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Science of Generosity Dissertation Fellowships Awarded
The Science of Generosity Initiative aims to support the work of young researchers just beginning generosity research. We recently conducted a dissertation fellowship competition, awarding $25,000 each to five graduate students studying generosity in the social sciences. The proposal judges were encouraged by both the quality and the quantity of applications we received, and finally selected five projects focusing on matters of real social significance and promising to make an innovative contribution to generosity research.
The winners are Rahsaan Harris, Public and Urban Policy, New School University; Kathryn A. Johnson, Social Psychology, Arizona State University; Marisa Gerstein Pineau, Sociology, UCLA; Brandy Quinn, Education, Stanford University; and Gizem Zencirci, Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. To read more about the winners and their dissertation projects click here.
Science of Generosity Resources
We are constantly adding resources for generosity research to our website. There you can find the following:
If you have any suggestions for changes or additions to the website, please let us know at generous@nd.edu.
What Researchers are Writing
Here's a short list of some things Sci Gen researchers have recently written:
Andreoni, J., & Rao, J. "The Power of Asking: How Communication Affects Selfishness, Empathy, and Altruism."
Andreoni, J., & Payne, A. “Is Crowding Out Due Entirely to Fundraising? Evidence from a Panel of Charities."
Christakis, N., & Fowler, J. "Cooperative behavior cascades in human social networks."
Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. "Altruistic helping in human
infants and young chimpanzees," Science, 311, 1301-1303.
Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. "Extrinsic rewards undermine altruistic tendencies in 20-month-olds," Developmental Psychology, 44(6), 1785-1788.
Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. "Varieties of altruism in children and chimpanzees," Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13( 9), 397 – 482.
What Researchers are Reading
We recently asked the Science of Generosity researchers to tell us what they've been reading. Here are some of the things they found worth sharing with us:
Economics
Dal Bo, P., & Dal Bo, E. “`Do the Right Thing’: The Effects of Moral Suasion on Cooperation.”
Carpenter, J., & Myers, C. “Why Volunteer? Evidence on the Role of Altruism, Reputation, and Incentives."
Gregg, P., Grout, P., Ratcliffe, A., Smith, S., & Windmeijer, F. “How important is pro-social behaviour in the delivery of public services?”
Psychology
Aknin, L., Barrington-Leigh, C., Dunn, E., Helliwell, J., Biswas-Diener, R., Kemeza, I., Nyende, P., Ashton-James, C., Norton, M. "Prosocial Spending and Well-Being: Cross-Cultural Evidence for a Psychological
Universal," Working paper, Harvard Business School.
Blake, P.R., & Rand, D.G. "Currency value moderates equity preference among young children," Evolution and Human Behavior, 31, 210-218.
Gummerum, M., Hanoch, Y., Keller, M., Parsons, K., & Hummel, A. “Preschoolers' allocations in the dictator game: the role of moral emotions,” Journal of Economic Psychology, Volume 31, No. 1, February 2010, 25-34.
Svetlova, M., Nichols, S., & Brownell, C. “Toddlers’ prosocial behavior: from instrumental to empathic to altruistic helping,” Child Development (in press).
Social Psychology
Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. eds. Prosocial Motives, Emotions, and Behavior: The Better Angels of our Nature, (Washington, D.C. American Psychological Association, 2010).
Norenzayan, A., & Shariff, A. “The origin and evolution of religious prosociality,” Science, 322: 58-62.
Piff, P., Kraus, M., Côté, S, Cheng, B., & Keltner, D. “Having less, giving more: the influence of social class on prosocial behavior,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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Spring 2011, Volume 1, Number 2
From Christian Smith, Director
Congratulations to the winners of the Science of Generosity dissertation fellowship competition. We're delighted to have them participate in the initiative and look forward to working with them.
Since our last newsletter all 14 Science of Generosity research teams gathered in New Orleans to meet one another and discuss their research. The meeting was a great success and generated a lot of interesting and helpful conversation among researchers who have a lot more in common than their different disciplines and varied methodological approaches might suggest. Some of the projects are beginning to see early results, so keep an eye out for word on those over the next several months.
Science of Generosity in the News
In late December, NBC News New York did a brief segment on the Science of Generosity Initiative. Click here to see the video.
Researcher Q & A with
Ariel Knafo
Q: How did you get interested in generosity research?
AK: My first research project was about the development of values--how (and whether) values are transmitted from one generation to the other. My dissertation advisor, Shalom Schwartz, suggested that we add to the study measures of adolescent behaviors in order to exemplify the importance of values to understanding behaviors. Read More.
New Blog Entry from Sonia Lyubomirsky
We've recently been taking a more detailed look at our pilot study data and tried to identify the behavioral consequences of practicing positive activities at work. According to some preliminary analysis two interesting relationships seem to be have emerging.
First, we examined peak behavioral rhythm hour and initial behavioral rhythm–in other words, the highest point of movement during the day and one’s movement when first arriving at the office. We found that participants who practiced a positive activity each week (which involved considering “three things that went well at work”) appeared to be more energetic at work. They were more active when they arrived at work, and they also “peaked” earlier, which suggests they were putting more effort into work during the day. Read more.
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