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Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off

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Although a great deal of research has shown that people with more money are somewhat happier than are people with less money, our research demonstrates that how people spend their money also matters for their happiness. In particular, both correlational and experimental studies have shown that people who spend money on others report more happiness. The benefits of such prosocial spending emerge among adults around the world, and the warm glow of giving can be detected even in toddlers. These benefits are most likely to emerge when giving satisfies one or more core human needs (relatedness, competence, and autonomy). The rewards of prosocial spending are observable in both the brain and the body and can potentially be harnessed by organizations and governments.
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Current Directions in Psychological
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DOI: 10.1177/0963721413512503
2014 23: 41Current Directions in Psychological Science
Elizabeth W. Dunn, Lara B. Aknin and Michael I. Norton
Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off
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Imagine digging out your jacket for the first time since
winter and discovering a crumpled $20 bill in the pocket.
How would you spend this windfall? Would you buy
your partner a bouquet of yellow tulips? Would you give
the cash to the homeless man you pass everyday on your
way to work? Or would you buy yourself a vegetable
panini for lunch? These questions reflect a broader
human dilemma: What is the best way to use our money
to maximize our happiness?
A large body of research on the overall relationship
between money and happiness has shown that individu-
als with more money are happier (e.g., Diener, Ng,
Harter, & Arora, 2010; Diener, Tay, & Oishi, 2013),
although this relationship is weaker than many people
assume (Aknin, Norton, & Dunn, 2009; Kahneman,
Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, & Stone, 2006; but see Cone
& Gilovich, 2010). But how people spend their money
may be at least as important as the amount of money
they have (Dunn & Norton, 2013).
In an initial experiment, we approached people on a
university campus and gave them either $5 or $20 to
spend by the end of the day (Dunn, Aknin, & Norton,
2008). We instructed half of the participants to spend the
money on themselves (personal spending) and half to
spend the money on someone else (prosocial spending).
That evening, people who had been assigned to spend
the money on someone else reported happier moods
over the course of the day than did those people assigned
to spend the money on themselves. It is interesting that
the amount of money the participants received had no
bearing on their happiness.
When we described the experiment to other partici-
pants, however, their predictions were doubly wrong:
They believed that they would be happier spending more
money ($20 vs. $5) and that they would be happier
spending it on themselves. Thus, people’s daily spending
choices may be guided by flawed intuitions about the
relationship between money and happiness. Indeed,
research has suggested that just being reminded of
money may make people less attuned to the needs of
others (Vohs, Mead, & Goode, 2006). Thinking about
money may propel individuals toward using their finan-
cial resources to benefit themselves, but spending money
512503CDPXXX10.1177/0963721413512503Dunn et al.Prosocial Spending and Happiness
research-article2014
Corresponding Author:
Elizabeth W. Dunn, Department of Psychology, University of British
Columbia, Douglas Kenny Building, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver,
British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
E-mail: edunn@psych.ubc.ca
Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using
Money to Benefit Others Pays Off
Elizabeth W. Dunn1, Lara B. Aknin2, and
Michael I. Norton3
1Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia; 2Department of Psychology,
Simon Fraser University; and 3Marketing Unit, Harvard Business School
Abstract
Although a great deal of research has shown that people with more money are somewhat happier than are people
with less money, our research demonstrates that how people spend their money also matters for their happiness. In
particular, both correlational and experimental studies have shown that people who spend money on others report
more happiness. The benefits of such prosocial spending emerge among adults around the world, and the warm glow
of giving can be detected even in toddlers. These benefits are most likely to emerge when giving satisfies one or more
core human needs (relatedness, competence, and autonomy). The rewards of prosocial spending are observable in
both the brain and the body and can potentially be harnessed by organizations and governments.
Keywords
money, prosocial spending, happiness, well-being
by Lara Aknin on February 5, 2014cdp.sagepub.comDownloaded from
42 Dunn et al.
on others can provide a more effective route to increas-
ing one’s own happiness.
Is the Warm Glow of Giving Universal?
Our initial research on prosocial spending and happiness
was conducted in North America, where people enjoy a
level of wealth that is highly atypical compared with liv-
ing conditions experienced throughout human history
and much of the world today. As a result, the emotional
benefits of giving might be dampened or eliminated in
countries in which many people are still struggling to
meet their own basic needs. Discovering that people
derive emotional benefits from prosocial spending even
in poorer countries, however, would provide evidence
that the warm glow of giving may be a fundamental com-
ponent of human nature. We examined the correlation
between charitable giving and happiness in 136 countries
(Aknin, Barrington-Leigh, et al., 2013). In 120 of the
countries, there was a positive relationship between giv-
ing and happiness (when we controlled for income and
other demographic variables), and this relationship was
significant in a majority of the countries (see Fig. 1 for
world map). Although the strength of the relationship
varied among countries, individuals in poor and rich
countries alike reported more happiness if they engaged
in prosocial spending.
