World Happiness Report 2023 112 Although these studies demonstrate a consistent positive relationship between well-being and altruism around the world on average, they cannot determine the causal nature of that relationship: Does altruism promote well-being, or does well-being promote altruism—or are the effects bidirectional? Also, does altruism increase well-being for the beneficiary, the altruist, or even third parties? We next explore studies aimed at distinguishing among these possibilities using more targeted examinations of the correlations between altruism and well-being, some of which also use experimental manipulations or longitudinal investigations in an effort to establish the causal directions of the observed effects. Well-Being as an Outcome of Altruism Effects of Altruism on Beneficiaries’ Well-Being Altruism is defined as an action intended to benefit the welfare of the recipient and so most acts of altruism should increase beneficiaries’ well-being.20 Many forms of altruism are explicitly aimed at improving recipients’ objective well-being, such as donating money to increase recipients’ wealth or donating blood to improve their health. In addition to improving recipients’ objective well-being, such acts can also improve their subjective well-being. A recent pre-registered study sponsored by the TED organization demonstrated this robust effect by redistributing $2 million in total from philanthropists to recipients around the world.21 Adults in this study were recruited from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Photo by Tyler Lagalo on Unsplash
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