Does Elevation Lead to Altruistic Behaviour? Commentary on Schnall, Roper and Fessler (2010).

Today, I presented an article at the Moral Psychology Journal Club at UniMelb, Elevation Leads to Altruistic Behavior by Simone Schnall (University Cambridge), Jean Roper (University of Plymouth), and Daniel Fessler (UCLA). I chose this article because I'm really interested in positive psychology, and I was eager to learn more about the elevation and prosocial behaviour. Some really interesting discussion (i.e. critique) ensued so I felt motivated to share some thoughts on this paper.

First, the paper.

What is elevation?

Elevation, coined by Haidt (2003), is "a positive emotion experienced upon witnessing another person perform a virtuous act, principally one that improves the welfare of other people" (Schnall, Roper, & Fessler, 2010, p. 315). Typically, people experiencing elevation will report that they feel inspired and uplifted, and motivated to perform a similarly prosocial act themselves.

Does elevation lead to altruistic behaviour?

Previous research had shown limited and indirect evidence for this hypothesis, for example through self-reported altruistic behaviour (Landis et al., 2009), more nurturant behaviours towards their babies in nursing mothers (Silvers & Haidt, 2008), and increased donations to a Black charity from Whites who are high in social dominance orientation, a construct linked to anti-Black racism (Freeman, Aquino, & McFerran, 2009). 

However, Schnall, Roper, and Fessler (2010) argued that self-report is subject to impression management considerations, that helping one's own child isn't true altruism, that it was still unknown whether elevation motivates helping outside of the context of group-based prejudice, and that none of these experiments had shown whether elevation motivates helping above and beyond the effects of general positive affect. Schnall, Roper, and Fessler (2010) therefore tried to establish whether elevation actually and unambiguously produces altruistic behaviour.

Experiment 1

Method

Participants. 59 women, aged 18-26 years from the University of Plymouth.

Materials. For the elevation condition, they used a 7-min clip from "The Oprah Winfrey Show" where musicians thank the teachers who had mentored them as underprivileged youths. For the control condition, they used 7 mins of a nature documentary.

They used six self-report measures of feelings and cognitive appraisals associated with elevation: how much participants felt "moved," "uplifted," "optimistic about humanity," "warm feeling in chest," "want to help others," and "want to become a better person," on a 9-point scale (1 = didn't feel at all, 9 = felt very strongly). Using the same scale, they also asked participants to rate how happy they felt, to assess the effect of condition on general positive affect.

Procedure. Participants watched either the elevation-inducing clip or the control clip. They then spent 5 mins writing a short essay recalling as much as they could about it. The experimenter then left the room, ostensibly to photocopy another form. Before she left, she paid the participant and asked them to complete a payment receipt containing the dependent measure, a check box asking if the participant was willing to participate in an additional, unpaid study. On her return, the experimenter gave the participant the form with the seven self-report measures to complete.

Results

Manipulation check. The mood induction of elevation was successful: Participants in the elevation condition reported higher ratings on all six items indicative of elevation ("moved," "uplifted," "optimistic about humanity," "warm feeling in chest," "want to help others," and "want to become a better person"), compared with the control condition. The groups didn't differ in their reported happiness.

Intention to volunteer. As predicted, more participants in the elevation condition volunteered for the unpaid study.

Discussion

Three limitations of this experiment were:

1. Their single measure of happiness may not have been enough to rule out the possibility that their results were driven by general mood differences, because elevation is positively-valenced.
2. Since the dependent measure was yes/no, they couldn't assess dose-dependent effects of emotions
3. The dependent measure only measured a commitment to help, not actual helping behaviour

Hence, enter Experiment 2...

Experiment 2

Method

Participants. After 4 participants were excluded, 32 female participants remained.

Procedure & materials. To account for the positive valence of the elevation condition, they introduced a new condition, the mirth condition, induced using a comedy clip. So they had three conditions this time: elevation, mirth and control. Participants watched one of these clips, then completed the self-report measures from Experiment 1, which also included a rating of how amused they felt. The experimenter then faked some technical difficulties that made it "impossible to continue the experiment", so told the participant she was free to leave, but would receive the full hour's course credit. Then as an "afterthought", the experimenter asked the participants whether she would be willing to complete another questionnaire, emphasising that the questionnaire was rather boring, and that the participant was under no obligation and was free to stop whenever she wanted, but that completing any number of the items would greatly assist the experimenter. Participants who agreed to help were given 85 elementary math problems and secretly timed on how many minutes they spent "helping" the experimenter.

