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- 2023
- Working Paper
'It Wouldn’t Have Mattered Anyway': When Overdetermined Outcomes Justify Our Sins
By: Stephanie C. Lin, Julian J. Zlatev and Dale T. Miller
We identify and document an “overdetermined outcome defense” which occurs when one learns
that circumstances besides one’s own actions were sufficient to produce a negative effect (e.g.,
deciding not to go to the gym, but later discovering that the gym had been...
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Lin, Stephanie C., Julian J. Zlatev, and Dale T. Miller. "'It Wouldn’t Have Mattered Anyway': When Overdetermined Outcomes Justify Our Sins." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-045, January 2023.
- 2023
- Working Paper
The Link Between Integrative Bargaining and Leadership Evaluations
By: Julian J. Zlatev and Francis J. Flynn
We draw from implicit leadership theory and the dual concern theory of conflict resolution to posit a link
between negotiation style and leadership evaluations. Specifically, we propose that individuals who are
more skilled at integrative, but not distributive,...
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Keywords:
Prosocial Behavior;
Leadership;
Negotiation;
Conflict and Resolution;
Performance Evaluation
Zlatev, Julian J., and Francis J. Flynn. "The Link Between Integrative Bargaining and Leadership Evaluations." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-044, January 2023.
- December 2022
- Article
'Just Letting You Know…': Underestimating Others' Desire for Constructive Feedback
People often avoid giving feedback to others even when it would help fix a problem immediately. Indeed, in a pilot field study (N=155), only 2.6% of individuals provided feedback to survey administrators that the administrators had food or marker on their faces....
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Keywords:
Feedback;
Helping;
Prosocial Behavior;
Misprediction;
Relationships;
Interpersonal Communication;
Perspective
Abi-Esber, Nicole, Jennifer E. Abel, Juliana Schroeder, and Francesca Gino. "'Just Letting You Know…': Underestimating Others' Desire for Constructive Feedback." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 123, no. 6 (December 2022): 1362–1385.
- 2022
- Working Paper
Beliefs About Giving Across Contexts
By: Christine L. Exley, John-Henry Pezzuto and Marta Serra-Garcia
A rich literature investigates prosocial behavior by exploiting a variety of methods, the validity of which has been debated. While this literature has compared behavior inside and outside of the laboratory, an open question is how participants view prosocial behavior...
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Exley, Christine L., John-Henry Pezzuto, and Marta Serra-Garcia. "Beliefs About Giving Across Contexts." Working Paper, September 2022.
- July 2022
- Article
The Developmental Origins and Behavioral Consequences of Attributions for Inequality
By: Antonya Marie Gonzalez, Lucia Macchia and Ashley V. Whillans
Attributions, or lay explanations for inequality, have been linked to inequality-relevant behavior. In adults and children, attributing inequality to an individual rather than contextual or structural causes is linked to greater support for economic inequality and less...
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Keywords:
Social Cognition;
Inequality;
Prosocial Behavior;
Parent-child Transmission;
Equality and Inequality;
Cognition and Thinking;
Attitudes;
Behavior
Gonzalez, Antonya Marie, Lucia Macchia, and Ashley V. Whillans. "The Developmental Origins and Behavioral Consequences of Attributions for Inequality." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 101 (July 2022).
- 2022
- Working Paper
The Routledge Handbook of Digital Consumption, Chapter 41: The Internet’s Effects on Consumption: Useful, Harmful, Playful
By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld
This chapter considers how digital culture has changed over the past decade, as the internet has grown its scope and user base. Billions around the world connect daily to an ever-expanding set of applications. A framework for thinking about digital effects is offered:...
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Deighton, John A., and Leora Kornfeld. "The Routledge Handbook of Digital Consumption, Chapter 41: The Internet’s Effects on Consumption: Useful, Harmful, Playful." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-049, January 2022.
- January 10, 2022
- Article
The Link Between Income, Income Inequality, and Prosocial Behavior Around the World: A Multiverse Approach
By: Lucia Macchia and Ashley V. Whillans
The questions of whether high-income individuals are more prosocial than low-income individuals and whether income inequality moderates this effect have received extensive attention. We shed new light on this topic by analyzing a large-scale dataset with a...
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Keywords:
Prosocial Behavior;
Income Inequality;
Behavior;
Philanthropy and Charitable Giving;
Income
Macchia, Lucia, and Ashley V. Whillans. "The Link Between Income, Income Inequality, and Prosocial Behavior Around the World: A Multiverse Approach." Social Psychology (January 10, 2022): 375–386.
