The Psychological Benefits of Receiving Real-Life Altruism

This study investigates the impact of receiving real-life altruism on such positive attitudinal aspects as empathy, optimism, and motivation to help others. A mixed convenience/snowball sample of 148 participants (79 men, 67 women, 2 gender unknown), responded to an online questionnaire. Most were between 21 and 40 years of age, and had at least a college degree; all but eight were born in Venezuela, and the remainder were from other Hispanic/Latino countries. Participants were asked to describe an experience in which they had received unexpected altruism and rate its impact on their subsequent view of life. They were also asked to rate its effect on their optimism about human nature, trust in social relationships, appreciation for life, sense of gratitude, self-esteem, sense of being valued by others, empathy for others, motivation to help others, energy and enthusiasm in general, and religious faith. A total of 64.2% reported an unexpected altruistic experience. Of those, almost 75% reported the experience changed their view of life at least “strongly” and only 4.2% stated that it had little or no effect. The intensity of their change in life view correlated significantly with all 10 dependent variables except for gratitude. Women were significantly more likely to report that their experience boosted their gratitude for others, and participants whose altruistic experiences were attitudinally more life-changing were significantly more likely to indicate that religion was very important to them. The implications of these findings for understanding the psychological benefits of altruistic experience are discussed and avenues for future research are suggested.