이기적인 사람보다 관대한 사람이 돈 더 잘 번다 New study shows selfish people have fewerchildren and earn less money

New study shows selfish people have fewer children and earn less money

What happens to those who behave unselfishly and make sacrifices for the sake of others? According to an interdisciplinary study by researchers from Stockholm University, the Institute for Futures Studies and the University of South Carolina, unselfish people tend both to have more children and to receive higher salaries, in comparison to more selfish people. The results have now been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

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이기적인 사람보다 관대한 사람이 돈 더 잘 번다 이기적인 사람들 아이 덜 낳는 한편 돈도 적게 번다    이기적인 사람들은 아이를 덜 낳는 한편 돈도 적게 번다는 연구 결과가 나왔다. 스웨덴의 스톡홀름 대학교와 덴마크의 미래학 연구소, 미국의 사우스캐롤라이나 대학교 연구진은 유럽과 미국의 주요 연구 네 가지를 공동으로 분석한 결과, 이타적인 사람들이 이기적인 사람들보다 아이를 많이 낳고 월급도 더 받는다는 사실을 발견했다. 여기서 이타심 또는 관대함이란 타인을 도우려는 마음을 말한다. 연구진은 태도와 행동을 통해 그 정도를 측정했다. ‘이타적인’ 태도란 다른 사람의 복지에 관심을 기울이고, 내 행동이 그들에게 도움이 되는지 여부를 중요하게 여기는 태도를 가리킨다. ‘관대한’ 행동이란 타인을 돕기 위해 돈이나 시간을 제공하는 것인데 연구진은 사람들이 얼마나 자주, 또 얼마나 많이 그런 행동을 하는가에 따라 이타심의 수준을 평가했다. 스톡홀름 대학교의 키모 에릭슨 교수는 “결과는 미국과 유럽 모두에서 같았다”면서 “가장 이타적인 이들이 아이를 제일 많이 낳았고, 어느 정도 이타적인 이들이 가장 높은 임금을 받았다”고 설명했다. 이는 이기적인 사람들이 바로 그 이기심 덕에 더 많은 돈을 번다는 이전 연구들과 상충한다. 또 대중이 흔히 가지고 있는 통념과도 어긋난다. 미래학 연구소의 폰투스 스트림링 연구원은 이를 두고 “사람들에게 관대함이 더 큰 보상을 받는다는 결과를 보여주게 되어 기쁘다”고 말했다. 사우스캐롤라이나 대학교의 브렌트 심슨 교수는 이타적인 사람들이 돈을 더 많이 버는 이유에 대해서 “아마도 사회적 관계가 원만한 것이 성공의 열쇠겠지만, 정확한 원인에 대해서는 추가 연구가 필요하다”고 덧붙였다. 이번 연구 결과(Generosity pays: Selfish people have fewer children and earn less money)는 ‘성격과 사회 심리학(Personality and Social Psychology)’ 저널에 게재되었다. 이용재 기자 youngchaeyi@kormedi.com 코메디닷컴

P6 Behaviors That Create Selfish People (And How To Avoid Having Them)behaviors

https://www.powerofpositivity.com/6-behaviors-create-selfish-people-avoid/

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“The result is clear in both the American and the European data. The most unselfish people have the most children and the moderately unselfish receive the highest salaries. And we also find this result over time – the people who are most generous at one point in time have the largest salary increases when researchers revisit them later in time,” says Kimmo Eriksson, researcher at the Centre for Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University and one of the authors of the study.

 

Young woman helping old woman/ Photo: Berkut/MostPhotos

The result is contrary to theories that selfish people manage to get their hands on more money through their selfishness, as suggested in previous research.

Economical and evolutionary perspective

Previous psychological and sociological research has shown that unselfish people are happier and have better social relationships. The study “Generosity pays: Selfish people have fewer children and earn less money” focuses on unselfishness from an economical and evolutionary perspective.

In this collaboration with the Institute for Futures Studies and the University of South Carolina, researchers at Stockholm University have looked at how selfishness relates to income and fertility. Selfishness was measured partly through attitudes and partly through reported behaviors.* The results are based on analyses of four major studies of Americans and Europeans. 

“In a separate study, we examined the expectations of ordinary people to see if their expectations aligned with our data. The results of this study showed that people generally have the correct expectation that selfish people have fewer children, but erroneously believe that selfish people will make more money. It is nice to see that generosity so often pays off in the long run,” says Pontus Strimling, a researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies, who is also one of the authors behind the study. 

Social relationships may be the key

The authors themselves believe that improved social relationships may be the key to generous peoples’ success from an economic perspective, but note that their research does not definitely answer this question.

“Future research will have to delve deeper into the reasons why generous people earn more, and look at whether the link between unselfishness, higher salaries and more children also exists in other parts of the world. And it is of course debatable how unselfish it really is to have more children,” says co-author Brent Simpson of University of South Carolina.

*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 behaviours, e.g. giving money or their time to help others.

https://www.su.se/english/research/research-news/new-study-shows-selfish-people-have-fewer-children-and-earn-less-money-1.406953?cache=%2Fstudy-information%2Fstudent-counselling

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