Overview
Doing good for others is often viewed as a noble virtue, even by non-religious observers. Research even shows that it really is better to give than receive, at least psychologically. Giving money or things increases the giver’s happiness more than receiving, and that happiness even lasts longer than receiving. Furthermore, giving time can actually make the giver feel less busy.
But for all the research on givers and receivers, we have yet to probe the perceptions of everyday onlookers. How do people outside the giver-receiver relationship view givers? Does helping others bolster one’s own image? Can it even help you land a date?
On the one hand, volunteering your time to help others could signal that you’re willing to put others before yourself, or that you’re a “good person” in general, and makes potential friends or romantic partners more interested in you. On the other hand, people can be pretty self-interested. They may not care too much whether a person volunteers his or her time.
In this set of studies we tested two questions. First, can volunteering increase others’ desirability to date you? Second, does volunteering make you more likable to new acquaintances. We used two experiments to test these hypotheses.
But for all the research on givers and receivers, we have yet to probe the perceptions of everyday onlookers. How do people outside the giver-receiver relationship view givers? Does helping others bolster one’s own image? Can it even help you land a date?
On the one hand, volunteering your time to help others could signal that you’re willing to put others before yourself, or that you’re a “good person” in general, and makes potential friends or romantic partners more interested in you. On the other hand, people can be pretty self-interested. They may not care too much whether a person volunteers his or her time.
In this set of studies we tested two questions. First, can volunteering increase others’ desirability to date you? Second, does volunteering make you more likable to new acquaintances. We used two experiments to test these hypotheses.
Experiment 1: Volunteering and Dating
For our first experiment, we recruited 400 people from Amazon Mechanical Turk and showed them a very brief, hypothetical dating profile (below). We chose the name “Taylor” since it’s a unisex name and can indicate a man or a women. We randomized whether each participant saw “volunteering” in the activities section of our hypothetical love-seeker.
Imagine you’re using an online dating app and you see the dating profile below:
Name: Taylor
Age: 28
Activities: [Volunteering], art, movies, music
Name: Taylor
Age: 28
Activities: [Volunteering], art, movies, music
Participants were then asked, "How much would you want to go on a date with this person?" and responded by answering on a 1-7 scale (1 = Not at all, 7 = Very much).
Results
Unfortunately for the volunteers out there, we found no practical difference in desire to date for volunteers (avg. = 4.66) relative to non-volunteers (avg = 4.69), (p = 0.824). We did notice that men and younger participants expressed a higher desire to date than women and younger participants, but this did not interact in any way with our main volunteering manipulation.
A caveat to this study is that we didn’t test whether the effect differs for those who also volunteer. Prior research suggests we like others more similar to ourselves (Brown, 2021). So if you enjoy volunteering and are trying to land a date with someone who also does, the jury is still out on that one. But if you’re hoping your volunteer efforts will give you a wider advantage on the dating market, you might be disappointed.
Experiment 2: Volunteering and Likability
Next, we ran a within-subjects experiment with 200 people on the online research platform Prolific to test whether a person who prioritizes volunteering to help others over themselves is viewed as more likable.
Participants were instructed to read a few brief responses from people about something important to them, then answer a survey question about each person. We used two hypothetical people for this experiment, “Connor” and “Mia,” who either wrote about volunteering to help others or making time for their self. For each participant, we randomized whether Connor or Mia wrote about volunteering or me-time, as well as the order in which they were presented, to ensure order and person were counterbalanced.
Below is an example to help illustrate one combination that participants could have seen.
Participants were instructed to read a few brief responses from people about something important to them, then answer a survey question about each person. We used two hypothetical people for this experiment, “Connor” and “Mia,” who either wrote about volunteering to help others or making time for their self. For each participant, we randomized whether Connor or Mia wrote about volunteering or me-time, as well as the order in which they were presented, to ensure order and person were counterbalanced.
Below is an example to help illustrate one combination that participants could have seen.
The following response is from Connor about something important to him:
“It’s very important to me that I make time for myself. There’s so much going on nowadays that nobody else is going to. So take time to focus on you. ‘Me time’ is very important.”
“It’s very important to me that I make time for myself. There’s so much going on nowadays that nobody else is going to. So take time to focus on you. ‘Me time’ is very important.”
The following response is from Mia about something important to her:
“I really care about volunteering to help others. There are a lot of people in this world who if we don’t help them, no one else will. So I try. It can really make a difference.”
“I really care about volunteering to help others. There are a lot of people in this world who if we don’t help them, no one else will. So I try. It can really make a difference.”
After reading each response, participants were asked “How much do you like this person? (1 = Not at all, 7 = Very much)” on a 1-7 scale. This served as our outcome of interest for our analyses.
We also tested whether certain participant traits are associated with higher likability of volunteers, specifically religion and volunteering behavior. A demographic survey at the end of the activity asked participants “In the past year, how much if at all, have you done organized volunteer work or community service?” with answer options “Regularly,” “Occasionally,” “A few times,” and “Never.” We also asked participants “What is your religion?” and “How important is religion in your life?” on a 1-5 scale.
We also tested whether certain participant traits are associated with higher likability of volunteers, specifically religion and volunteering behavior. A demographic survey at the end of the activity asked participants “In the past year, how much if at all, have you done organized volunteer work or community service?” with answer options “Regularly,” “Occasionally,” “A few times,” and “Never.” We also asked participants “What is your religion?” and “How important is religion in your life?” on a 1-5 scale.
Results
A paired samples t-test revealed that participants liked our volunteer (avg. = 5.75) only slightly more than our self-focused person (avg. = 5.52), an increase of only 4% (p = 0.013). Although the difference was statistically significant, it was below what we’d consider even a small standardized effect size in social psychology (d = 0.18). The figure below illustrates this difference.
Next, we tested whether the results differed based on participants’ real-life frequency of volunteering, religion, or importance of religion. We found no such interaction for volunteering (p = 0.866), Christian religion (p = 0.278), nor importance of religion (p = 0.814). Nor did we find any order effects (p = 0.153) or effect of naming the person “Connor” or “Mia” (p = 0.692).
More details regarding our methodology and statistical analysis can be found here.
Conclusion
If you’re considering volunteering to boost your image, these results suggest you may be disappointed. But science suggests a host of other psychological benefits from volunteering, such as making the recipient (and even more so yourself) happier, and increasing feelings of meaningfulness. So instead of forgoing volunteering, you may want to consider volunteering for the many other positive reasons, not the least of which, Christ’s call to love our neighbors as ourself.
References
Brown, D. (2021). Dating: Brains vs. Brawn: Do Opposites Attract? Or Are We Drawn to Similarity? AB Labs, Inc.
Mogilner, C., Chance, Z., & Norton, M. I. (2012). Giving Time Gives You Time. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1233–1238. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612442551
O’Brien, E., & Kassirer, S. (2019). People Are Slow to Adapt to the Warm Glow of Giving. Psychological Science, 30(2), 193–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618814145
Rodell, J. (2013). Finding Meaning through Volunteering: Why Do Employees Volunteer and What Does It Mean for Their Jobs? Academy of Management Journal, 56, 1274–1294. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2012.0611
Mogilner, C., Chance, Z., & Norton, M. I. (2012). Giving Time Gives You Time. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1233–1238. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612442551
O’Brien, E., & Kassirer, S. (2019). People Are Slow to Adapt to the Warm Glow of Giving. Psychological Science, 30(2), 193–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618814145
Rodell, J. (2013). Finding Meaning through Volunteering: Why Do Employees Volunteer and What Does It Mean for Their Jobs? Academy of Management Journal, 56, 1274–1294. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2012.0611