Generosity Can Breed Contempt

[Buster's Uncle]

Generosity Can Breed Contempt
Scientific American
September 24, 2013 8:54 PM


 
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’Tis better to give than to receive. But if you give too much, you might receive contempt. Because a study finds that people shun group members who are overly generous.

Three-hundred-ten volunteers were each given points that they could contribute to the group or keep for themselves. They were also told that their final points tally would be converted to chances at winning a gift card.

After seeing the amounts contributed by five other group members—that were really computer simulations—participants had the option of punishing those that contributed the most. And they gladly gave up one of their own points to deduct 3 points from the most generous member.

Participants also rated how much they wanted other members to remain in the group. They went after those that gave too little and too much. The study is in the journal Social Science Research. [Kyle Irwin and Christine Horne, A normative explanation of antisocial punishment]

The researchers believe that a group’s members can find conformity within the group more important than the success of the group. As Ben Franklin may have put it, in some cases hanging together makes hanging separately more likely.

—Amy Kraft


http://news.yahoo.com/generosity-breed-contempt-005408907.html

...

Welcome to my life...

[Unorthodox]

I was in a similar "group building" exercise before...I figured out what was going on and royally fubarred the thing...ah...good times... 

[Buster's Uncle]

You would have loved the time our church youth group played the whisper game.  Independently, my brother and I were both being maliciously creative - and Sandy, the mildly (or more - I'm not being pejorative) retarded girl at the end of the line ruined it anyway.  It would have been a very fun and evil group exercise had she not been there, but she'd have rendered it moot even without me and BD involved...

I did grow up in the MOST sophisticated church.