Recipients of Altruism Likely to Pass It On

Researchers want people to make 'what goes around comes around' a positive thing.

BY: Heather J. Smith

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Reprinted from the November 2004 issue of Science & Theology News. Used with permission

What goes around comes around.

This maxim can be either a good or a bad thing, depending on what you send around.

Some people argue that all human action is motivated by selfishness, an evolutionary need to get ahead. Yet, others, like Julie Juola Exline, head of the research group The Self as a Conduit of Love at Case Western Reserve University, believe that altruistic behaviors directed toward loved ones, strangers and even enemies make them behave altruistically toward others.

In order to test the effect altruistic acts have on people, Juola Exline and her colleagues used a few different tactics.

A preliminary study asked undergraduate students at Case Western Reserve University to think about two different situations in which they received acts of kindness: a time when the kindness was expected because of a close relationship to the giver, and a time when the kindness was unexpected because the giver was a stranger or an enemy.

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