World Happiness Report 2023 115 further increases in well-being, in light of the positive effects of altruism on altruists’ well-being, as will be discussed next. Interestingly, feelings of guilt in beneficiaries of altruism can also increase future prosocial behavior.45 Although this may seem counter- intuitive, guilt is generally considered a prosocial emotion.46 The fact that it can both result from and lead to prosocial behavior may, therefore, not be surprising. Guilt can be distinguished from gratitude by its subjectively unpleasant nature, of course, as well as the fact that it may increase prosociality due to feelings of indebtedness rather than internally generated desires to help—perhaps as a result of the benefactor’s expectation of reciprocity.47 Thus, altruism, given freely and without expectations of reciprocity may be most likely to yield gratitude rather than indebtedness or guilt and thus enhance beneficiaries’ well-being. Effects of Altruism on Altruistic Actors’ Well-Being Whereas it is self-evident that altruism improves the well-being of recipients, it may be less obvious it would improve the subjective well-being of altruists themselves. And yet it often does. This may seem unintuitive, since altruistic acts often entail a cost to the actor (i.e., sacrificing resources), thus resulting in some decrease in their objective well-being. But that helping others—including giving them money, blood, or other kinds of assistance—nonetheless reliably causes increased subjective well-being is well-documented, with consistently small-to-medium effect sizes.48 A seminal investigation of this effect was conducted by Dunn and colleagues.49 They found not only that happier people report spending more money on others (as other studies have also found) but that when participants were given a small amount of money (either $5 or $20) and randomly assigned to spend it on themselves or someone else, those assigned to spend money on others consistently reported being happier than those who spent the money on themselves. This effect has been replicated in a subsequent registered report50 and has been observed in multiple cultures around the globe.51 Other forms of altruism have also been consistently associated with improved well-being in altruists, including volunteering52 and donating blood.53 It should be noted, though, that the magnitude of the relationship between altruism and well-being is larger when altruism is measured via self-report questionnaires rather than via single- itemmeasures of volunteering or helping frequency.54 The positive feelings induced by altruism are sometimes described as a “warm glow” that corresponds to feelings of satisfaction and general positive affect.55 This effect may yield a range of positive downstream consequences. For example, behavioral and neural evidence demonstrates that donating money can reduce the experience of pain in altruists.56 These benefits may be durable over the long term. Altruistic actors report higher life satisfaction, fewer symptoms of depression, and higher job satisfaction that lasts up to two months after helping others.57 The fact that altruism feels subjectively good may make altruism self-reinforcing,58 such that those who feel better after helping are more likely to continue helping at higher rates.59 If this is the case, the benefits of altruism may continue to accrue over time. Supporting this possibility, people around the world who regularly engage in altruistic behaviors like volunteering, donations, and helping report higher life satisfaction across the life span than those who are less altruistic.60 Paradoxically, however, some assert that if altruism yields positive emotional effects for the altruist, it undercuts the selfless or virtuous nature of the act.61 But others counter that altruism’s warm glow in part reflects vicarious positive emotion from having improved others’ well-being,62 which is the inevitable outcome of genuinely altruistically motivated help—and which, therefore, should be considered a marker, not a contra-indication, of altruistic motivation.63 It is self-evident that altruism improves the well-being of recipients, it may be less obvious it would improve the subjective well-being of altruists themselves. And yet it often does.
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