Magnanimous
Prosocial behavior increases perceptions of meaning in life
Nadav Klein
Journal of Positive Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Finding meaning in life is a fundamental personal need, and motivating prosocial behavior is a fundamental societal need. The present research tests whether the two are connected – whether helping other people can increase helpers’ perceptions of meaning in life. Evidence from a nationally representative data-set and two experiments support this hypothesis. Participants who engaged in prosocial behaviors – volunteering and spending money to benefit others – reported experiencing greater meaning in their lives (Studies 1–3). Study 3 also identifies increased self-worth as the mechanism – participants who spent money to benefit other people felt higher personal worth and self-esteem, and this mediated the effect of prosocial behavior on meaningfulness. The present results join other findings in suggesting that the incentives for helping others do not necessarily depend on the prospect of others’ reciprocity. Prosocial behavior can be incentivized through the psychological benefits it creates for prosocial actors.
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Common variant in OXTR predicts growth in positive emotions from loving-kindness training
Suzannah Isgett et al.
Psychoneuroendocrinology, November 2016, Pages 244–251
Abstract:
Ample research suggests that social connection reliably generates positive emotions. Oxytocin, a neuropeptide implicated in social cognition and behavior, is one biological mechanism that may influence an individual’s capacity to extract positive emotions from social contexts. Because variation in certain genes may indicate underlying neurobiological differences, we tested whether several SNPs in two genes related to oxytocin signaling would show effects on positive emotions that were context-specific, depending on sociality. For six weeks, a sample of mid-life adults (N = 122) participated in either socially-focused loving-kindness training or mindfulness training. During this timespan they reported their positive emotions daily. Five SNPs within OXTR and CD38 were assayed, and each was tested for its individual effect on daily emotions. The hypothesized three-way interaction between time, training type, and genetic variability emerged: Individuals homozygous for the G allele of OXTR rs1042778 experienced gains in daily positive emotions from loving-kindness training, whereas individuals with the T allele did not experience gains in positive emotions with either training. These findings are among the first to show how genetic differences in oxytocin signaling may influence an individual’s capacity to experience positive emotions as a result of a socially-focused intervention.
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The effect of charitable giving on workers’ performance: Experimental evidence
Gary Charness, Ramón Cobo-Reyes & Ángela Sánchez
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, November 2016, Pages 61–74
Abstract:
We investigate how donating worker earnings for voluntary extra work, a form of corporate social responsibility, affects worker behavior. Participants entered data for 60 minutes, with piece-rate pay. They could then stay for up to another 30 minutes; we varied the piece-rate pay and whether it was paid to the worker or to charity. When this piece-rate is high, workers produce more for own pay than when their earnings go to charity. However, with low piece-rates, this relationship reverses. There is also little difference in performance between paying workers a small amount and not paying anything at all.
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Artur Nilsson, Arvid Erlandsson & Daniel Västfjäll
Journal of Research in Personality, forthcoming
Abstract:
We extend past research on the congruency between moral foundations and morally relevant outcomes to ingroup- and outgroup-focused charitable giving. We measured intentions to donate to outgroup members (begging EU-migrants) and self-reported donations to ingroup (medical research) and outgroup (international aid) charity organizations in a heterogeneous sample (N = 1008) and actual donations to ingroup (cancer treatment) and outgroup (hunger relief) organizations in two experimental studies (N = 126; N = 200). Individualizing intuitions predicted helping in general across self-report and behavioral data. Binding intuitions predicted higher donations to ingroup causes, lower donations to outgroup causes, and less intentions to donate to outgroup members in the self-report data, and they predicted lower donations overall in the behavioral data.