亲社会支出对主观幸福感的影响及其作用机制

亲社会支出是指把钱以送礼或慈善捐款的形式花在别人身上, 而不是自己身上。它不仅可以给接受者带来好处, 还可以对给予者的幸福产生积极影响。亲社会支出对幸福感的影响主要体现在亲社会对象及影响效果两个方面, 其边界条件包括了外部与内部因素。通过自我决定理论、社会规范理论、进化理论及社会交换理论, 可以进一步解释亲社会支出影响主观幸福感的内在机制。未来研究需要检验亲社会支出与幸福感之间的边界条件、探究亲社会支出的长期积极效应及提高亲社会支出研究的生态效度。

The effects of prosocial spending on subjective well-being and its mechanism

While prosocial behavior has long been concerned by researchers, many recent studies have focused on prosocial spending. Prosocial spending refers to spending money on others in the form of gifts or charitable donations. Compared with other prosocial behaviors, spending money on others is less time needed and more popular in the online environment. Prosocial spending not only benefits the recipient but also exerts a positive effect on the giver’s subjective well-being. We would discuss some important aspects which have been explored in the relationship between prosocial spending and subjective well-being. First of all, the effect of prosocial spending on subjective well-being depends on the type of recipient (individual vs. organization or society at large). Secondly, this effect has been proved to cultural universality and cultural persistence. Prosocial spending is relatively immune to the effects of hedonic adaptation, because people’s daily life affords numerous opportunities for they to spend money on others, which potentially providing frequent small doses of joy.