-
Research Projects
- Science of Generosity: Causes, Manifestations and Consequences of Generous Behaviors
- The Social Contagion of Generosity
- The Family Cycle of Kindness and Generosity
- Religious Institutions and Generosity: Catholicism and Islam
- The Inherent Sociality of Giving and Altruism
- Attachment Formation, Compassion and Generosity
- Does Microfinancing Promote Generosity?
- The Foundations of Marital Generosity
- The Neural Circuitry Underlying Altruistic Behavior
- Generosity from an Intercultural Perspective
- The Causes and Effects of Workplace Generosity
- The Causes of Intergenerational Generosity
- The Development of Prosocial Behavior
- The Socioeconomic Basis of Generosity in Britain
Author Archives: science-of-generosity
How one economist began to study generosity
How I got interested in generosity and why I stay interested are two different stories. I took up economics because I wanted to work on income inequality, thinking that inheritances are an important factor that make inequality bigger. Surprisingly, Gary … Continue reading
Posted in Intergenerational Causes of Generosity, Prosocial behavior
Tagged Family behavior, Helping, Income inequality, Welfare
Comments Off on How one economist began to study generosity
Challenging the assumptions of conventional economics
I’m an economist who entertains a broad palette of possible tastes and motives in the people I study. Some of these tastes and motives come from psychological, some from sociology, some from linguistics, and some just from approaching the world … Continue reading
Posted in Prosocial behavior
Tagged Behavioral economics, Self interest
Comments Off on Challenging the assumptions of conventional economics
Generosity and the physiology of maternal care
I first became interested in the science of generosity while I was working with Robert Cialdini as a second year graduate student. Dr. Cialdini was involved in a debate with Daniel Batson about whether altruism exists, and Dr. Cialdini came … Continue reading
Posted in Maternal care, The Neural Circuitry of Altruistic Behavior
Tagged Altruism, Evolutionary theory, Maternal care
Comments Off on Generosity and the physiology of maternal care
The socioeconomic foundations of generosity in Britain
My interest in generosity came about from my research on social mobility, ethnic integration and social capital in British society. I found a lot of studies on specific aspects of generosity, but no systematic analysis on the interrelationship between people’s … Continue reading
Posted in Socioeconomic Foundations of Generosity in Britain
Tagged Ethnic integration, Social capital, Social mobility
Comments Off on The socioeconomic foundations of generosity in Britain
From social problems to social goods
Back when I was in graduate school, I was having trouble picking my dissertation topic. Coming from the typical sociology “social problems” perspective, I could not decide which social problem was important enough to study exclusively. One day I started … Continue reading
Posted in Generosity from a Cross-Cultural Perspective, Prosocial behavior, Social capital
Tagged Prosocial behavior, Social capital, Social goods, Trust, Volunteering
Comments Off on From social problems to social goods
Inspired to do generosity research
Our lab first became interested in generosity as an outgrowth of the research we do on positive activity interventions (PAIs), such as counting blessings, practicing optimism, putting one’s strengths into practice, writing letters of gratitude, and performing acts of kindness. … Continue reading
Posted in Causes and Effects of Generosity in the Workplace, Happiness, Kindness
Tagged Generosity heroes, Gratitude, Happiness, Positive activity interventions
Comments Off on Inspired to do generosity research
A researcher’s interest in child generosity
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, to exemplify the … Continue reading
How one research group got interested in generosity research
Our interest in generosity was sparked by our earlier research in Kolkata, India, where we found that micro-finance group meetings seemed to affect household outcomes through social as well as financial channels . This got us thinking about the various … Continue reading
Posted in The Effects of Microfinancing
Tagged generosity, micro-financing, risk-sharing, social networks
Comments Off on How one research group got interested in generosity research
Generosity, Islam and Catholicism
I became interested in generosity while studying efforts of Muslim groups in some Western European countries to obtain permission for Islamic burials in public cemeteries, and to obtain permission to build full service community mosques. I wondered to what extent … Continue reading
Posted in Generosity in Islam and Catholicism
Tagged Catholicism, generosity, Islam, religion, sacrifice
Comments Off on Generosity, Islam and Catholicism