Does weeping in adults increase the probability of prosocial behavior among observers?: A systematic literature review

The presented systematic literature review seeks answers to the question "Does weeping in adults increase the probability of prosocial behavior among observers?". Our methodology follows the PRISMA Statement recommendations. On the basis of predefined key words 2278 records have been identified in the Scopus and PsycINFO databases. Overlapping records have been removed and abstracts and whole texts have been screened to evaluate the fulfilment of the eligibility criteria and the relevance for the predefined question and this resulted in the inclusion of 8 articles representing 10 experiments into the final analysis. This thesis brings an overview of these studies and their conclusions and methodologies. It discusses the strengths and weaknesess of the various approaches. It turned out that the fact, whether participants are presented with a decontextualized stimulus material or whether they are at least slightly acquainted with the context, plays an important role in the research. If the context is included, it appears that the influence of tears on the willingness to help is not as strong as in the case of its absence. Furthermore, many other factors have been found to be relevant that affect this relationship. We also discuss the adequacy of the the concept "prosocial behaviour" as hypotheses..