Helping Individuals or Group Members? The Role of Individual and Collective Identification in AIDS Volunteerism

Abstract

This article presents a group-level perspective on helping that was tested in the context of AIDS volunteerism. It was predicted and found that homosexuals were more willing to volunteer when collective identification in terms of sexual orientation was high. The opposite trend was found for heterosexuals. Also as predicted, homosexuals were less willing to volunteer when identification as a unique individual was high, whereas the opposite was again true for heterosexuals. Thus, AIDS volunteerism emerged as a form of intragroup helping for homosexuals and as a form of interindividual helping for heterosexuals. In addition, identification with the AIDS volunteer service organization proved to be a positive predictor of AIDS volunteerism regardless of sexual orientation. Finally, two individual motivations emerged as positive predictors, namely, gaining knowledge and understanding emerged for homosexuals and expressing humanitarian values emerged for heterosexuals. The results are summarized in a dual-pathway model of volunteerism.

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