- 2021
- Article
Don't Get It or Don't Spread It: Comparing Self-interested versus Prosocial Motivations for COVID-19 Prevention Behaviors
By: Jillian J. Jordan, Erez Yoeli and David Rand
COVID-19 prevention behaviors may be seen as self-interested or prosocial. Using American samples from MTurk and Prolific (total n = 6,850), we investigated which framing is more effective—and motivation is stronger—for fostering prevention behavior intentions. We...
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Keywords:
COVID-19;
Prevention;
Prosocial Motivation;
Health Pandemics;
Behavior;
Motivation and Incentives
Jordan, Jillian J., Erez Yoeli, and David Rand. "Don't Get It or Don't Spread It: Comparing Self-interested versus Prosocial Motivations for COVID-19 Prevention Behaviors." Art. 20222. Scientific Reports 11 (2021).
- 2021
- Working Paper
'Just Letting You Know…': Underestimating Others' Desire for Constructive Feedback
People often avoid giving feedback to others even when it would help fix a problem immediately. Indeed, in a pilot field study (N=155), only 2.6% of individuals provided feedback to survey administrators that the administrators had food or marker on their faces....
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Keywords:
Feedback;
Helping;
Prosocial Behavior;
Relationships;
Social Psychology;
Theory;
Perception
Abi-Esber, Nicole, Jennifer Abel, Juliana Schroeder, and Francesca Gino. "'Just Letting You Know…': Underestimating Others' Desire for Constructive Feedback." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-009, August 2021.
- March 2021
- Article
Opting-in to Prosocial Incentives
By: Daniel Schwartz, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Alex Imas and Ayelet Gneezy
The design of effective incentive schemes that are both successful in motivating employees and keeping down costs is of critical importance. Research has demonstrated that prosocial incentives, where individuals’ effort benefits a charitable organization, can sometimes...
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Keywords:
Incentives;
Prosocial Behavior;
Behavioral Economics;
Field Experiments;
Recycling;
Prosocial Motivation;
Decision Making;
Motivation and Incentives;
Behavior
Schwartz, Daniel, Elizabeth A. Keenan, Alex Imas, and Ayelet Gneezy. "Opting-in to Prosocial Incentives." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 163 (March 2021): 132–141.
- February 2021
- Article
I Own, So I Help Out: How Psychological Ownership Increases Prosocial Behavior
By: Ata Jami, Maryam Kouchaki and Francesca Gino
This article explores the consequences of psychological ownership going beyond the specific relationship with the possession to guide behavior in unrelated situations. Across seven studies, we find that psychological ownership leads to a boost in self-esteem, which...
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Keywords:
Psychological Ownership;
Prosocial Behavior;
Altruism;
Self-Esteem;
Materialism;
Behavior;
Attitudes
Jami, Ata, Maryam Kouchaki, and Francesca Gino. "I Own, So I Help Out: How Psychological Ownership Increases Prosocial Behavior." Journal of Consumer Research 47, no. 5 (February 2021): 698–715.
- 2021
- Article
Helping and Happiness: A Review and Guide for Public Policy
By: Lara B. Aknin and Ashley V. Whillans
Perhaps one of the most reaffirming findings to emerge over the past several decades is that humans not only engage in generous behavior, they also appear to experience pleasure from doing so. Yet not all acts of helping lead to greater happiness. Here, we review the...
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Aknin, Lara B., and Ashley V. Whillans. "Helping and Happiness: A Review and Guide for Public Policy." Social Issues and Policy Review 15 (2021): 3–34.
- 2022
- Working Paper
Intertemporal Altruism
By: Felix Chopra, Armin Falk and Thomas Graeber
Most prosocial decisions involve intertemporal tradeoffs. Yet, the timing of prosocial utility flows is ambiguous and bypassed by most models of other-regarding preferences. We study the behavioral implications of the time structure of prosocial utility,...
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Chopra, Felix, Armin Falk, and Thomas Graeber. "Intertemporal Altruism." Working Paper, August 2022. (R&R at American Economic Journal Microeconomics.)
- Article
Common Variants of the Oxytocin Receptor Gene Do Not Predict the Positive Mood Benefits of Prosocial Spending
By: Ashley V. Whillans, Lara B. Aknin, Colin Ross, Lihan Chen and Frances S. Chen
Who benefits most from helping others? Previous research suggests that common polymorphisms of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) predict whether people behave generously and experience increases in positive mood in response to socially-focused experiences in daily...