We also provided causal evidence for the emotional
rewards of prosocial spending in an economically diverse
group of countries, including Canada, India, South Africa,
and Uganda (Aknin, Barrington-Leigh, et al., 2013). In
one experiment conducted in both Canada and South
Africa, participants were given the opportunity to spend
money on a “goody bag” filled with treats (such as choc-
olate). Half of the participants were told that they would
receive the goody bag they purchased (personal spend-
ing), and half were told that a sick child in a local hospi-
tal would receive the goody bag (prosocial spending).
Participants who bought a gift bag for a sick child
reported significantly happier mood than did participants
who purchased the same goody bag for themselves. This
finding is particularly notable, given that more than 20%
of the South African sample reported not having enough
money to buy food for themselves or their families in the
preceding year.
These results suggest that the capacity to derive joy
from giving might be a universal feature of human psy-
chology. If this is the case, then even young children
might experience happiness from giving to others. We
gave toddlers just under the age of 2 a pile of appealing
Fig. 1.World map displaying the relationship between prosocial spending and happiness around the globe. From “Prosocial Spending and Well-
Being: Cross-Cultural Evidence for a Psychological Universal,” by L. B. Aknin, C. P. Barrington-Leigh, E. W. Dunn, J. F. Helliwell, J. Burns, R. Biswas-
Diener, . . . M. I. Norton, 2013, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104, p. 639. Copyright by the American Psychological Association.
Reprinted with permission.
by Lara Aknin on February 5, 2014cdp.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Prosocial Spending and Happiness 43
treats (e.g., goldfish crackers; Aknin, Hamlin, & Dunn,
2012). The children were asked to give one of their treats
away to a puppet who enthusiastically ate the treat (see
Fig. 2 for images from each phase of the study). In addi-
tion, the experimenter “found” an extra treat, which she
asked the child to give to the puppet. Research assistants
coded children’s facial expressions for happiness.
Children exhibited more happiness when they gave treats
away to the puppet than when they received treats them-
selves (see Fig. 3 for coded happiness ratings). Moreover,
children showed the highest levels of happiness when
they gave a treat away from their own stash (vs. the experi-
menter’s extra treat). Taken together, this research showed
that adults around the world and even young children
experience emotional benefits from using their resources
to help others, which suggests that humans may have a
deep-seated proclivity to find giving rewarding.
When Does Prosocial Spending
Promote Happiness?
The argument that humans have a universal tendency to
experience joy from giving does not mean that every
form of prosocial spending always produces emotional
benefits. Most people can probably think of a time when
they did something generous and did not experience
a boost in happiness, and the existing literature has con-
firmed that giving does not always produce joy (e.g.,
Berman & Small, 2012). Self-determination theory pro-
vides a framework for understanding when and why
giving leads to happiness (Weinstein & Ryan, 2010).
According to this theory, human well-being depends on
the satisfaction of three basic needs: relatedness, compe-
tence, and autonomy. Although prosocial spending is
certainly not the only way to fulfill these needs—and it
may also be possible to meet these needs through per-
sonal spending—we suggest that prosocial spending
should be most likely to produce happiness under condi-
tions that satisfy these needs.
Relatedness
Helping others may be most emotionally rewarding when
it satisfies the fundamental need for social connection.
Consistent with this idea, we found that individuals gar-
ner more happiness from prosocial spending when giv-
ing provides the opportunity to connect with other
people (Aknin, Dunn, Sandstrom, & Norton, 2013). In
Fig. 2.Example images of four phases from Aknin, Hamlin, and Dunn’s (2012) toddler sharing study. Tod-
dlers were introduced to a puppet (a) and given eight treats (b). Then, in counterbalanced order, each toddler
was asked to give the experimenter’s extra treat to the puppet (c) and to give one of their own treats to the
puppet (d). A sample video is available at http://cic.psych.ubc.ca/Example_Stimuli.html.
by Lara Aknin on February 5, 2014cdp.sagepub.comDownloaded from
44 Dunn et al.
one experiment, participants who received a $10
Starbucks gift card were happier if they spent it on a
friend rather than on themselves—but only if they took
the time to go to Starbucks with their friend. In another
study, we found that individuals get the biggest happi-
ness bang for their buck when they spend money on
close others rather than on acquaintances (Aknin,
Sandstrom, Dunn, & Norton, 2011), perhaps because
close relationships are especially critical for satisfying the
need to belong (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).
Competence
Prosocial spending is most likely to satisfy the need for
competence if people can see how their generous actions
have made a difference. Thus, individuals may experi-
ence a bigger happiness boost from giving to charities
that make it easy to see the positive impact of donations.
