Autonomy & control → prosocial and antisocial outcomes
Experimental studies from a meta-analytic review of the prosocial benefits of autonomy and the antisocial costs of control. Trials manipulated autonomy (or, in a few studies, control) against waitlist, active, or controlling comparison conditions, with prosocial or antisocial cognitions and behaviours as outcomes. The article pooled only the autonomy → prosociality experimental effects; the other relations had too few studies.
Donald, J. N., Bradshaw, E. L., Conigrave, J. H., Parker, P. D., Byatt, L. L., Noetel, M., & Ryan, R. M. (2021). Paths to the light and dark sides of human nature: A meta-analytic review of the prosocial benefits of autonomy and the antisocial costs of control. Psychological Bulletin, 147(9), 921–946. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000338
Pooled effects
Estimates as published in Table 6 of the source article (autonomy interventions → prosocial outcomes; k = reports, effects = estimates; subgroup Ns are not reported). The pooled effect was not significantly different from zero, with substantial heterogeneity. Not recomputed.
| Subgroup | Studies | Effects | d | 95% CI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | ||||
| Asia | 2 | 5 | 1.01 | [-1.07, 3.08] |
| North America | 1 | 1 | 0.34 | [-4.32, 5.00] |
| Western Europe | 2 | 5 | 3.00 | [1.13, 4.87] |
| Age | ||||
| 15–24 years | 2 | 7 | 1.97 | [-0.40, 4.35] |
| 35–49 years | 2 | 2 | 0.28 | [-3.74, 4.30] |
| Gender | ||||
| Mostly male | 1 | 4 | 3.70 | [1.74, 5.65] |
| Mixed gender | 3 | 6 | 0.88 | [-0.67, 2.43] |
| Mostly female | 2 | 4 | -0.07 | [-1.98, 1.84] |
| Randomized controlled trial | ||||
| RCT | 2 | 3 | 1.18 | [-1.79, 4.15] |
| Non-randomized | 2 | 7 | 2.37 | [0.37, 4.37] |
| Risk of bias | ||||
| Moderate risk of bias | — | — | 2.18 | [0.69, 3.66] |
| High risk of bias | — | — | -0.10 | [-2.27, 2.06] |
Data
Standardized CSV of the authors' extraction sheet, intervention rows only (59 extracted effects from 13 reports). Unlike the other databases, this file carries the raw extracted statistics (group means, SDs, ns, and reported results), not computed effect sizes — the authors' final computed effects were not part of the shared file.
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