Impersonal Prosociality

Characteristics

"Impersonal prosociality is supported by a certain mindset:

Moral universalism and moral absolutism. Rules are followed and enforced more willingly if framed in universal and absolute terms, as opposed to the situational and relativistic rule-framing of kinship networks.

Moralized perception of non-kin. Help is more willingly provided to non-kin as long as they belong to the community of rule-followers. Continual rule-breaking leads to expulsion from the community. Insiders are thus separated from outsiders by a line dividing “the morally worthy” from “the morally worthless.”

Guilt activation. Rule-breaking is punished more through internal activation of guilt than through external activation of shame. Guilt is the distress felt by a rule-breaker even when the rule-breaking is witnessed by no one else. Conversely, shame causes distress only when the rule-breaking is witnessed by someone else (Benedict, 1946).

Broader range of targets for affective empathy. Affective empathy is extended from the mother-child relationship to all social relationships. Through this involuntary transfer of another person’s feelings to oneself, rule-breaking is experienced as harm not only to the victim but also to oneself. Some researchers have argued that affective empathy and guilt are two overlapping aspects of the same mental mechanism."

(https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/the-white-man-has-no-friends)