For example, both UNICEF and Spread the Net are
deserving charities dedicated to improving children’s
health in impoverished areas of the world, but Spread the
Net offers a clear, concrete promise: For every $10
donated, the charity will provide a bed net to protect a
child at risk of malaria. When we gave participants the
opportunity to donate money to Spread the Net, indi-
viduals who donated more money felt happier, control-
ling for happiness before the donation (Aknin, Dunn,
Whillans, Grant, & Norton, 2013). In contrast, giving
money to UNICEF provided no such benefit. People
derive more happiness from prosocial spending if they
feel like effective, competent helpers whose actions have
made a real difference.
Autonomy
Because the need for autonomy is satisfied when people
feel that their actions are freely chosen, the emotional
benefits of prosocial spending should be stronger when
people have a choice about whether to give. In one
study, participants inside a scanner exhibited stronger
activation in reward areas of the brain when they freely
donated to a local charity compared with when they
were required to make a donation (Harbaugh, Mayr, &
Burghart, 2007). Weinstein and Ryan (2010) showed that
people experienced happier moods when they gave
more money away—but only if they had a choice about
how much to give. When participants were given a
choice, the donation of more money led them to feel
more autonomous, as well as more related and compe-
tent. The effect of giving on happiness was mediated by
overall satisfaction of the three basic needs, which dem-
onstrated that these needs are deeply intertwined.
Taken together, this research suggests that the emo-
tional benefits of prosocial spending are likely to be
greatest when giving satisfies the needs for relatedness,
competence, and autonomy. When prosocial spending
fails to increase happiness—in everyday life or in a psy-
chology experiment—consider whether the giving
opportunity could be redesigned to increase the likeli-
hood that one or more of these needs is satisfied. By
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
5.5
6
(a) Child
Meets Puppet
(b) Child Receives
Eight Treats
(c) Child Gives the
Experimenter’s
Extra Treat to Puppet
(d) Child Gives Own
Treat to Puppet
Happiness as Rated by Coders
Fig. 3.Children’s happiness, as rated by coders, for four phases of the toddler sharing study (Aknin,
Hamlin, & Dunn, 2012). Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals around the mean.
by Lara Aknin on February 5, 2014cdp.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Prosocial Spending and Happiness 45
doing so, charities can maximize the emotional benefits
of giving for their donors, thereby potentially increasing
the likelihood of repeat donations; the happier people
feel when reflecting on previous prosocial spending, the
more likely they are to spend on others in the future
(Aknin, Dunn, & Norton, 2012).
Beyond Happiness
Although happiness is most frequently assessed though
simple self-report measures, the benefits of prosocial
spending can be detected in the brain and the body. As
noted earlier, prosocial spending produces activation in
reward areas of the brain (Harbaugh et al., 2007; Moll
et al., 2006; Zaki & Mitchell, 2011). And the emotional
consequences of prosocial spending produce a cascade
of physical consequences. In a previous study, in the
context of a large classroom, we gave students $10 and
informed them that they could donate as much as they
wished to another student in the class who had not
received any money (Dunn, Ashton-James, Hanson, &
Aknin, 2010). The more money students gave away, the
happier their moods afterward, when we controlled for
their happiness beforehand. Conversely, the more money
students kept for themselves, the more shame they expe-
rienced. And the more ashamed they felt, the higher their
levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that has been linked
to a variety of health problems. These results suggested
that everyday spending decisions can get under the skin
to influence health.
Although any one spending decision likely has short-
lived effects on biological processes, these decisions
may compound over time to shape important health
outcomes. Older adults who report giving more money
and other resources to others exhibit better overall
health—from fewer sleep disorders to better hearing—
even after a wide range of variables are controlled
for (e.g., gender, income, physical mobility; Brown,
Consedine, & Magai, 2005). Experimental research has
shown that prosocial spending can increase physical
strength; participants who had donated to a charity
were able to squeeze a handgrip for more than 20 sec-
onds longer than were control participants (Gray, 2010).
Participants also reported happier moods after donat-
ing, but their enhanced strength did not stem from their
elevated happiness. Thus, prosocial spending may have
independent positive effects on both emotional and
physical vitality.
Future Directions
Researchers should further examine the pathways that
explain how good deeds are transformed into good
feelings. For example, prosocial spending might promote
happiness by endowing givers with a feeling of power or
by enabling them to witness others’ gratitude. Given that
forms of generosity other than prosocial spending also
predict happiness (e.g., volunteering; Thoits & Hewitt,
2001), researchers could explore whether different path-
ways—with different antecedents and consequences—
might explain the emotional benefits of giving money
compared with the giving of other resources.
