Abstract
A number of studies have shown that prosocial behavior is associated with enhanced well-being, but most prior experimental studies have involved actual or potential face-to-face contact with the beneficiary. To establish that it is prosocial behavior itself, and not only an increased sense of social relatedness to the recipient that improves well-being, participants (n = 76) were invited to play a simple computer game, where half were made aware of a chance to have an anonymous prosocial impact through gameplay. As compared to the control condition, this group experienced more positive affect, meaningfulness and marginally more vitality. Going beyond self-reported outcomes, they also demonstrated better post-game performance on a subsequent Stroop task, providing behavioral evidence for the positive effects of prosocial behavior. Also supported was the hypothesis that these positive effects of prosocial behavior on well-being were mediated by subjectively assessed autonomy and competence need satisfactions.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 351-357 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Motivation and Emotion |
Volume | 40 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jun 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York.
Keywords
- Prosocial behavior
- Prosocial giving
- Prosocial impact
- Self-determination theory
- Well-being