Promoting prosocial behavior in an unequal world

Amid a global pandemic and the climate crisis, there is an increasingneed to understand how to promote largescale, coordinated actionbetween different groups. Yet certain factors such as inequality canhinder cooperation. We aimed to establish how to orient groups toward asuperordinate goal when they have unequal resources. Participants weredivided into two ‘countries’ and asked to assemble LEGO bricks into food(by building pieces in a certain order) to prevent starvation among ‘thepeople’. One ‘country’ had few LEGO bricks whereas the other had anabundance, and the only way to maximize food creation was for the groupsto work together. We assessed the efficacy of three diverse interventionson superordinate behavior and attitudes: compassion meditation training (Study 1), lower inequality (Study 2), and the introduction of a pro-sharinggroup norm by a confederate (Study 3). Compassion meditation trainingand altering the degree of inequality between groups did not have a cleareffect on collaborative action. Only the introduction of a pro-sharing groupnorm enhanced sharing behavior, made participants feel more cooperativeand reduced fears of being compassionate toward others. Our findingsspeak to the importance of leadership in promoting coordinated action toaddress challenges that face the superordinate group.