Most of our research has focused on common forms of
spending, such as treating a friend to coffee or making a
charitable donation. It also would be interesting to inves-
tigate whether the happiness benefits of prosocial spend-
ing extend to “impact investments,” in which people
invest money with the goal of aiding social or environ-
mental causes—while also reaping a financial return. In
addition, future researchers should examine more diverse
forms of prosocial spending, including its most dreaded
form: taxation. Although taxes are rarely associated with
happiness, it may be possible to harness research on the
emotional benefits of prosocial spending to improve
people’s feelings about paying their taxes. Indeed, paral-
lel research has suggested that the benefits of prosocial
spending are most likely to emerge if donors are given a
choice (Weinstein & Ryan, 2010), and new research has
suggested that injecting an element of choice into tax
payments increases taxpayer satisfaction (Lamberton,
2013).
In addition to research on individual happiness,
researchers should examine the broader benefits of proso-
cial spending initiatives within teams and organizations.
For example, Google provides employees with an open
invitation to apply for a bonus—not for themselves, but for
a deserving coworker (Dunn & Norton, 2013). Our most
recent research has provided initial evidence that giving
employees the opportunity to engage in prosocial spend-
ing can potentially enhance job satisfaction and perfor-
mance (Anik, Aknin, Norton, Dunn, & Quiodbach, 2013).
The time is ripe for exploring how “prosocial bonuses” can
improve organizational success.
Finally, many fascinating questions remain unan-
swered regarding individual differences in the proclivity
to engage in prosocial spending and to derive joy from
doing so. For example, could genetic differences in sen-
sitivity to oxytocin (a hormone involved in bonding)
explain why some people get a bigger boost from proso-
cial spending than do others? Do enjoyable early child-
hood experiences with giving lead people to seek out
prosocial spending opportunities, perhaps as a result of
changes in the self-concept? Understanding the individ-
ual-level factors that alter the emotional impact of giving
will offer further insight into the psychology of prosocial
spending.
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46 Dunn et al.
Conclusion
In much of the research on money and happiness,
researchers have explored the overall relationship
between these variables; in our research, we have shifted
the focus toward the consideration of how people can
use their money to increase happiness—whether they
have a little or a lot of money. The benefits of prosocial
spending are evident in givers old and young in countries
around the world and extend to not only subjective well-
being but also objective health. Despite people’s intu-
itions and inclinations to the contrary, one of the best
ways to get the biggest payoff personally from a windfall
of $20 is to spend it prosocially.
Recommended Reading
Aknin, L. B., Barrington-Leigh, C. P., Dunn, E. W., Helliwell,
J. F., Burns, J., Biswas-Diener, R., . . . Norton, M. I. (2013).
(See References). Provides a broad review of the relevant
literature, detailed data from around the world, and discus-
sion of alternative explanations.
Diener, E., Ng, W., Harter, J., & Arora, R. (2010). (See References).
Provides a full discussion of research on the relationship
between money and happiness around the world.
Dunn, E. W., Aknin, L. B., & Norton, M. I. (2008). (See
References). Presents our first studies on the correlational
and causal relationship between prosocial spending and
happiness.
Dunn, E., & Norton, M. (2013). (See References). Written for
a broad audience, provides an approachable review of
research on how people can get more happiness from their
money.
Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (2012). World happiness
report. New York, NY: The Earth Institute, Columbia
University. Commissioned by the United Nations, offers a
thorough overview of predictors of happiness around the
world.
Author Contributions
Elizabeth W. Dunn and Lara B. Aknin wrote the manuscript.
Michael I. Norton edited the manuscript.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interest
with respect to their authorship or the publication of this
article.
Funding
The research described in this article was supported by grants
to E. W. Dunn from the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council (410-2008-2509) and the Canadian Institutes
of Health Research (MOP-110968). These are government
agencies and do not represent specific interests beyond
advancing science and furthering the general betterment of
society.
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... Positive psychology contends that happy people exhibit positive attitudes toward others. In particular, happy people tend to socialize with others (Waldinger & Schulz, 2010), are open to making new friends (Jasielska et al., 2021), and engage in prosocial behaviors (Dunn et al., 2014;Jasielska, 2018). Granted, the relationship between happiness and positive attitudes toward others is well-documented in the psychological literature (Argyle, 2001). ...
... When people are happy, they are generally more accepting of others. Happiness elicits open-mindedness and makes people less likely to cling to rigid beliefs or stereotypes (Dunn et al., 2014;Jasielska, 2018). For example, some studies suggest that people who were more elated were less likely to be prejudiced against homosexuals (Bartoș et al., 2020;Lai et al., 2014). ...
