200072 SE Vertiefungsseminar: Arbeit, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (2024S)

We are a remarkably prosocial species, often ready to help strangers even without expecting to meet them again. We willingly contribute our time and valuable resources to charities and show genuine concern for the well-being of our loved ones. Prosocial behaviors have been one of the greatest evolutionary puzzles. Why do we have such a strong predisposition to help others, sometimes even at a significant cost to ourselves? How come that, at the same time, we can also be extremely hostile to people from different social groups? What can we do to foster prosocial behaviors to tackle prominent societal challenges, such as climate change? This seminar course aims to provide students with essential background knowledge and an overview of the latest developments in basic (and sometimes applied) research about human prosociality. Through lectures, student presentations, discussions, and interactive tasks, participants will delve into the complexities of human prosocial behaviors.

Tentative schedule (and topics that will be covered):
- Mar 5: Introduction
- Mar 19: Conceptual overview
- Apr 9: Methods in prosociality research
- Apr 16: Social dilemmas
- Apr 23: Trust
- Apr 30: Punishment
- May 7: Reputation
- May 14: Intergroup cooperation and conflicts
- May 21: Prosocial health decision-making
- May 28: Dishonesty and corruption
- Jun 4: Human-technology interaction
- Jun 11: Charitable giving
- Jun 18: Effective altruism
- Jun 25: CANCELLED

This course assumes no prior knowledge about these topics. Nonetheless, given its strong focus on basic empirical research, students would benefit the most if they are generally interested in (multidisciplinary) research processes and methods and find themselves comfortable reading and learning (sometimes advanced) quantitative analyses of behaviors.