Money can increase willingness to help - but only if empathy is low

People who help others do not necessarily want to be rewarded for this. However, a reward can motivate low-empathic individuals to provide help. This is shown by a new study. A classic finding of social psychology research is that people donate less blood if they are paid to do so. If there is no payment, which means that they act simply out of a desire to help their fellow human beings, they give significantly more blood. The decline in their willingness to donate can probably be attributed to one motive: concern that third parties might conclude that the only thing driving them to be socially engaged is money. This finding does not apply to everyone, though.