could be a game-changer in restricting the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. As espoused by various scholars, as well as health-care organizations about the use of physical distancing in mitigating the risk of COVID-19, policymakers, health-care authorities and even corporate leaders could look forward to strategizing and execute the dissemination of various mindfulness-based programs among the individuals. These mindfulness-based programs, which could be disseminated offline and online through smartphones, could, in turn, help in positively influence physical distancing behaviour among the individuals leading to the success of physical distancing policy.

This study relates and extends the mechanism of mindfulness in influencing individuals’ physical distancing behaviour in the pandemic situation, notably the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, based on the “empathy-altruism hypothesis”, as well as Schwartz’s theory of fundamental values, the intervening role of empathy has been explored and the findings further helped in extended these two theories in the domain of pandemic.

This study could be the first to conceptualize and examine the human psychological factors, particularly the relationship and role of an individual’s mindfulness with physical distancing behaviour among the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, this could also be the first study to conceptualize and explore the intervening role of empathy in the relationship between an individual’s mindfulness and physical distancing behaviour. Moreover, in conceptualizing and exploring the relationship between an individual’s mindfulness and physical distancing behaviour, this study explored and extended the “reperceiving” mechanism of mindfulness and the “empathy-altruism hypothesis” along with Schwartz’s theory of fundamental values in the domain of pandemic.

This study aims to examine the factors that influence hotel/motel employees’ helping behavior toward the victims of human trafficking.

Using a survey-based quantitative method, this study examines and compares two models of helping behavior based on egoism and altruism theories to measure the helping tendencies of lodging employees toward victims of human trafficking.

The study results show that perceived intrinsic rewards of helping and empathy with the victims are the major antecedents of employees’ likelihood to help the victims.

The study contributed to the egoism school of thought and the Cost-Reward Model by showing that only perceived intrinsic rewards drive individuals’ intention to help in risky covert situations, such as human trafficking, while perceived extrinsic rewards may demotivate people to help in these situations.

Previous studies overlooked the role of the lodging industry in human trafficking. This study focuses on service employees as potential helpers of the victims as they notice in hotels/motels.

In the modern increasingly competitive milieu of cause marketing activities, both profit and nonprofit organizations expect their advocation of prosocial programs to gain the support of target customers. Previous research shows the effect from adding participant's personal attributes or social influence factors. This study considers the effects of benefit incentives and cost/reward influences to enhance prosocial behaviors.

Three between-subject experiments were conducted and SPSS Statistics ANOVA was employed to analyze the experimental results.

Rewarding time delays and prosocial efforts have no significant impact on the relationship between other-benefit incentives and willingness to engage in prosocial behaviors, but do significantly impact the self-benefit incentives condition. However, the negative effect of self-benefit condition can be mitigated by high rewards.

Since prosocial campaigns proposed by organizations in this study include both profit and nonprofit organizations, perhaps two category organization types should be attentively classified to evaluate the effects.

Under social marketing campaigns with self-benefit incentives conditions, the empirical findings of this study show that profit and nonprofit organizations can provide higher reward values to mitigate the adverse effects of high participating costs.

Social marketing campaigns with other-benefit incentives are less affected by high participating costs and highlight the value of altruism.

This study provides valuable suggestions for both profit and nonprofit organizations to use self-benefit/other-benefit incentives under cost related factors influence to encourage customers' prosocial behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to explore altruism born of suffering (ABS), a theory that explains how the experience of suffering within one’s own life may result in the motivation to help others, even outgroup members.

Participants were 186 emerging adults (63 per cent female, 37 per cent male; 69 per cent Protestant, 41 per cent Catholic; average age =21.3, SD=2.57 years old) in Northern Ireland, a setting of protracted intergroup conflict. Participants were randomly assigned to an in/outgroup condition, read four types of adversity that occurred to same-sex victim(s), and indicated their empathetic response and how much they would like to help the victims.

Moderated mediation analyses revealed that empathy for the victim partially mediated the impact of perceived harm on desire to help; moreover, recent negative life events strengthened the link between harm and empathy. The path between empathy and helping was stronger in the outgroup compared to the ingroup condition.

These findings support ABS, highlighting empathy as a key factor underlying more constructive intergroup relations in a divided society.

This paper extends previous research on ABS by focusing on a post-accord context. The value of the current analyses demonstrate the important role of fostering empathy to promote outgroup helping in settings of divisive group identities.

As the Arab/Muslim-Israeli animosity case is attracting international attention, citizens of non-Arab and non-Muslim countries around the world, referred to as third-country nationals (TCNs), are increasingly joining the boycott against Israel. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of empathy for the citizens of the countries offended by Israel, namely Palestine and Lebanon, as a potential factor affecting TCNs decision to boycott Israeli products.

In total, 20 in-depth interviews were conducted with non-Arab, non-Muslim, and non-Israeli informants from different national and religious backgrounds, supported by secondary data sources. The qualitative grounded theory approach was employed to analyse data in order to answer the research questions.

TCNs decision to boycott Israeli products is affected by their empathic concern for the citizens of Palestine and Lebanon rather than by animosity towards Israel. Such concern is evoked by their awareness of the animosity case and further strengthened by their self-transcendence/universalism values and interaction with the case which activate their altruism towards the citizens of the offended countries, and consequently motivates them to relieve or reduce the suffering of these citizens by avoiding Israeli products. Greater emphasis is given to the Arab/Muslim-Israeli animosity case as a result of the greater empathic emotional impact it generates compared to other cases.

This is an original attempt to distinguish empathy from animosity as a factor which can affect TCNs decision to buy from a country engaged in hostile actions against another country other than their own. As the boycott campaign against the country under examination is growing internationally, this study can help international marketers in setting strategies to either exploit or combat the boycott campaign.

