Help not Wanted: Effect of Pure Altruism Beliefs on Reactions to Being Helped

Abstract

The present research investigated the effects of pure altruism beliefs, beliefs regarding how purely selfless an action must be in order to be called altruistic, on reactions to being helped. Although the possibility of purely altruistic behaviors has been studied extensively by philosophers and psychologists alike, relatively less attention has been paid to lay theories about what altruism really means. Three studies examined the relationship between lay peoples pure altruism beliefs and their reactions to being helped. The results revealed that participants with high pure altruism beliefs were less likely to show positive reactions to being helped and that the effect of pure altruism beliefs was most pronounced when the helper was described as an altruistic person.