AI Insight
This study of 1,994 Chinese college students examined how social value orientation (concern for others' welfare) relates to aggressive behavior. The research found that students with stronger prosocial values showed less aggressive behavior, and this relationship was mediated through two psychological mechanisms: their ability to take others' perspectives and their general level of trust in people. Statistical analysis revealed that perspective taking accounted for the largest mediating effect (9.017%), followed by general trust (4.378%), with a small combined chain effect (0.947%).
Why it matters
The findings suggest that college interventions aimed at developing perspective-taking skills and fostering interpersonal trust could help reduce campus violence and aggressive behavior. This provides evidence-based guidance for mental health programs targeting prosocial skill development in university settings.
Understand the Science
To explore the chain mediating effect of perspective taking and general trust between social value orientation and college students’ aggressive behavior, and to provide scientific evidence for promoting college students’ mental health and reducing campus violence. The current study adopts a combination of cluster sampling and convenience sampling methods, selecting 1,994 students from 6 universities in Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Henan, Tianjin, and Xizang provinces. The measurements include the Social Value Orientation Slider Measure (SVO-SM), the Perspective Taking sub-scale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI-PT), the General Trust Scale (GTS), and the Short-Form Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ-SF). The results show that the scores of social value orientation, perspective taking, and general trust are all positively correlated with each other, and all three are negatively correlated with aggressive behavior. The mediation effect analysis indicates that social value orientation can predict aggressive behavior through perspective taking, general trust, and the mediating chain of the two, with the mediation effects of the three paths being 9.017%, 4.378%, and 0.947% respectively. This suggests that perspective taking and general trust of college students have multiple mediating effects between social value orientation and aggressive behavior. The present associations provide preliminary implications for college education practices centered on prosocial skill development, which tend to correspond to a lower prevalence of campus bullying and aggressive conduct.