The Physiological Effects of Motivation and Emotion

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The current project seeks to understand whether helping others in need --prosocial behavior-- reduces the stress of the helper. This is a topic of obvious importance. Social psychology has determined that individuals who help others receive personal awards such as elevated moods. In addition, recent work has also found that people who help others live longer, enjoy better help, and recover better faster from depressive symptoms that accompany spousal loss. However, there are no experimental investigations that address either the physiological consequences of helping behavior, or whether psychological benefits mediate the helping-induced benefits. To address this gap in understanding, the proposed study examines the cardiovascular effects of helping behavior. The hypothesis, that helping behavior speeds the cardiovascular recovery from a stress-inducing experience, will be tested in a study involving 50 male and 50 female participants. The procedure involves the manipulation of perspective-taking and inducement of empathic concern for a person in need. Non-invasive measures of cardiovascular recovery (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure) will be used to assess recovery time. The study also includes measures of empathy and positive emotions to examine whether emotions mediate a link between helping behavior and recovery from the stressful experience. This work promises to further understanding of how helping others promote well-being and longevity.