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i study philanthropy
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both what causes people to behave
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generously and how generous acts
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are perceived by others especially in
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light of the fact that oftentimes when
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people behave generously
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they reap some benefits in return and
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those benefits come in different forms
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so we receive tax breaks when we give to
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charity we earn reputational benefits
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for being perceived as a generous person
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which is valued in our society
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and we reap emotional benefits feels
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good to help others
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and so this is kind of a contradiction
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because altruism generosity in its
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purest form
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is supposed to be selfless and yet we
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benefit from it
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in this paper we look at what happens
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when people brag about or advertise
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their good deeds to others
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we ask the question of whether and when
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bragging is effective
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and the answer is really that it depends
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on the one hand bragging signals a
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selfish motive for behaving generously
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it signals that perhaps the person
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behave generously not because they're
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truly a good person who cares
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but because they wanted to earn credit
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for for being a generous person
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and so in that sense bragging shouldn't
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help your reputation if others realize
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that or
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others perceive you as doing it for a
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ulterior motive
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on the other hand bragging is just
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marketing it's providing information if
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nobody knows that you did a good
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good deed then you don't get any credit
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at all and so to the extent that
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bragging provides new information about
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your generous behavior
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bragging should enhance your reputation
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as a generous person
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so through a series of controlled
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experiments we're able to
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tease apart or disentangle the different
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sorts of effects that bragging has
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on a person's reputation and the key
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finding
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is that bragging only pays in situations
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for which bragging provides
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new news so if a person's reputation is
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not so generous
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bragging can help by providing
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information that the person has behaved
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generously but if a person's reputation
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is already generous
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then bragging doesn't provide any new
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information it only signals
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that the motive isn't pure that the
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motive is is to improve one's reputation
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so we found this pattern in a number of
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ways in one study that i like in
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particular
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we described a person who volunteered
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for a community service organization
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and then in some cases they subsequently
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posted on facebook telling their social
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network that they had done this
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volunteering
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now one thing we did in the study was we
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varied whether this individual
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was an investment banker or was a social
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worker
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now investment bankers don't have the
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kindest warmest
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reputation in fact they're perceived to
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be pretty selfish
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whereas social workers are perceived to
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be generous warm people
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and so somewhat surprisingly we found
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that
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bragging actually paid for the
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investment banker
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by providing new information so when the
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investment banker brags people learn
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that in fact
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he's a bit generous after all whereas
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the social worker has already thought to
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be generous
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and so bragging doesn't pay for the in
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the case of the social worker
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well public displays of generosity are
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ubiquitous
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nearly every new building on a
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university campus
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hospitals and in the arts is emblazoned
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with the name of some illustrious
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donor who's signaling to the world just
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how generous they are
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now this these forms of boasts are not
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just the purview of the super rich
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in fact if you look around on social
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media you'll note just how pervasive
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bragging is
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so people advertise or brag about their
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achievements
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they brag about their relationships and
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they brag about their good deeds
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and so our research sheds some light on
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whether this is actually strategically
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smart or in what cases it's
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strategically smart to brag and what we
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find is that it makes sense to brag in
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the cases
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for which bragging provides new news
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about a person's character
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if a person's reputation is already
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thought to be generous
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then bragging fails to to provide any
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benefit and only signals a potentially
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selfish motive
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this research has other implications as
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well so a reluctance to brag by some
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individuals may actually be a hindrance
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for fundraising
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a very generous person may want to keep
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their donations and other good acts
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private so that it's they can signal to
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themselves that their motives are pure
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however we know that one of the best
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ways to fundraise is by telling other
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people of
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of your own donations when you tell a
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friend about your donations
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that inspires them to donate as well and
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so this really gets at the conflict
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between doing the most good possible and
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appearing the most good
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so beyond studying how selfish motives
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are perceived by others
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i also investigate how selfish
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incentives influence altruistic
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behavior in a recent study we asked
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people to make a pitch on video
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advocating a co for a cause that they
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care about
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now after they agreed to do this we gave
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some of them
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a financial incentive we told them that
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for every ten dollars donated
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based on somebody watching their video
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we would also send them ten dollars in
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return
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other participants receive no such
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incentive and what we thought was really
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informative
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we found that donors gave less money on
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average
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when they viewed a video made by
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somebody who had received a financial
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incentive
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and this is because even though they
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were unaware that the incentive exists
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they can detect the sincerity and the
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self-interest of an incentive
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taints the person's ability to convey
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sincerity in their pitch
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you
