Altruism, Solidarity and Responsibility from a Committed Sociology: Contributions to Society

Bidirectional relations between altruistic tendency and benign/malicious envy among adolescents: A longitudinal study and weekly diary study

Altruism is a prosocial tendency that has developed through long-term evolutionary selection. The present study adopts social comparison and evolutionary psychology theories to examine how benign/malicious envy can affect altruism and how altruism can affect the two types of envy in turn, respectively. In Study 1, 513 adolescents participated in a three-wave longitudinal survey to explore the relationships between dispositional altruistic tendency and dispositional benign/malicious envy. The cross-lagged analysis showed a long-term and stable negative bidirectional relationship between dispositional altruistic tendency and dispositional malicious envy and a short-term positive bidirectional relationship between dispositional altruism and dispositional benign envy. In Study 2, 109 adolescents kept a weekly diary for seven consecutive weeks to record state levels of altruistic tendency and benign/malicious envy in their daily lives. The hierarchical linear model demonstrated that weekly altruistic tendency and weekly benign envy could positively predict each other, and weekly altruistic tendency presented a negative bidirectional relationship with weekly malicious envy. These findings offer an effective way to study the relationship between human behavior and emotions from perspectives of social comparison and evolutionary psychology theories. Meanwhile, it also has practical significance for the harmonious development of society.

Acceptability of prepayment, social solidarity and cross-subsidies in national health insurance: A mixed methods study in Western Kenya

Introduction

Many low- and middle-income countries are attempting to finance healthcare through voluntary membership of insurance schemes. This study examined willingness to prepay for health care, social solidarity as well as the acceptability of subsidies for the poor as factors that determine enrolment in western Kenya.

Methods

This study employed a sequential mixed method design. We conducted a cross-sectional household survey (n = 1,746), in-depth household interviews (n = 36), 6 FGDs with community stakeholders and key informant interviews (n = 11) with policy makers and implementers in a single county in western Kenya. Social solidarity was defined by willingness to make contributions that would benefit people who were sicker ("risk cross-subsidization") and poorer ("income cross-subsidization"). We also explored participants' preferences related to contribution cost structure - e.g., flat, proportional, progressive, and exemptions for the poor.

Results

Our study found high willingness to prepay for healthcare among those without insurance (87.1%) with competing priorities, low incomes, poor access, and quality of health services, lack of awareness of flexible payment options cited as barriers to enrolment. More than half of respondents expressed willingness to tolerate risk and income cross-subsidization suggesting strong social solidarity, which increased with socio-economic status (SES). Higher SES was also associated with preference for a proportional payment while lower SES with a progressive payment. Few participants, even the poor themselves, felt the poor should be exempt from any payment, due to stigma (being accused of laziness) and fear of losing power in the process of receiving care (having the right to demand care).

Conclusion

Although there was a high willingness to prepay for healthcare, numerous barriers hindered voluntary health insurance enrolment in Kenya. Our findings highlight the importance of fostering and leveraging existing social solidarity to move away from flat rate contributions to allow for fairer risk and income cross-subsidization. Finally, governments should invest in robust strategies to effectively identify subsidy beneficiaries.

Altruistic Relationships, Responsibility, and Sociology: An Attempt at Theoretical Systematization

The book Beyond the Dichotomy Between Altruism and Egoism (Mangone in Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc., 2020a) raised compelling comments by distinguished scholars. Some of them were, in my opinion, particularly poignant, highlighting both strengths and weaknesses of the elements addressed in the book. I aim to answer the remarks by Roberto Cipriani, Estrella Gualda, Ratiba Hadj-Moussa, Adrian Scribano, and Nikolay Zyuzev. I will leave the strengths aside and focus instead on the aspects that most attracted the reflections of the commentators, which I can summarise in three macro areas: 1) the centrality of the relationship; 2) responsibility and choices; and, finally, 3) the role of sociology. I will attempt to get to the heart of these areas with a theoretical systematization, providing a general answer to the remarks as well as addressing the specific points raised by each commentator.