Results

Manipulation check. Elevation and amusement were induced in their respective conditions, whilst reported happiness didn't differ between the three conditions.

Helping behaviour. Participants in the elevation condition spent roughly twice as much time on the questionnaire (~ 40 mins)  as participants in the control or mirth conditions; the latter conditions didn't differ. The dependent variable, minutes spent on the questionnaire, was significantly positively correlated with 5/6 of the elevation variables, but not significantly correlated with amusement or happiness.

Key conclusions

1. The two experiments provided "convincing evidence" that elevation leads to increased altruistic behaviour.
2. Elevation is distinct from mere positive mood.
3. Elevation inspired helping in spirit, not in kind (i.e. imitation), as their helping behaviours (volunteering for a study/completing a questionnaire) bore no resemblance to that in the stimulus (mentoring underprivileged youths).
4. By eliciting elevation, even brief exposure to other individuals' prosocial behaviour increases altruism. This is a potential way to increase the general level of prosociality in society.

Now, some questions.

When I first read the paper, I thought it was great! But I totally expected that the more experienced members of the Journal Club would tear it apart somehow, and of course they did, and I am truly grateful for the chance to learn from them and develop my skills in critically reading and evaluating psychological research. So these were our key concerns:

Gender. They only had female participants in this study, because of concerns that men might exhibit more helping behaviour because the experimenter was female. However, we thought that this wasn't really justified, unless you expected that men would be so eager to help that there would be a ceiling effect. In only testing females, they've excluded half the human population in being able to generalise these findings.

Sample size. In Experiment 2, there were only 32 participants, across 3 conditions! That means about 10 people in each condition. Surely at least 20 in each condition would be considered a minimal requirement here.

Mediation analyses (or lack thereof). This was the most important issue. The purpose of these experiments, as suggested by the title, was to show that elevation leads to (i.e. causes) altruistic behaviour, but they didn't really show that at all. Rather, they showed that the elevation condition induced elevation, and that the elevation condition increased altruistic behaviour, but they didn't do (or report) any basic regression analyses to show that elevation was actually mediating the relationship between the condition and the increased altruistic behaviour. In other words, they didn't rule out the possibility that elevation may have been epiphenomenal, and that something else may have mediated the relationship between witnessing the prosocial act and helping behaviours. For example, the Oprah Winfrey clip could have simply established a helping norm, basically priming helping behaviours. (In fact, we were wondering if it would be possible to ever get past this confound - is there a way to induce elevation without witnessing prosocial behaviour, or is that by definition impossible?)

On a final note regarding the mediation analyses, it looks like Thomson and Siegel (2013) more recently established elevation as a mediator between thinking about a time when they witnessed someone performing a moral act benefiting someone else, and donation behaviours, in samples with both genders. Take this with a grain of salt though, or check it out yourself, because I haven't had a chance to read the paper in-depth yet.

Overall, we weren't convinced that the experiments established that elevation leads to altruistic behaviour. Perhaps a more accurate title would have been, "Witnessing prosocial behaviour leads to elevation and altruistic behaviour in females". I would be extremely interested to see what happens if we (1) test both males and females, (2) have an adequate sample size, and (3) ran the mediation analyses. Would it then show that elevation leads to altruistic behaviour? Given the current crisis of confidence in social psychology, it's more important than ever to ensure that studies are as rigorous and unconfounded as possible.

Having said all this, in line with a positive psychology perspective, I want to recognise the strengths in this paper. The math questionnaire dependent measure was quite clever, as it was a way to quantitatively measure extents of helping behaviour. I also liked how they introduced the mirth condition to try and match the affective valence (although I suspect that elevation may still be higher in valence and intensity than mirth). And in the end, at least they showed that witnessing prosocial behaviour inspires prosocial behaviour. If we want to increase prosocial behaviour, that is, to encourage a society where people more regularly help one another out, then that is still an important, relevant and practically applicable finding in terms of publicising morally praiseworthy events, regardless of whether elevation, or something else, is mediating that relationship.

