The Ohio State University and the University of South Carolina, released a study involving more than 700 people and their giving nature and it’s motivations.
David Melamed, lead author of the study and an associate professor of sociology at The Ohio State University, said: ‘We wanted to do an exhaustive study to see what the effects of those motivations would be when combined – because they are combined in the real world, where people are making choices about how generous or kind to be with one another.’
Now, it wasn’t a simple study like; you have 10 dollars and can give it to this person who needs it or keep it. This one was much more complex; they were analyzing people based on four factors of giving:
One is the idea that someone is inclined to do something nice for someone else with the motive of gaining – the notion of ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. The second involves observing an act of kindness and reciprocating and the third is a person’s doing good in the presence of people in their network who might reward their generosity. The final motivator is a person likely to ‘pay it forward’ to someone else if someone has done something nice for them.
It also involved a point system for choices, and it gets real complicated as depicted in the following image:
But what did they determine from it? Two things. First that people were largely willing to give without need of motivation other than being nice. And that Overwhelmingly they would give without expectation of getting anything back. Even at a cost to themselves. Find more in your Good News Story of the Day here.
But this means you don’t have to try to trick or manipulate people for them to be generous and kind, you don’t have to try to bribe them with anything. Just give them the opportunity and they will show you.
Story and Image from The Daily Mail.
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