The fact that groups of people typically choose to expel selfish individuals is no surprise. But new research suggests such troops often want to kick out generous members as well.This counterintuitive behavior could be rooted in how such giving people make others feel bad, or simply in how they stand out from the crowd, researchers suggest.
... the researchers conducted the experiment once more, this time asking volunteers why they wanted to kick out members who gave to the public good while asking little in return.Nearly two-thirds of the time, the students essentially said such generosity made them feel as if they fell short by comparison. They said, "He makes us all look bad," for instance, or "People would ask why we can't be like him."
About one-third of the time, the volunteers wanted to kick selfless members out apparently because they just deviated from the norm. They said, "This would be OK if someone else in the group was being like this, but no one is so it's wrong," for instance, or "I probably would have been OK with him if I hadn't seen everyone else's choices and saw that he was so different. He's too different from the rest of us."
A few of the remaining miscellaneous reasons students gave suggested suspicion of some ulterior motive. They said, "I'll bet later on she or he would stop giving so much and would start taking more," for instance, or "This person probably wants us all to start taking less so they can come in and take a lot more and get more than us."
These new findings fit in with past studies revealing that people often dislike exceptional competence or offers of help.
For more, see Moochers and Do-Gooders Both Shunned, Study Finds by Charles Q. Choi, August 24, 2010, at Live Science.
1 comment:
Mighty interesting study. Seems counter inetuitive indeed, but as I think about it, I have often wondered why folks that need help simply don't either want it or think they need it. Perhaps it is rooted in some deep suspicion on some parts and envy on the part of others.
Post a Comment