Abstract:

Prosocial reputation is the evaluation that prosocial actors acquired regarding his/her prosocial traits. Actors establish prosocial reputation through prosocial behavior. Then prosocial reputation could generate extrinsic prosocial motivation of actors through indirect reciprocity and partner choosing process, and intrinsic prosocial motivation through self-concept. Thus, it could promote actors’ prosocial behavior. The influencing factors of prosocial reputation include actors’ resources at hand, publicity of prosocial behavior, personal benefits, and ways of advertising. Future research should focus on the mutual promotion between prosocial behavior and prosocial reputation, by exploring the interaction effect of the costs and the benefits of actors’ prosocial behavior on prosocial reputation, the moderate effect of actors’ social class (by affecting people’s expectation) on the relationship between prosocial behavior and prosocial reputation, as well as the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of how prosocial reputation promotes actors’ prosocial behavior.

Key words: prosocial reputation, prosocial behavior, benefits, indirect reciprocity, partner choice