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Introduction Prejudice toward sexual minorities remains pervasive despite many nations gravitating toward liberalism. Religion continues to be a significant predictor of prejudice against homosexuality, even in more liberal countries. This study contributes to the existing literature on sexual prejudice by examining the roles of religiosity, happiness, and democracy at both individual and country levels to better understand the complex nature of sexual prejudice toward homosexuals. Methods Using a joint dataset from the European Value Survey and World Values Survey collected from 34 European countries between 2017 and 2022 (N = 43,249), we tested the role of religiosity, democratic values, and happiness as potential predictors of sexual prejudice toward homosexuals. Results Results demonstrate a strong relationship between religiosity and sexual prejudice, while democratic values and happiness were associated with greater acceptance of homosexuality. Further moderation analysis revealed significant variation in tolerance toward homosexuals. Specifically, the acceptance of homosexuality among religious individuals is associated with their levels of happiness and support for democratic values. Conclusions The findings highlight the importance of a multi-level approach to understanding the complexities of prejudice against homosexuals. Policy Implications The evidence can inform proactive measures to prevent discrimination against sexual minority groups and enhance their legal protection.
... Meanwhile, a rich literature in psychology and other disciplines has consistently found that prosocial values (e.g., other-oriented concerns, empathy, and compassion) and behavior (e.g., volunteering and charitable giving) are associated with better subjective well-being for those who do good (Anderson et al., 2014;Dunn et al., 2014). Therefore, it is natural to ask if doing other-oriented jobs, where the mission is to fulfill prosocial purposes and impact, also has similar implications for workers in public and nonprofit sectors, who are presumably more prosocially motivated and engaged. ...
... For example, volunteering is associated with less depression, greater happiness, life satisfaction (Anderson et al., 2014), better daily experiences (Qu, 2022), and better self-rated health for volunteers (de Wit et al., 2022). Prosocial spending predicts greater happiness for givers (Dunn et al., 2014). Prosocial attitudes and traits, such as other-oriented concerns, empathy, and compassion, are associated with positive psychological outcomes and lower mortality risk (Kahana et al., 2013;Qu et al., 2020). ...
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Research on cross-sector differences has long demonstrated that workers in public and nonprofit sectors are more prosocially and intrinsically motivated, which in turn shapes their work behavior and outcomes, but little evidence exists on how public service employment is associated with workers’ life quality outside of the organizational context. Using cross-sectional data pooled from the Well-being Module of the American Time Use Survey, we investigate whether sectors of employment can predict workers’ subjective well-being (SWB) beyond the work domain. The results suggest public servants across all levels of government as well as nonprofit organizations experience higher life satisfaction than their for-profit counterparts. However, there are different patterns in daily experiential well-being across levels of government. Further analyses by work and non-work days demonstrate that work itself is likely to be a key factor affecting workers’ daily experience across sectors. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
... A wellknown field experiment, for instance, found that people gave more when informed about others' high contributions, suggesting that social information increases giving (Shang & Croson, 2009). Psychologists have also used experiments to identify the causal effect of giving on one's well-being, and found that prosocial spending, including on charities, promotes greater happiness than spending money on oneself (Dunn, et al, 2008;Dunn, et al., 2014 for a review). ...
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We define behavioral nonprofit management as the study of the micro-foundations of nonprofit management through analyzing the behavior and attitudes of individuals and groups in the context of nonprofit organizations. While nonprofit management research traditionally relies on administrative or survey data and is primarily concerned with organizational and environmental variables at the meso- and macro- level, the behavioral approach focuses on individuals, such as donors, volunteers, employees, managers, board members, and recipients/clients working either individually or collectively. This article reviews the current status of behavioral research in the interdisciplinary field of nonprofit, voluntary action, and philanthropic studies, and argues that nonprofit scholarship would benefit from engaging more explicitly in behavioral approaches for theoretical development and empirical testing. We recommend using experiments and other methods to advance theories through understanding the behavioral foundations of nonprofit organizations and voluntary actions. We envision the goal of behavioral nonprofit management informing not only nonprofit management practice but also public policies that aim to increase individual, community and societal well-being.
... Ahogy láthattuk, az önkéntesség során az emberek képesek megtapasztalni a saját választás és saját kezdeményezésből történő cselekvés örömét (autonómia), a másoknak való sikeres segítségnyújtásra való képességet (kompetencia), és azt is, hogy a segítség által kötődhetnek a közösség tagjaihoz, és törődést mutathatnak feléjük (kapcsolódás). E pszichológiai szükségletek kielégítettsége közvetlenül kapcsolódik a jólléthez (mind a segítségnyújtás haszonélvezője, mind a segítő számára), azáltal, hogy közvetíti a kapcsolatot a segítő viselkedés és a jóllét között (Dunn et al. 2014;Gagné 2003). A segítés különösen akkor növeli a jóllétet, ha saját választáson, és nem külső nyomáson, kötelezettségeken, a viszonzás vágyán, jutalmakon, vagy a büntetés elkerülésén alap ul, hanem a személyes proszociális értékrenden (Weinstein -Ryan 2010), vagy pedig intrinzik motivált munkavégzésen (Gebauer et al. 2008). ...
