Study Shows Being Selfish or Generous Can Dictate Your Future
If you read my blog enough, you’ll learn that I love reading and writing about research studies. A few days ago I wrote about a study that showed rosemary improves memory. Prior to that I wrote about a study showing how living a purpose driven life makes you healthier.
Today, I’ve got another research study that will make you think twice about being selfish or generous.
An new report covered on Psych Central shows that choosing to be selfish or generous is an easy choice when looking at the economics of it. Researchers from the University of South Carolina and Stockholm University led this study. Their research suggest that generous people have more children and receive higher salaries in comparison to selfish people.
Unselfishness is defined in the study as the desire to help others because you care about their welfare. Therefore, attitudes concern how important a person thinks it is to help others and care about their welfare. The behaviors concerned how often and how much the person engaged in various help behaviors, e.g. giving money or their time to help others.
Prior studies have proposed that unselfish people are happier and have better social relationships.
The new study focuses on unselfishness from an economical and evolutionary perspective and looked at how selfishness relates to income and fertility.
Selfish or Generous? Don’t Let The Uncle Scrooge Myth Trick You
This article also mentions how this research largely debunks the myth that selfish people get rich through their selfishness. This is partly attributed to the rich “uncle scrooge” myth. This was first propagated through the Ebenezer Scrooge character in A Christmas Carol. What’s more, any fan of Disney who grew up in the 90s will never forget Uncle Scrooge from the cartoon Duck Tales.
Nevertheless, this research is clear. If your goal is to have wealth, and love ones to share it with, being generous is the start. No need to think twice about being selfish or generous anymore. As you make one choice over the other, over time your future will unfold accordingly.