Positive feelings reward and promote prosocial behavior

Abstract

Humans are extraordinarily prosocial. What inspires and reinforces a willingness to help others? Here we focus on the role of positive feelings. Drawing on functional accounts of positive emotion, which suggest that positive emotional states serve to alert actors to positive experiences and encourage similar action in the future, we summarize evidence demonstrating that positive feelings promote and reward prosocial behavior throughout development. Specifically, we highlight new and classic evidence from both child and adult research showing first, that various positive states prompt prosocial behavior, and second, prosocial action leads to positive states. We also consider the possibility of a positive feedback loop, wherein the emotional rewards of giving promote future prosociality.