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Az önkéntesség egy olyan tevékenység, melynek a humán tudományok gyakorlatilag mindegyike számára releváns vonatkozása van. Kutatásunk célja az volt, hogy egy nem reprezentatív, ugyanakkor demográfiai mutatók mentén heterogén minta bevonásával megvizsgáljuk a hazai önkéntes tevékenységet végző személyek mentális egészségmutatóit, kitérve a szubjektív és pszichológiai jóllét mellett a mentális egészség szempontjából kockázatot jelentő depresszió, szorongás és stressz, valamint az azt ellensúlyozni képes társas jóllét befolyásoló szerepére is. A vizsgálati minta 492 fő, hazánkban formális szervezetei keretek között önkéntességet végző személy adatait tartalmazza, amelyben felülreprezentáltak a nők, míg egyéb szociodemográfiai-, és az önkéntesek tevékenységterülete szempontjából heterogén jellemzőkkel rendelkezik. A kutatás kérdőíve több validált skálát tartalmazott. A lekérdezés online történt, 2024 februárja és májusa között. A vizsgálati mintában szereplő önkéntesek szignifikánsan magasabban voltak elégedettek az önkéntes, mint a fizetett munkájukkal. A mentális egészség pozitív kapcsolatot mutatott az élet és az önkéntes munka értelmességével, valamint a társas hálóval, míg az önkéntesség értelmesnek megélése az önkéntesség során megélt autonómia, kompetencia és kapcsolódási szükségletek kielégítettségével. Ugyanakkor negatív összefüggést találtunk a mentális egészség és a stressz, a depresszió és a szorongás között. A mentális jóllétmutatók az önkéntesek esetében átlagosan magasabb pontszámot kaptak, mint a korábbi, nem önkéntes személyekkel végzett tanulmányokban. A fizetett munkával való elégedettséget leginkább a fizetett munkában megtapasztalt autonómia és kapcsolódás szükségleteinek kielégítettsége, míg az önkéntes munkával való elégedettséget az önkéntes munka értelmessége, az önkéntes munkában megtapasztalt autonómia és kompetencia kielégítettsége, valamint a magasabb életkor jósolta be pozitívan a regressziós modellünkben. Vizsgálatunk rámutat, hogy a civil-nonprofit szervezetek vezetőségének és koordinátorainak érdemes figyelmet fordítani az önkéntesek mentális egészségének aktuális szintjére, érzelmi túlterhelődésük elkerülésére, valamint arra, hogy miként élik meg az önkéntesek munkájuk értelmességét, pszichológiai alapszükségleteik kielégítettségét, miközben az egyén életfeladatokkal (például család, fizetett munka) való összhangjára is figyelmet fordítanak.
... Similarly, consumers who spend a $5 windfall on others tend to experience greater happiness than those who spend it on themselves (Dunn, Aknin, and Norton 2008). Contrary to the belief that money can increase happiness, research suggests that once our basic needs are met, how we spend money becomes more significant (Dunn, Aknin, and Norton 2014). These psychological benefits obtained from altruistic and prosocial acts appear to be universal, transcending economic disparities between countries such as the u.S. and uganda (Aknin et al. 2013). ...
... This is evidenced by the lower negative affect among participants who received prosocial behaviors. These results are crucial in understanding the emotional benefits of prosocial interactions and the psychological benefits of fulfilling needs for competence and relatedness through prosocial acts [11]. Additionally, riders who received prosocial behaviors under time pressed conditions reported higher ride quality. ...
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As societies transition to hybrid mobility systems, interactions between automated vehicles (AVs) and human users in public spaces become more complex, highlighting the critical role of prosocial behaviors. These behaviors are essential for the seamless operation of interdependent transportation networks, helping to address integration challenges of AVs with human-operated vehicles and enhancing well-being by creating more efficient, less stressful, and inclusive environments. This study explores the impact of receiving prosocial behaviors on the cognition, riding performance, and well-being of micromobility users in simulated urban traffic scenarios. Using a mixed-method design, the research contrasts two types of social interactions—prosocial and asocial—across three temporal conditions: relaxed, neutral, and urgent. The Structural Equation Modeling underscored the intricate relationships between prosocial behaviors, satisfaction, cognition, riding performance, and well-being. Incorporating social factors into driving systems could enhance safety and improve urban mobility solutions.
