Negative Legal Emotion and Prosocial Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model of Peer Attachment and Social Exclusion in a Chinese Undergraduate Sample

Abstract

Introduction: Negative legal emotion refers to the affective component of negative orientations toward legal norms, institutions, and procedures. It is closely related to, but not synonymous with, the broader construct of legal cynicism, which more often emphasizes generalized skepticism toward the fairness, legitimacy, and effectiveness of the law. This study examined the association between negative legal emotion and prosocial behavior among university students, with peer attachment as a mediator and social exclusion as a moderator. Method: A total of 404 undergraduates from mainland Chinese universities were included in the final analysis after predefined data screening, including attention-check items and response-time cutoffs. Participants completed an online survey assessing negative legal emotion, prosocial behavior, peer attachment, and social exclusion. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, and Hayes’s PROCESS macro (Model 7) were used to test the moderated mediation model, controlling for gender, grade, and parental educational attainment. Results: Negative legal emotion was negatively associated with prosocial behavior. Peer attachment statistically accounted for this association, such that higher negative legal emotion was associated with lower peer attachment, which was in turn associated with lower prosocial behavior. Social exclusion moderated the first stage of the indirect pathway: the negative association between negative legal emotion and peer attachment was weaker at higher levels of social exclusion. Accordingly, the indirect association between negative legal emotion and prosocial behavior via peer attachment also varied across levels of social exclusion. Conclusions: The findings suggest that peer attachment is an important relational correlate linking negative legal emotion with prosocial behavior and that social exclusion is associated with variation in the strength of this indirect pathway. These results extend research on legal socialization and contribute to understanding prosocial behavior among university students.