Social Capital and Prosocial Behaviour as Sources of Well-Being / John F. Helliwell, Lara B. Aknin, Hugh Shiplett, Haifang Huang, Shun Wang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Helliwell, John F.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Aknin, Lara B.

Shiplett, Hugh.

Huang, Haifang.

Wang, Shun.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w23761.

NBER working paper series no. w23761

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2017.

Summary:

This paper surveys evidence documenting positive linkages among social capital, prosocial behaviour, and subjective well-being. Whether in the workplace, at home, in the community, or among nations, better and deeper social connections, and especially higher levels of trust are linked to higher subjective well-being, even beyond the effects flowing through higher incomes and better health. Prosocial behaviour is also shown to be a robust predictor of well-being in both correlational and experimental contexts. These two lines of research are connected, as prosocial acts are most likely to increase well-being when they are delivered in ways that improve social capital, and reflect intentional generosity free of either compulsion or personal gain. We infer that these deep links between prosocial acts and well-being have an evolutionary benefit in maintaining the quality of social capital and thereby delivering cooperative human responses in times of crisis.

Notes:

Print version record

August 2017.