What Makes Us Want to Help Others?!
Today I was scrolling through my social media feed and stumbled over something quite interesting. It was research done by a team of Yale psychologists who studied what makes us help one another.The psychologists went about this study by conducting experiments that involved giving the subjects of the study money.
They asked them to choose how much to keep and how much to contribute to benefit the group that each individual was put in. Half of the subjects were forced to respond quickly. Half were asked to think carefully before deciding. David Rand one of the psychologists stated of the results, “Even in our own daily lives, we can see effects like this. If someone you know asks for help, it’s natural to agree, and the first time you meet a panhandler asking for change, it’s the same — your instinct is to give. But soon enough, we get hardened, and our immediate response becomes ‘No.’”
This study stands as an important reflection on ourselves. When we are given an opportunity to help someone we do it, but when it becomes repetitive we become hesitant. I want all of you who are reading this to ask yourself, why is that? Why might that apply to each of us? And why do you we become selfish? Any type of reflection asks for self-reflection can help us, and make us a better version of ourselves. Read more about the study in the link attached below.
Tara K.
http://news.yale.edu/2014/04/22/deliberation-staunchest-ally-selfishness