References

Freeman, D., Aquino, K., & McFerran, B. (2009). Overcoming beneficiary race as an impediment to charitable donation: Social dominance orientation, the experience of moral elevation, and donation behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 72-84. doi: 10.1177/0146167208325415

Haidt, J. (2003). Elevation and the positive psychology of morality. In C.L.M. Keyes & J. Haidt (Eds.), Flourishing: Positive psychology and the life well-lived (pp. 275–289). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Landis, S.K., Sherman, M.F., Piedmont, R.L., Kirkhart, M.W., Rapp, E.M., & Bike, D.H. (2009). The relation between elevation and self-reported prosocial behavior: Incremental validity over the five-factor model of personality. Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 71–84. doi: 10.1080/17439760802399208

Schnall, S., Roper, J. & Fessler, D.M.T. (2010). Elevation leads to altruistic behavior. Psychological Science, 21(3), 315–320. doi: 10.1177/0956797609359882

Silvers, J.A., & Haidt, J. (2008). Moral elevation can induce nursing. Emotion, 8, 291–295. doi: 10.1037/1528-3542.8.2.291

Thomson, A.L., & Siegel, J.T. (2013). A moral act, elevation, and prosocial behavior: Moderators of morality. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(1), 50-64, doi: 10.1080/17439760.2012.754926

The Mindful Way Through Exams

What do you associate with the word, "exams"? Stress? Work? Pressure? Tunnel-vision? I think these are some fairly common conceptions of what exam periods usually look like. However, I also believe that this is not an inevitable fate. While it is usually true that exam preparation involves increased demands of our physical and mental resources, I hope to explain here how mindfulness can be a particularly effective buffer against psychological stress. By studying with intention, starting or maintaining a formal practice, taking mindful breaks and maintaining a mindful attitude, exams can be a period of focused learning that remains simply another aspect of your life, rather than an all-consuming stressful experience.

Conscious Studying

Mindfulness, as the art of conscious living, applies to any area of life. This includes approaching study with purpose and intention.

Compare these illustrative examples:

Mindless Studying

• Pseudo-studying
• Studying with Facebook and your work open in two windows side-by-side and your phone next to you
• Studying while watching TV
• Autopilot studying
• Indiscriminately revising all content regardless of how well you already know it
• Passively reading/flipping through the textbook
• Copying your notes over and over again
• Punitive studying
• Locking yourself in the library (or your room) from 8am-12am with a 6-pack of Red Bull and no breaks

Conscious Studying 

• Reviewing flash cards with a spaced repetition function so you only study relatively unfamiliar content
• Making mind-maps to summarise and integrate your subject
• Practicing problem sets and past exams
• Practicing writing essays in exam conditions
• Splitting up your final essay into clearly defined stages with time limits:
• Find XX relevant sources (4 hours)
• Compile relevant evidence, with citations, from the sources in one document under headings of the topics you may want to address (3 hours)
• Given your research, rethink the structure of your essay and come up with a possible argument (2 hours)
• Write paragraph 1
• Write paragraph 2
• etc...
• After leaving for a day or two, edit for structure
• Edit for spelling/grammar
• Final sanity edit

Conscious studying is simply a more effective approach; by cutting out the distractions and being more specific about what you want to achieve, you get more done in less time and with less pain.

Formal Practice

Exams is as good a time as any to establish a formal practice. After all, mindfulness is associated with reduced anxiety and stress (Hofmann, Sawyer, Witt, & Oh, 2010; Evans et al., 2007), and increased working memory capacity and sustained attention (Chambers, Lo, & Allen, 2008). 

Apart from these performance-related benefits, mindfulness meditation can support your general sense of wellbeing. In a time when we are probably relatively focused on getting stuff done, taking 5 or 10 minutes to simply be with the breath brings you back to the present, helps you get back in touch with yourself, cultivates a sense of peace, and reduces perceived time pressure, when you realise that taking a few minutes to just be won't kill your study schedule.

So how do you do it?

Find a time that works for you. It may be first thing in the morning, last thing at night, or before dinner, for example.

