scholarly journals Under What Conditions Does Prosocial Spending Promote Happiness?

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Lok ◽  
Elizabeth W. Dunn

Under what conditions does prosocial spending promote happiness? In a series of appropriately powered and pre-registered experiments, the present research revisited the role of impact, social connection, and perceived choice in maximizing the emotional benefits of spending money on others. In two exploratory studies, we found that happy (vs. less happy) prosocial spending experiences were marked by higher levels of impact, social connection and perceived choice (Study 1a and 1b). Consistent with these initial findings, three pre-registered studies confirmed that spending money on others was particularly rewarding when people were able to see the difference their generosity made (Study 2); when they felt a sense of social connection to the person or cause they were helping (Study 3); and when they felt that the decision to help was freely chosen (Study 4). Together, our findings corroborate previous research on impact, social connection and perceived choice, and highlight the importance of considering these key variables when evaluating old and new evidence on the emotional benefits of prosocial spending. In addition, our findings suggest that charitable organizations and policymakers should review their current solicitation strategies and pay more attention to people’s sense of impact, connection and choice when seeking charitable donations.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Lok ◽  
Elizabeth Warren Dunn

Under what conditions does prosocial spending promote happiness? In a series of well-powered and pre-registered experiments, the present research revisited the role of impact, social connection, and perceived choice in maximizing the emotional benefits of spending money on others. In two exploratory studies, we found that happy (vs. less happy) prosocial spending experiences were marked by higher levels of impact, social connection and perceived choice (Study 1a and 1b). Consistent with these initial findings, three pre-registered studies revealed confirmed that spending money on others was particularly rewarding when people were able to see the difference their generosity made (Study 2); when they felt a sense of social connection to the person or cause they were helping (Study 3); and when they felt that the decision to help was freely chosen (Study 4). Together, our findings corroborate previous research on impact, social connection and perceived choice, and highlight the importance of considering these key variables when evaluating old and new evidence on prosocial spending on happinessthe emotional benefits of prosocial spending. In addition, our findings suggest that the present work urges charitable organizations and policymakers should to review their current solicitation strategies and pay more attention to people’s sense of impact, connection and choice when seeking charitable donations.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Weisz ◽  
Mina Cikara

Abstract Amid a sea of requests for aid, what factors affect decisions to donate? Researchers and practitioners continue to debate whether we ought to prioritize leveraging passion (e.g., appeal to people’s empathy) or reason (e.g., appeal to utilitarian drives). Here we circumvent the challenges of emotions and obligation as levers by investigating the efficacy of a novel manipulation of choice architecture to affect giving: increasing the number of action options available to donors to increase how much they give. Across six experiments (N = 6,321), participants responded to single or multiple-bid donation requests. Viewing multiple bids for aid increased both intention to donate and actual donation (controlling for affective states that have been previously associated with costly helping). Notably, increasing the number of bids did not decrease the proportion of people who donated at all. We rule out previously-documented heuristics (i.e., 1/n, fairness) and agency as explanations for our effect, and find positive evidence for the role of merely increasing action options (i.e., bids). Finally, we replicate our effect in a natural experiment of charitable donations (N = 10,000): presenting donors with multiple bids increased the average donation by $8.77 (a 19.7% increase). Our findings have theoretical implications for invigorating behavior and offer practical suggestions for how charitable organizations can better engineer solicitations for aid.


Author(s):  
Joseph T. Salerno ◽  
Carmen Elena Dorobat ◽  
Matthew C. McCaffrey

Abstract Frank Knight's theory of monopoly price has received relatively little attention in the literature on Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. We argue that Knight accepted and refined the monopoly price theory of Carl Menger and his followers. Knight highlights the difference between monopoly as an inevitable outcome of departures from perfect competition, and monopoly as a contingent or ‘culture-history fact’. In the latter case, coercive institutional barriers to potential competition shape the choice set of consumers and producers, and provide a crucial method for identifying monopoly gains. There are three benefits to this account of Knight's contributions: it rehabilitates the focus on the institutional determinants of monopoly price, as opposed to the mainstream emphasis on market frictions and imperfections; it opens the way for a Mengerian monopoly price theory that seriously engages the study of institutions; and it adds new evidence and nuance to ongoing debates about Knight's place in economics.


Author(s):  
E.M. Waddell ◽  
J.N. Chapman ◽  
R.P. Ferrier

Dekkers and de Lang (1977) have discussed a practical method of realising differential phase contrast in a STEM. The method involves taking the difference signal from two semi-circular detectors placed symmetrically about the optic axis and subtending the same angle (2α) at the specimen as that of the cone of illumination. Such a system, or an obvious generalisation of it, namely a quadrant detector, has the characteristic of responding to the gradient of the phase of the specimen transmittance. In this paper we shall compare the performance of this type of system with that of a first moment detector (Waddell et al.1977).For a first moment detector the response function R(k) is of the form R(k) = ck where c is a constant, k is a position vector in the detector plane and the vector nature of R(k)indicates that two signals are produced. This type of system would produce an image signal given bywhere the specimen transmittance is given by a (r) exp (iϕ (r), r is a position vector in object space, ro the position of the probe, ⊛ represents a convolution integral and it has been assumed that we have a coherent probe, with a complex disturbance of the form b(r-ro) exp (iζ (r-ro)). Thus the image signal for a pure phase object imaged in a STEM using a first moment detector is b2 ⊛ ▽ø. Note that this puts no restrictions on the magnitude of the variation of the phase function, but does assume an infinite detector.


2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aja Taitano ◽  
Bradley Smith ◽  
Cade Hulbert ◽  
Kristin Batten ◽  
Lalania Woodstrom ◽  
...  

1988 ◽  
Vol 27 (04) ◽  
pp. 151-153
Author(s):  
P. Thouvenot ◽  
F. Brunotte ◽  
J. Robert ◽  
L. J. Anghileri

In vitro uptake of 67Ga-citrate and 59Fe-citrate by DS sarcoma cells in the presence of tumor-bearing animal blood plasma showed a dramatic inhibition of both 67Ga and 59Fe uptakes: about ii/io of 67Ga and 1/5o of the 59Fe are taken up by the cells. Subcellular fractionation appears to indicate no specific binding to cell structures, and the difference of binding seems to be related to the transferrin chelation and transmembrane transport differences


Author(s):  
M. S. Sudakova ◽  
M. L. Vladov ◽  
M. R. Sadurtdinov

Within the ground penetrating radar bandwidth the medium is considered to be an ideal dielectric, which is not always true. Electromagnetic waves reflection coefficient conductivity dependence showed a significant role of the difference in conductivity in reflection strength. It was confirmed by physical modeling. Conductivity of geological media should be taken into account when solving direct and inverse problems, survey design planning, etc. Ground penetrating radar can be used to solve the problem of mapping of halocline or determine water contamination.


Author(s):  
Brian Willems

A human-centred approach to the environment is leading to ecological collapse. One of the ways that speculative realism challenges anthropomorphism is by taking non-human things to be as valid objects of investivation as humans, allowing a more responsible and truthful view of the world to take place. Brian Willems uses a range of science fiction literature that questions anthropomorphism both to develop and challenge this philosophical position. He looks at how nonsense and sense exist together in science fiction, the way in which language is not a guarantee of personhood, the role of vision in relation to identity formation, the difference between metamorphosis and modulation, representations of non-human deaths and the function of plasticity within the Anthropocene. Willems considers the works of Cormac McCarthy, Paolo Bacigalupi, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, Doris Lessing and Kim Stanley Robinson are considered alongside some of the main figures of speculative materialism including Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux and Jane Bennett.


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