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Background This study investigates the impact of the 2008 constitutional change on Ecuadorians´ life satisfaction (developing country), based on the Sumak-Kawsay or “The good way of living” philosophy, with a particular focus on caring of people and mingas (community participation). Methods Through a repeated cross-sectional analysis of national survey data, this study compares the periods before (2007) and after (2014) the implementation of the 2008 constitution to examine how caring behaviors and mingas (community work) influence life satisfaction, using an ordinal logistic regression model to assess the role of this reform in shaping these effects. Results The findings reveal significant improvements in life satisfaction following the 2008’ reform, especially in the Eastern region, where community activities are prevalent, and poverty is most concentrated. These activities, including mingas , showed a positive association with an increase in life satisfaction, underscoring the role of public policies in improving public well-being. Conclusion This approach offers innovative empirical evidence on how social public policies that promote prosocial behaviors, such as solidarity and community participation, can create an environment encouraging to greater life satisfaction, particularly in less developed regions. It also underscores how social investment aimed at improving wealth distribution can positively influence collaborative behaviors.
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Existing research on online communities has primarily demonstrated that users are motivated by social rewards or social incentives such as positive social feedback and enhanced reputation. In contrast, this study examines how social penalties, or social disincentives, including negative social feedback and loss in reputation, influence online users’ voluntary contributions in the short and long term. We develop empirical models to investigate reviewers’ decisions on whether to contribute (i.e., review incidence decision) and how much to contribute (i.e., quality-adjusted review effort decision) over time. Using a state-space model, we capture the dynamics in reviewers’ latent review motivation that stems from both social incentives and social disincentives. Based on a unique data set from the Amazon review system, our analysis shows that, surprisingly, social disincentives increase reviewers’ motivations to contribute more frequently and devote more effort to contributions. Such effects prevail in both the short and long term. In addition, a reviewer’s real name identity and experience moderate the impact of social disincentives on a reviewer’s contribution decisions. We find that loss in reputation has more impact on less experienced reviewers and anonymous reviewers. Our policy simulation exercise suggests that not providing negative social feedback could diminish reviewers’ review propensity by 7.85% (2.39%) and review effort by 14.82% (4.50%) in the short term (long term). Not allowing reputation loss on a review site decreases reviewers’ review propensity by 2.82% (1.40%) and review effort by 7.52% (3.45%) in the short term (long term). This paper was accepted by Chris Forman, information systems. Supplemental Material: The online appendices and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.01115 .
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This theoretical article summarizes the various psychological and motivational processes that underlie prosocial decision-making. To this aim, we propose a novel way to organize and synthesize research related to emotions, thoughts, and beliefs (i.e., psychological mechanisms) that motivate or demotivate human prosociality. This is done with a new typology including four overarching interrelated categories, each encompassing multiple subcategories: (a) emotions; (b) moral principles; (c) anticipated impact; and (d) anticipated personal consequences. We highlight differences and commonalities to other influential frameworks and showcase how the proposed typology can help researchers and practitioners better differentiate and understand the diverse psychological mechanisms that underlie human prosociality.
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When are the emotional benefits of generous behaviour most likely to emerge? In three studies, we demonstrate that the hedonic benefits of generous spending are most likely when spending promotes positive social connection. Study 1 shows that people feel happier after giving more to charity, but only when they give to someone connected with the cause. Studies 2 and 3 show that the emotional rewards associated with giving to friends or acquaintances are greatest in situations that facilitate social connection. Thus, social connection may be important for turning good deeds into good feelings, and maximising connectedness between givers and recipients may enhance the emotional payoff of charitable initiatives.
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In three field studies, we explore the impact of providing employees and teammates with prosocial bonuses, a novel type of bonus spent on others rather than on oneself. In Experiment 1, we show that prosocial bonuses in the form of donations to charity lead to happier and more satisfied employees at an Australian bank. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we show that prosocial bonuses in the form of expenditures on teammates lead to better performance in both sports teams in Canada and pharmaceutical sales teams in Belgium. These results suggest that a minor adjustment to employee bonuses - shifting the focus from the self to others - can produce measurable benefits for employees and organizations.
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Moral transformation is the hypothesis that doing good or evil increases agency—the capacity for self-control, tenacity, and personal strength. Three experiments provide support for this hypothesis, finding that those who do good or evil become phy- sically more powerful. In Experiment 1, people hold a 5 lb. weight longer after donating to charity. In Experiment 2, people hold a weight longer when writing about themselves helping or harming another. In Experiment 3, people hold a hand grip longer after donating to charity. The transformative power of good and evil is not accounted for by affect. Moral transformation is explained as the embodiment of moral typecasting, the tendency to ''typecast'' good- and evildoers as more capable of agency and less sensitive to experience. Implications for power, aging, self-control, and recovery are discussed.