This research aims to shed greater light on millennials’ green behavior by examining four psychographic variables (selfless altruism, frugality, risk aversion, and time orientation) that may be relevant to millennials’ motives to engage in environmental activities.

Data were collected from a sample of younger millennials (n = 276; age = 18 to 30) using a self-administered questionnaire. The data were then analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique.

Overall, the results of the study reveal that rational and self-oriented rather than emotional and others-oriented motives lead millennials to act pro-environmentally.

The findings of this study have implications for environmental advocates, policymakers and green marketers. For instance, the findings suggest that environmental regulators and lawmakers should continue their efforts to provide economic incentives to encourage pro-environmental purchases among millennials. Additionally, marketers of green products may pursue self-directed targeting strategies in promoting green products among millennials.

Millennials grasp the environmental consequences of their actions and have the education, motivation and social awareness to participate in the green movement. However, they have not truly begun to fully integrate their beliefs and actions. The present study is an initial attempt to address this issue by investigating various psychological factors that are relevant to the millennials’ core behavioral motives.

This research proposes and examines a theoretical model grounded in anthropomorphism theory considering the curvilinear and linear relationships between service robot anthropomorphism and consumer usage intention and explores the mediating effect of perceived risk.

To examine the developed model, two complementary studies are designed. In Study 1, multi-time data of 511 participants show that service robot anthropomorphism inverts U-shaped (curvilinear) relationship on consumer usage intention and perceived risk mediates this curvilinear relationship. In Study 2, multi-source data of 460 volunteers are used to confirm the findings of Study 1 and examine that consumer empathy moderates the complex nonlinear effect of service robot anthropomorphism on perceived risk, and the indirect curvilinear effect of service robot anthropomorphism on consumer usage intention through perceived risk.

This research provides preliminary and yet important findings on how service robot anthropomorphism most likely is positively associated with consumer usage intention, i.e. the positively influence mechanism of service robot anthropomorphism on consumer usage intention.

This research provides preliminary and yet important findings on how service robot anthropomorphism most likely is positively associated with consumer usage intention, i.e. the positively influence mechanism of service robot anthropomorphism on consumer usage intention.

Behavioral effects of contextual factors that organizations subject to daily life and social dynamics of ongoing organizational life are conveyed to interactional context. It is considered as a form of coorientation blending organizational and individual ethics in relational form. This study aims to examine well-known effects of ethical leadership on unethical behaviors in interactional context. Sequentially related mediator effects of leader member exchange and symmetrical communication in this relationship are empirically explored.

Survey is applied to 494 personnel from 29 large companies. Obtained survey data is analyzed by confirmatory factory analysis, and hypotheses are tested for serial mediation by structural equation modelling with bootstrapping procedure.

Study proves the impact of interactional context on organizational constructs. It is demonstrated that individual behaviors are influenced by interactional, dynamical, contextual and social factors. Study finds that leadership effect can be empowered by socialization processes. Quality of social relationships and social interactions; socializing impact of symmetrical communication can foster ethical management. Interactional context can facilitate organizations’ adaptation to changing conditions.

A human is a relational being. They cannot act in vacuum, rather, act in ongoing context of relationships. Taking account of relational aspect of individual–organizational interaction, this study contributes to literature by proposing a definition of interactional context and by exploring the impact of interactional context on organizational behaviors. Also, the impact of ethical leadership on unethical behaviors is empirically explored in relational dimension which seems to be neglected by ethics literature.

In today's competitive marketplace, companies are devoting an increasing amount of time and money to establishing themselves as socially responsible, in an effort to appeal to the value system of their target customers (Sen and Bhattacharya). In the current study, the paper focuses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) appeals in which the company promises to donate a portion of the purchase price to a charitable cause and requests a matching donation from the customer. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the joint effects of status, proximity to CSR, and empathy towards the cause on consumers' willingness to donate money to a charity.

The study used written scenarios and a 2×2×2 between subjects quasi experimental design to test the hypotheses. The authors predicted that status would interact with empathy and proximity of the cause to influence customers' donation behavior.

The results supported these predictions. Status seeking individuals exhibited higher levels of prosocial behaviors when the cause was a national one, particularly when the individual felt empathy towards the distant cause. Conversely, empathy feelings had a positive impact donation intent when the cause was a local one and status seeking was not activated.

The results of this study have significant implications for marketers and managers who are considering launching a CSR program. By aligning the cause with the type of consumer, corporations may be able to obtain a higher response rate from customers, thereby increasing the level of consumer involvement and engagement.

This study aims to investigate the impact of workplace spirituality on citizenship behaviours of high school teachers. In addition, the moderating role of workplace compassion is examined.

This study is quantitative in nature. Data were collected from 232 secondary school teachers using a structured questionnaire. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data.

Results revealed evidence for the positive relationship between spirituality and citizenship behaviours. Compassion was found to be a potential moderator in enhancing the spirituality–citizenship behaviour connection. This study attempts to understand one of the ways in which spirituality affects workplace behaviour by specifying the role of a moderator. The complex nature of the phenomenon is delineated further by identifying the plausible relationship with other variables.

Organisations can leverage the spiritual resources available to their people to compound their proactive behaviours, thus creating a win–win situation for both the parties involved. This is particularly useful for educational institutions where such behaviours are not merely desirable but could significantly elevate the working environment.

This study evaluates the connections between spirituality, compassion and citizenship behaviour, which remain largely unexplored in a non-profit sector. The construct of workplace compassion is not sufficiently mapped, especially in a context where it is thought to be embedded in the work environment.