World Happiness Report 2023 118 negatively,78 and may be criticized, seen as irrational or psychologically disturbed, or even punished.79 In one study, for example, the least prosocial participants in a laboratory economic game penalized players who had contributed the most to a common pool, perhaps to deter them from continuing to behave in a way that makes others look worse by comparison.80 Because it serves to deter prosocial behavior and thus harms the group, punishment of prosocial behavior is sometimes termed “antisocial punishment” (in contrast to “altruistic punishment” which serves to deter antisocial behavior). Antisocial punishment is observed to some degree across many societies, but it is particularly prevalent in societies with weak norms of civic cooperation and the weak rule of law, whereas failure to act prosocially is punished more frequently in societies with stronger civic cooperation norms.81 Together, then, preliminary evidence suggests that observing acts of altruism may improve observers’ well-being through its effects on mood and emotion, interpersonal trust, and beliefs about human nature, but these effects may be stronger among individuals and societies for which altruism and other forms of prosociality are normative. Well-Being as Predictor of Altruism Effects of Beneficiaries’ Well-Being on Altruism One reason it can be difficult to disentangle relationships between well-being and altruism is that these relationships are bidirectional. That is, not only does altruism improve the well-being of beneficiaries, altruists, and even observers, but the causal arrows may also run the other way: well-being may sometimes increase altruism. This is the case for well-being experienced by both potential altruists and potential beneficiaries. For example, expressing higher well-being (particularly positive emotions) may increase the likelihood that a person will receive help from others. This may seem counter-intuitive, given that altruism is often the result of empathic concern elicited by a recipient’s suffering or distress—indeed, suffering and distress are among the strongest elicitors of altruism because they stimulate neural and hormonal mechanisms that promote interpersonal care and altruistic motivation.82 But it may be that either negative or positive emotions can elicit help, albeit through different routes. For example, a series of field studies found that various forms of helping (e.g., holding open a door, providing hypothetical help to hospitalized patients) are more likely to be directed toward beneficiaries displaying positive emotion relative to neutral or negative emotion.83 These findings are generally consistent with various other studies indicating that whereas empathy-based altruism can result from observing others’ negative emotions linked to distress or need, observable positive emotion can also promote prosocial intentions. For example, increased prosociality is directed towards people who speak with a positive and friendly tone of voice84 and people are more willing to share money with a beneficiary presented as happy.85 Although negative emotions like sadness increase the perceived need of the beneficiary, people may nonetheless prefer helping happier people because they are seen as more desirable social partners and thus elicit stronger affiliation goals.86 Preferential helping for happy people may also be mediated by vicarious responding to others’ positive affect87—that is, it may induce positive affect in the altruist that subsequently elicits prosocial behavior. Effects of Altruistic Actors’ Well-Being on Altruism Well-being increases not only the likelihood of being the recipient of altruism but of engaging in altruism. In general, altruistic behaviors are enacted more frequently in those experiencing higher well-being. People who are happier invest more hours in volunteer service,88 spend more money on others,89 and exert greater effort to benefit others.90 On a larger scale, when well-being increases in a geographic region, extraordinary forms of altruism like altruistic kidney donation also increase.91 Because altruistic kidney donation is so rare, it is implausible that the relationship between well-being and altruism results from the effect of these donations on population levels of
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