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Motives matter: The emotional consequences of recalled self- and other- focused prosocial acts

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Abstract

Past research has demonstrated that engaging in and reflecting upon past instances of prosocial behavior promote happiness. Yet, people provide help for a myriad of reasons. Do the motives for giving impact its emotional consequences? In three experiments (N > 680), we compared the emotional outcomes of recalling a past instance of prosocial behavior motivated by self-focused and other-focused concerns. Using both between and within subjects designs, we find that recalling an instance of other-focused helping leads to higher positive affect than recalling an instance of self-focused helping. This finding was mediated by feelings of morality. The present work suggests that not all acts of kindness offer equivalent well-being benefits and that selfish motives may undermine the emotional rewards that typically follow other-focused prosocial behavior.

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Notes

  1. When all coding dimension shown to differ across recall conditions in Experiment 3 were entered as covariates (i.e. kindness, impact, giving money, target as acquaintance, target as friend) into the mediation model, the key conclusion remained unchanged: recalling an instance of other-focused helping led to higher feelings of positive affect than self-focused helping through perceptions of morality (Indirect Effect = .34, p < .001, 95% CI [.23, .49]). It is also worth noting that none of the five coder rated dimension included as covariates predicted feelings of morality or positive affect (all ps > .10). Full model results can be found at https://osf.io/bp57k/.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A1S6, Canada

    Dylan Wiwad & Lara B. Aknin

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  1. Dylan Wiwad
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  2. Lara B. Aknin
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Correspondence to Dylan Wiwad.

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Wiwad, D., Aknin, L.B. Motives matter: The emotional consequences of recalled self- and other- focused prosocial acts. Motiv Emot 41, 730–740 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-017-9638-2

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