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Keywords:
Prosocial Behavior;
Positivity;
Behavior Genetics;
Individual Differences;
Behavior;
Emotions;
Genetics;
Spending
Whillans, Ashley V., Lara B. Aknin, Colin Ross, Lihan Chen, and Frances S. Chen. "Common Variants of the Oxytocin Receptor Gene Do Not Predict the Positive Mood Benefits of Prosocial Spending." Emotion 20, no. 5 (August 2020): 734–749.
- August 2020
- Article
Does Spending Money on Others Promote Happiness? A Registered Replication Report
By: Lara B. Aknin, Elizabeth W. Dunn, Jason Proulx, Iris Lok and Michael I. Norton
Research indicates that spending money on others—prosocial spending—leads to greater happiness than spending money on oneself (e.g., Dunn, Aknin, & Norton, 2008, 2014). These findings have received widespread attention because they offer insight into why people engage...
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Aknin, Lara B., Elizabeth W. Dunn, Jason Proulx, Iris Lok, and Michael I. Norton. "Does Spending Money on Others Promote Happiness? A Registered Replication Report." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 119, no. 2 (August 2020).
- August 2020
- Article
Volunteering and Subsequent Health and Well-Being in Older Adults: An Outcome-Wide Longitudinal Approach
By: Eric Kim, A.V. Whillans, Matt Lee, Ying Chen and Tyler VanderWeele
Background: Growing evidence documents strong associations between volunteering and favorable health and well-being outcomes. However, epidemiological studies have not evaluated whether changes in volunteering are associated with subsequent health and well-being...
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Kim, Eric, A.V. Whillans, Matt Lee, Ying Chen, and Tyler VanderWeele. "Volunteering and Subsequent Health and Well-Being in Older Adults: An Outcome-Wide Longitudinal Approach." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 59, no. 2 (August 2020): 176–186.
- Article
Forgoing Earned Incentives to Signal Pure Motives
By: Erika L. Kirgios, Edward H. Chang, Emma E. Levine, Katherine L. Milkman and Judd B. Kessler
Policy makers, employers, and insurers often provide financial incentives to encourage citizens, employees, and customers to take actions that are good for them or for society (e.g., energy conservation, healthy living, safe driving). Although financial incentives are...
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Keywords:
Incentives;
Motivation Laundering;
Self-signaling;
Motivation and Incentives;
Behavior;
Perception
Kirgios, Erika L., Edward H. Chang, Emma E. Levine, Katherine L. Milkman, and Judd B. Kessler. "Forgoing Earned Incentives to Signal Pure Motives." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 29 (July 21, 2020): 16891–16897.
- March 24, 2020
- Article
Delayed Negative Effects of Prosocial Spending on Happiness
By: Armin Falk and Thomas Graeber
Does prosocial behavior promote happiness? We test this longstanding hypothesis in a behavioral experiment that extends the scope of previous research. In our Saving a Life paradigm, every participant either saved one human life in expectation by triggering a targeted...
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Falk, Armin, and Thomas Graeber. "Delayed Negative Effects of Prosocial Spending on Happiness." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 12 (March 24, 2020): 6463–6468.
- February 2020
- Article
Being 'Good' or 'Good Enough': Prosocial Risk and the Structure of Moral Self-regard
By: Julian Zlatev, Daniella M. Kupor, Kristin Laurin and Dale T. Miller
The motivation to feel moral powerfully guides people’s prosocial behavior. We propose that people’s efforts to preserve their moral self-regard conform to a moral threshold model. This model predicts that people are primarily concerned with whether their...
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Keywords:
Prosocial Behavior;
Moral Sensibility;
Decision Making;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Behavior;
Perception
Zlatev, Julian, Daniella M. Kupor, Kristin Laurin, and Dale T. Miller. "Being 'Good' or 'Good Enough': Prosocial Risk and the Structure of Moral Self-regard." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 118, no. 2 (February 2020): 242–253.
- February 2020
- Article
Using Charity Performance Metrics as an Excuse Not to Give
There is an increasing pressure to give more wisely and effectively. There is, relatedly, an increasing focus on charity performance metrics. Via a series of experiments, this paper provides a caution to such a focus. While information on charity performance metrics...
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Keywords:
Charitable Giving;
Prosocial Behavior;
Altruism;
Excuses;
Self-serving Biases;
Philanthropy and Charitable Giving;
Performance;
Measurement and Metrics;
Behavior
Exley, Christine L. "Using Charity Performance Metrics as an Excuse Not to Give." Management Science 66, no. 2 (February 2020): 553–563.