Compassion: An incentive does not always help

(Image: Pixabay CC0) People who help others do not necessarily want to receive a reward for doing so. However, a reward can encourage people with a low degree of empathy to help. This is shown by a new study . It is a classic of social psychological research: people donate less blood when they are paid for it. Without payment, i.e., solely out of the desire to help their fellow human beings, they have significantly more blood drawn. The decline in their willingness to donate can presumably be attributed to one motive: the concern that third parties might conclude that money alone drives them to become socially involved. However, this finding does not apply to all people.