Contrary to what one might think, it has just been shown that selfish people earn less than the generous. More logically, they also have fewer children.
We all benefit from not being selfish, according to a new interdisciplinary study. The recent publication of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology proves that selfless people tend to have more children and earn more.
“The most generous people at some point in their lives have the highest salary increases afterwards,” said Kimmo Eriksson, study director and researcher at Stockholm University. Previous research has linked generosity to enriched social relationships, greater psychological well-being, and even better physical health.
Lower quality relationships
The researchers analyzed data from five large European and American studies. “Overall, altruistic people tend to have higher fertility and income than selfish people,” they note. Regarding fertility in particular, two explanations have been put forward. The first is that selfish individuals see less interest in having children, which some of them “waste” time and money. Another possibility is selfish individuals have poorer quality relationships, and therefore fewer opportunities to have children.
For income, the researchers estimate that generous people have stronger professional and friendly networks, key sources in access to employment and promotions. They also demonstrated that earning money is the main motivation for selfish behavior, associated in the collective imagination with higher incomes. “Higher incomes have been associated with lower levels of altruism,” however, qualify the scientists.
The positive effects of long-term generosity
“We collected everyone’s beliefs to see if they matched our data. Our results showed that while people generally expect selfish people to have fewer children, they mistakenly believe that selfish individuals selfish people will make more money,” they conclude. The positive effects of generosity are more visible in the long term than in the short term, and vice versa for the consequences of selfishness.
Last year, a study indicated that generosity increases with age, making French seniors the champions of altruism.
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