Science & the Big Questions

Is a More Generous Society Possible?

Generosity helps communities manage risk and cope with disasters. New research untangles the factors that lead people to help neighbors in need.

SAPIENS

Topics: Altruism Cooperation Generosity

Does Taking Pleasure in Giving to Others Make Us Selfish?

Recent research helps explain the warm glow of giving.

For Goodness’ Sake, Psychology Today

Topics: Altruism Generosity Happiness

Want to Raise Generous Kids? Here’s How

Parents can’t just assume their children will become giving people. They have to work at it.

The Washington Post

Topics: Education Generosity

When You’re Grateful, Your Brain Becomes More Charitable

How does being thankful about things in your own life relate to any selfless concern you may have about the well-being of others? A neuroscientist explores the gratitude/altruism connection.

The Conversation

Topics: Altruism Generosity Gratitude

Want to Make People Act More Generously? Try This Simple Mind Trick

If people think they’re being (metaphorically) watched, it makes them donate more.

Fast Company

Topics: Cooperation Generosity Reputation

Would You Behave Cooperatively If Nobody Was Watching?

New research suggests that cooperation may be a reversible habit.

Behavioural and Social Sciences at Nature Research

Topics: Cooperation Generosity Social Behavior

Altruists Make More Money and Have More Kids

There’s more evidence that selfishness is self-defeating.

Pacific Standard

Topics: Altruism Generosity Wealth

Indonesia’s Tsunami and the Problem of Human Empathy

As the death toll keeps rising, the compassion of faraway observers either can’t — or won’t — keep pace.

The Atlantic

Topics: Compassion Emotion Empathy Generosity

How to Seem More Generous Than You Really Are

If you’re the sort of person who’d prefer to get something out of your generosity, a group of psychologists has the research you’ve been waiting for.

The Cut

Topics: Decision-Making Fairness Generosity Reputation

Science Proves That Being Nice Is Its Own Reward

Selfless acts of generosity activate the brain’s reward regions, making the warm glow of kindness a very real thing, according to British researchers.

Forbes

Topics: Altruism Decision-Making Generosity

Seeking Human Generosity’s Origins in an Ape’s Gift to Another Ape

Studying the behavior of our closest living relatives may help scientists better understand the human impulse for generosity.

The New York Times

Topics: Animal Studies Cooperation Generosity

Contrary to Popular Psychological Theory, Believers in Free Will Were No More Generous or Honest

Across all four studies, people who believed more strongly in free will were no more generous (if anything there was a trend in the other direction, toward less generosity), and cheated just as often.

British Psychological Society Research Digest

Topics: Free Will Generosity Honesty Morality

Should You Tell Everyone They’re Honest?

People try to live up to their labels.

Nautilus

Topics: Compassion Ethics Generosity Honesty Morality

Larry David and the Game Theory of Anonymous Donations

What’s intriguing about anonymous giving, and other behaviors apparently designed to obscure good traits and acts, like modesty, is that it’s “hard to reconcile with standard evolutionary accounts of pro-social behavior,” the researchers write.

Nautilus

Topics: Altruism Cooperation Generosity Martin Nowak Reputation Social Behavior

True Generosity Involves More Than Just Giving

Virtues such as generosity are complicated. They involve more than just outward behavior. A person’s underlying thoughts, feelings, and motives matter, too.

Aeon

Topics: Altruism Empathy Generosity

People Choose Between Money or Puppies

Do people feel more inspired to be generous when they see other people being generous with them?

SoulPancake

Topics: Generosity

How Generosity Might Benefit Our Relationships

Do you think you give love generously? Does being generous in your relationships make for a happier relationship?

SoulPancake

Topics: Generosity

Why Good People Turn Bad Online

Meet the scientists finding out how we can defeat our inner trolls and build more cooperative digital societies.