There are a variety of possible practices, including mindfulness of the breath, mindfulness of the body, mindfulness of sounds and thoughts, and the body scan. I'll just provide the instructions for mindfulness of the breath here (repeated from Mindfulness in a Nutshell). However, you can easily substitute "sensations of the breath" for the sensation of your body as a whole, for sounds in the environment, or for an awareness of your thought-stream. The basic idea of mindfulness is to choose an object of attention and to constantly bring your attention back to it.

1. Sit upright with wakefulness and dignity
2. Bring your attention to the sensations of the breath in the belly or nostrils, or wherever else you can feel the breath. Stick with this location for the session.
3. Feel the full duration of each in-breath and each out-breath.
4. When you notice that your mind is no longer on the breath (this is inevitable!), notice what is on your mind in that moment, and let it go, then escort your attention back to the breath.

Mindful Breaks

Even if you choose not to establish a formal practice, mindfulness can be an effective practice during study breaks. When we are studying, often we get wrapped up in the content and the learning, and in doing so, lose touch with the external world outside of our laptops or textbooks, and with ourselves. The 3-minute breathing space is a good exercise for bringing you back to the present moment, noticing everything else that is in it, including your own mental and physical state, that you have possibly been ignoring while studying. It's a good idea to study for perhaps 50 minutes before taking a 10 minute break, including a breathing space (or perhaps 25 minutes, then a 5 minutes break). An even simpler alternative for a mindful break is to just bring your attention to your breath for one minute.

Here are the instructions (again, repeated from Mindfulness in a Nutshell).

1. Awareness: Bring yourself into the present moment, asking yourself, “What is my experience right now…in thoughts…in feelings…and in bodily sensations?” Acknowledge and register your experience, even if it is unwanted.
2. Gathering: Gently redirect full attention to breathing, to each in-breath and to each out-breath as they follow, one after the other.
3. Expanding: Expand the field of your awareness around your breathing, so that it includes a sense of the body as a whole, your posture, and facial expression.

Stop! Try it now - go on, it'll only take 3 minutes!

Mindful Attitudes

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, mindful attitudes can help maintain a healthy and balanced mindset during exams.

Non-judging. Notice the tendency of the mind to label experiences as good or bad, to like or dislike. For example, you may be finding some aspects of study "boring", or feel aversion towards stressful thoughts and feelings, or label yourself as "dumb" if you don't get something, or "lazy" for procrastinating. Simply observe this judging tendency when it arises, without necessarily trying to change it. This is about developing an acceptance of your experiences, even if they are unwanted, and being gentle with yourself.

Acceptance. Seeing things as they actually are in the present, not how you would like them to be. This might involve noting that you are seriously behind on your study schedule, adjusting it, and moving on, rather than freaking out (reacting) or pretending it's all ok (denial). After an exam, this involves recognising that what has happened has happened, and letting go, without ruminating on it any further.

Beginner's Mind. A mind that is free from expectations and receptive to the unique possibilities in every moment. What happened yesterday and the day before has already happened. Whether it was productive or filled with setbacks, each day is a new day, and expectations either way can lead to disappointment. Approach each day with a fresh mind, ready to learn and tackle any problems that come up.

Trust. Everyone has their own way. You know your learning style best, so balance external guidance with a trust in your own basic wisdom and intuition.

Non-striving. Mindfulness is not about trying to get anywhere, because you are already here. This may sound like a completely bizarre attitude to invoke when it comes to exam preparation. After all, preparation, by definition, involves trying to achieve things (as was apparent in the Conscious Studying section). However, if you approach exam preparation with the idea that you need to get a certain amount of stuff done, or achieve a certain grade, then you've introduced the notion into your mind that you're not ok as you are. Thus, as paradoxial as it seems, it is worth balancing these goals with a realisation that your goals are not you, and that as long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than wrong with you.

Conclusion

Through a combination of a conscious approach to studying, formal practice, mindful breaks and mindful attitudes, mindfulness can help you to maintain balance and perspective during exams. It's a way that is not only effective, but more importantly, encourages you to be realistic, gentle with yourself, and to stay in touch with the present moment and therefore with life, which doesn't stop for exams!