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This research provides the first support for a possible psychological universal: Human beings around the world derive emotional benefits from using their financial resources to help others (prosocial spending). In Study 1, survey data from 136 countries were examined and showed that prosocial spending is associated with greater happiness around the world, in poor and rich countries alike. To test for causality, in Studies 2a and 2b, we used experimental methodology, demonstrating that recalling a past instance of prosocial spending has a causal impact on happiness across countries that differ greatly in terms of wealth (Canada, Uganda, and India). Finally, in Study 3, participants in Canada and South Africa randomly assigned to buy items for charity reported higher levels of positive affect than participants assigned to buy the same items for themselves, even when this prosocial spending did not provide an opportunity to build or strengthen social ties. Our findings suggest that the reward experienced from helping others may be deeply ingrained in human nature, emerging in diverse cultural and economic contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
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While numerous studies have documented the modest (though reliable) link between household income and well-being, we examined the accuracy of laypeople's intuitions about this relationship by asking people from across the income spectrum to report their own happiness and to predict the happiness of others (Study 1) and themselves (Study 2) at different income levels. Data from two national surveys revealed that while laypeople's predictions were relatively accurate at higher levels of income, they greatly overestimated the impact of income on life satisfaction at lower income levels, expecting low household income to be coupled with very low life satisfaction. Thus, people may work hard to maintain or increase their income in part because they overestimate the hedonic costs of earning low levels of income.
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It is claimed that the correlation between income and happiness is considerably weaker than people expect and recent research supports that contention. However, an important lesson from judgment and decision-making research is that judgments are constructed in response to the prevailing context, leaving open the possibility that some elicitation procedures may reveal accurate intuitions about income and happiness. We examined whether this is so. Study 1 participants ranked a set of empirical relationships according to the strength of correlation and we examined whether they ranked the income–happiness link where it actually falls in the set. In Studies 2 and 3, participants estimated the probability that someone with a higher income than another is also the happier of the two. The estimates of the participants were then compared to the actual probability based on the documented income–happiness relationship. Results indicate that, using these elicitation procedures, people have an accurate understanding of the relationship between income and happiness.
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We explored whether rising income in nations is associated with increasing subjective well-being (SWB), with several advances over earlier work. Our methods are improved in that across time, the same well-being questions were asked in the same order, and we employed broad and equivalent representative samples over time from a large number of nations. We also assessed psychosocial factors that might mediate the relation of income and SWB. We found that changes in household income were associated with concomitant changes in life evaluations, positive feelings, and negative feelings. The effects of gross domestic product (GDP) change were weaker and significant only for life evaluations, perhaps because GDP was a less certain index of the standard of living of the average household. The association of income and SWB is more likely to occur when the average person's material welfare accompanies rising income, when people become more satisfied with their finances, and when people become more optimistic about their futures. People did not adapt to the income rises during the period of years we studied, in that income rises produced SWB increases that did not return to earlier levels. It appears that previous researchers failed to come to agreement because of the small sample sizes of the nations, the inconsistent methods across years and surveys, and the lack of measures of potential mediating variables. Analyses of income relative to people in one's nation and between-nation slopes together suggest that income standards are now largely global, with little effect of national social comparison. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
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How can tax payment be made more satisfying? The author focuses on the low volition and collective nature of tax-funded benefits as primary causes of low satisfaction with tax payment. Three studies suggest that allowing people to allocate a small portion (in the present research, 10%) of their payment across budgets provided by the billing party both introduces an element of volition into the payment process and increases the perceived benefit associated with tax payment. As a result, the author concludes that taxpayers are significantly more satisfied with paying taxes when they allocate their payments, even if their payment amount remains completely unchanged. In addition to enhancing taxpayer satisfaction, an allocation program, if well implemented, could provide some hope for correcting existing lack of voice, address disconnects between spending and taxpayers' priorities, and increase civic engagement in general.
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When does giving lead to happiness? Here, we present two studies demonstrating that the emotional benefits of spending money on others (prosocial spending) are unleashed when givers are aware of their positive impact. In Study 1, an experiment using real charitable appeals, giving more money to charity led to higher levels of happiness only when participants gave to causes that explained how these funds are used to make a difference in the life of a recipient. In Study 2, participants were asked to reflect upon a time they spent money on themselves or on others in a way that either had a positive impact or had no impact. Participants who recalled a time they spent on others that had a positive impact were happiest. Together, these results suggest that highlighting the impact of prosocial spending can increase the emotional rewards of giving.
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How can tax payment be made more satisfying? This paper argues that the low volition and collective nature of tax-funded benefits as primary causes of low satisfaction with tax payment. Three studies then suggest that providing individuals with the opportunity to allocate a small portion (in the present research, 10%) of their payment across budgets provided by the billing party both introduces an element of volition into the payment process and increases the perceived benefit associated with tax payment. As a result, taxpayers are significantly more satisfied with paying taxes, despite the fact that their payment amount remains completely unchanged. In addition to enhancing taxpayer satisfaction, an allocation program, if well-implemented, could also provide some hope for correcting existing lack of voice, address disconnects between spending and taxpayers’ priorities, and increase civic engagement in general.