Beneficiary or Benefactor: Are People More Prosocial When They Reflect on Receiving or Giving?
Abstract
Research shows that reflecting on benefits received can make people happier, but it is unclear whether or not such reflection makes them more helpful. Receiving benefits can promote prosocial behavior through reciprocity and positive affect, but these effects are often relationship-specific, short-lived, and complicated by ambivalent reactions. We propose that prosocial behavior is more likely when people reflect on being a benefactor to others, rather than a beneficiary. The experience of giving benefits may encourage prosocial behavior by increasing the salience and strength of one’s identity as a capable, caring contributor. In field and laboratory experiments, we found that participants who reflected about giving benefits voluntarily contributed more time to their university, and were more likely to donate money to natural-disaster victims, than were participants who reflected about receiving benefits. When it comes to reflection, giving may be more powerful than receiving as a driver of prosocial behavior.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
Ajzen I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211.
Alessandri G., Caprara G. V., Eisenberg N., Steca P. (2009). Reciprocal relations among self-efficacy beliefs and prosociality across time. Journal of Personality, 77, 1229–1259.
Bandura A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bartlett M. Y., DeSteno D. (2006). Gratitude and prosocial behavior: Helping when it costs you. Psychological Science, 17, 319–325.
Baumeister R. F., Vohs K. D., DeWall C. N., Zhang L. (2007). How emotion shapes behavior: Feedback, anticipation, and reflection, rather than direct causation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 167–203.
Baumeister R. F., Vohs K. D., Funder D. C. (2007). Psychology as the science of self-reports and finger movements: Whatever happened to actual behavior? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 396–403.
Bem D. J. (1972). Self-perception theory. In Berkowitz L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 6, pp. 1–62). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Brief A. P., Motowidlo S. J. (1986). Prosocial organizational behaviors. Academy of Management Review, 11, 710–725.
Brown S. L., Nesse R. M., Vinokur A. D., Smith D. M. (2003). Providing social support may be more beneficial than receiving it: Results from a prospective study of mortality. Psychological Science, 14, 320–327.
Burton C. M., King L. A. (2004). The health benefits of writing about intensely positive experiences. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 150–163.
Carlson M., Charlin V., Miller N. (1988). Positive mood and helping behavior: A test of six hypotheses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 211–229.
Chow R. M., Lowery B. S. (2010). Thanks, but no thanks: The role of personal responsibility in the experience of gratitude. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 487–493.
Cialdini R. B., Goldstein N. J. (2004). Social influence: Compliance and conformity. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 591– 621.
Cooper W. H., Richardson A. J. (1986). Unfair comparisons. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 179–184.
DeSteno D., Bartlett M. Y., Baumann J., Williams L. A., Dickens L. (2010). Gratitude as moral sentiment: Emotion-guided cooperation in economic exchange. Emotion, 10, 289–293.
Dunn E. W., Aknin L. B., Norton M. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science, 319, 1687–1688.
Emmons R. A., McCullough M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 377–389.
Fisher J. D., Nadler A., Whitcher-Alagna S. (1982). Recipient reactions to aid. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 27–54.
Fitzsimons G. M., Finkel E. J. (2011). Outsourcing self-regulation. Psychological Science, 22, 369–375.
Flynn F. J., Brockner J. (2003). It’s different to give than to receive: Predictors of givers’ and receivers’ reactions to favor exchange. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 1034–1045.
Frattaroli J. (2006). Experimental disclosure and its moderators: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 823–865.
Gouldner A. W. (1960). The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement. American Sociological Review, 25, 161–178.
Grant A. M. (2008). Does intrinsic motivation fuel the prosocial fire? Motivational synergy in predicting persistence, performance, and productivity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 48–58.
Grant A. M., Dutton J. E., Rosso B. (2008). Giving commitment: Employee support programs and the prosocial sensemaking process. Academy of Management Journal, 51, 898–918.
Grant A. M., Gino F. (2010). A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 946–955.
Isen A. M., Clark M., Schwartz M. E. (1976). Duration of the effect of good mood on helping: Footprints on the sands of time. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 385–393.
Jordan J., Mullen E., Murnighan J. K. (2011). Striving for the moral self: The effects of recalling past moral actions on future moral behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 701–713.
La Rochefoucauld F. (2003). Moral maxims. (I. Primer, Trans.). Newark: University of Delaware Press. (Original work published 1691)
Lykken D. (1968). Statistical significance in psychological research. Psychological Bulletin, 70, 151–159.
Lyubomirsky S., Sheldon K. M., Schkade D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9, 111–131.
Nelson L. D., Norton M. I. (2005). From student to superhero: Situational primes shape future helping. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 423–430.
Omoto A. M., Snyder M. (1995). Sustained helping without obligation: Motivation, longevity of service, and perceived attitude change among AIDS volunteers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 671–686.
Pavey L., Greitemeyer T., Sparks P. (2012). Highlighting relatedness promotes prosocial motives and behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 681–689.
Pennebaker J. W., Seagal J. D. (1999). Forming a story: The health benefits of narrative. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55, 1243–1254.
Penner L. A., Dovidio J. F., Piliavin J. A., Schroeder D. A. (2005). Prosocial behavior: Multilevel perspectives. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 365–392.
Penner L. A., Finkelstein M. A. (1998). Dispositional and structural determinants of volunteerism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 525–537.
Sachdeva S., Iliev R., Medin D. L. (2009). Sinning saints and saintly sinners: The paradox of moral self-regulation. Psychological Science, 20, 523–528.
Schwartz S. H., Bardi A. (2001). Value hierarchies across cultures: Taking a similarities perspective. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32, 268–290.
Verplanken B., Holland R. W. (2002). Motivated decision making: Effects of activation and self-centrality of values on choices and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 434–447.
Weiner B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. Psychological Review, 92, 548–573.
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published online: August 6, 2012
Issue published: September 2012
Keywords
PubMed: 22868495
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Article usage*
Total views and downloads: 4161
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Altmetric
See the impact this article is making through the number of times it’s been read, and the Altmetric Score.
Learn more about the Altmetric Scores
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 65 view articles Opens in new tab
Crossref: 79
- A consumer wisdom-informed conceptualization for understanding prosocial behaviors
- From promotion to prevention: the influence of de-influencers on sustainable consumer behavioral intentions
- Verkaufen, Flirten, Führen
- Unlocking the language: Key features of emotions
- The Prosocial Ambassador Effect: Adopting an Ambassador Role Increases Sustainable Behavior
- The Effect of Social Support on Consumers' Variety Seeking
- Being a Parent Helps Being a Benevolent Leader: A Mixed-Method Approach
- Receiving Social Support Motivates Long-Term Prosocial Behavior
- The virtuous cycle of prosocial behaviour and perceived prosocial impact in organizations: a longitudinal three-wave study
- Handbook of Curriculum Theory, Research, and Practice
- View More
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
I am signed in as:
View my profileSign out
I can access personal subscriptions, purchases, paired institutional access and free tools such as favourite journals, email alerts and saved searches.
loading institutional access options
APS members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.
APS members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
