Getting the Most out of Giving: Pursuing Concretely-Framed Prosocial Goals Maximizes Happiness

Melanie Rudd, Jennifer Aaker and Michael I. Norton
Additional contact information
Melanie Rudd: Stanford University
Jennifer Aaker: Stanford University
Michael I. Norton: Harvard University

Research Papers from Stanford University, Graduate School of Business

Abstract: Across six field and laboratory experiments, participants given a concretely-framed prosocial goal (e.g., making someone smile, increasing recycling) felt happier after performing a goal-directed act of kindness than did those who were assigned a functionally similar, but more abstractly-framed, prosocial goal (e.g., making someone happy, saving the environment). This effect was driven by differences in the size of the gap between participants' expectations and reality: Compared to those assigned to pursue an abstractly-framed prosocial goal, those assigned to pursue a concretely-framed goal perceived that the actual outcome of their goal-directed efforts more accurately matched their expectations, causing them to experience a greater boost in personal happiness. Further, participants were unable to predict this effect, believing that pursuing abstractly-framed prosocial goals would have either an equal or greater positive impact on their own happiness.

Date: 2013-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-hap
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://gsbapps.stanford.edu/researchpapers/library/RP2129.pdf
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 400 Bad Request (https://gsbapps.stanford.edu/researchpapers/library/RP2129.pdf [302 Found]--> https://login.stanford.edu/idp/profile/SAML2/Redirect/SSO?SAMLRequest=fZLLboMwEEV%2FBXkfTGheWAGJJotGSlsUaBfdVMZMgiVjU4%2Fp4%2B9LQqomm2xn7pyZezVL5I1qWdq5Wu%2FgowN03nejNLJTIyad1cxwlMg0bwCZEyxPH7cs9APWWuOMMIp4KSJYJ41eGY1dAzYH%2BykFvOy2Mamda5FResCSty366LjeG1v5UHU0r2VZGgWu9hENPbJDmj3nBfHW%2FTFS8yP2H6LMQeprhKxa2p%2BylwrO8zuopAXhaJ4%2FE2%2Bzjsn7hM%2FDheClmERiPB%2FzIFrM72aLSEzn1b4v9DLEDjb6iHYxCYNwNgomo3BWBBEbR2w6fSNednZ8L3Ul9eF2POUgQvZQFNlo8PQKFk9%2BegFJlseQ2WmxvYj9Npb%2FZU2Sm8ku6QV9WNWypx63WWdGSfHjpUqZr5UF7iAmY0KTYeT6HZJf&RelayState=ss%3Amem%3A60e9200f32939739baf1b507ce1f7cdc587059742af26e80be0af11d784c7a68)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecl:stabus:2129

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Research Papers from Stanford University, Graduate School of Business Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().