Altruism and social learning in Kuwait; an analysis of gender differences

Abstract

Our paper aims to identify the gender differences in helping behavior. It also seeks to explore how gender roles and prescribed norms affect the kind of helping behavior displayed by men and women in Kuwait, a collectivist society. In addition, we examine how altruism is related to the social learning theory and the effects of media as a major component of social learning. Authors explored whether altruistic behavior is impacted by observing others perform helping behavior. The Rushton et al. "Self-Report Altruism" scale was used to gather this information. We distributed 652 surveys to respondents between the ages of 18-33 living in Kuwait. The main findings concluded that males living in Kuwait are more altruistic than females and as both males and females get older, they tend to help more. Furthermore, the results show that there is a strong correlation between the social theory and altruistic behaviors. In Kuwait, both culture and religion emphasize that men are expected to provide help both at home and work, whereas women are only expected to provide help at home.