References

• Chambers, R., Lo., C., & Allen, N. B. (2008). The impact of intensive mindfulness training on executive cognition, cognitive style, and affect. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32, 303-322.
• Evans, S., Ferrando, S., Findler, M., Stowell, C., Smart, C., & Haglin, D. (2008). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22(4), 716-721.
• Hofmann, S. G., Sawyer, A. T., Witt, A. A., & Oh, D. (2010). The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78(2), 169-183.

Free Hugs at UniMelb

Yesterday, a group of students studying a Positive Psychology breadth subject, Motivation, Wellbeing and Performance at the University of Melbourne, took on the role of "huggers" for an hour, offering free hugs to anyone and everyone. Incidentally, I wasn't taking this subject, but had found out about the event through Facebook and decided to join in, since I love hugs, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to spread some goodwill and to do something spontaneous.

The Huggers.
Source: The University of Melbourne Facebook Page.

Why Free Hugs?

The lecturer for the subject briefed us before we embarked on our hugging mission, reminding us of the rationale for this project. Hugs promote the release of oxytocin from the pituitary gland, which enhances empathy and the ability to trust others, as well as reducing the stress hormone cortisol. 

Personally, I saw it as a fantastic opportunity to promote connectedness amongst people. Too often, we are exclusive, reclusive and selective of who we trust and connect with. To me, free hugs is a way of breaking down that barrier of the Other and just recognising that we are all human and can bring happiness to others in a simple, yet meaningful way. It's a way of expressing affection in a non-selective way.

What did we do?

There were about 26 of us wearing FREE HUGS t-shirts or holding FREE HUGS signs. We swarmed around a popular path on campus and moved to an even busier location later, promoting "our product" by asking passersby if they would like a free hug and yelling out the benefits of hugs. Examples of what I said included:

• "Free hugs for all!!"
• "Hugs for happiness!!"
• "Free hugs!! Woooo!!"
• "Would you like a free hug?"
• "Hugs are good for you!"
• "Hugs reduce stress!"

How did people react?

People more-or-less reacted as I had expected. While there were a few people who enthusiastically accepted a free hug, it remained the case that the vast majority of people did not want to be hugged by complete strangers. Thus, the responses to "Would you like a free hug?" seemed to fall into these categories:

1. The Enthusiastic Hugger: "Absolutely! I love hugs!"
2. The Casual Hugger: "Yeah, sure, why not?"
3. The Awkward Hugger: "Uh...ok."
4. The Amused Passerby: (no response, walks away smiling)
5. The Anxious Passerby: (gives strange look, walks away as quickly as possible)
6. The Non-Hugger: "No thanks, I'm not into hugging."

There were far more rejections than hugs given, for sure! I'll let you make your own inferences about what that reflects or implies about our society and culture. Nonetheless, I know we brought a smile to many, whether from the happiness of a hug, or from the amusement of the spectacle.

What was it like being a hugger?

I have to say, this project actually required a lot of courage. It would be an understatement to say that it was a high-exposure task. It was super-awkward to begin with, and that awkwardness was always in the background. The most important thing though, was for huggers to be able to laugh off rejections and to remain focused on the goal of spreading joy, happiness and connectedness.

This focus made the whole process an exhilarating and mindful experience. I maintained a non-judgemental attitude towards all potential huggees, and was present and acutely aware of what was going on in each moment. By the end of the session, I felt a strong feeling of goodwill and love towards others, and was in a much lighter and more positive state of mind.

Conclusion

Human beings have a need to connect with others. Free hugs are a simple, free and genuine way to promote this goal, in a way that is fulfilling for both the hugger and the huggee. Despite the majority of people tending to reject free hugs, it remains a noble goal, bringing benefits to those who are willing to overcome the barrier of strangers and sociocultural norms, to connect with, share affection for and appreciate a fellow human being. Hopefully in the future, with more free hugs campaigns throughout in the world, there will be an increased acceptance of the value of free hugs in promoting connectedness and love.

I'm interested in your thoughts...

• Would you accept a free hug?
• Are hugs something that should only be given to friends and family?
• Would you ever consider offering free hugs?
• What would be your biggest fear in offering free hugs?

And...here's the video!