Can watching Oprah make you more virtuous? Maybe, according to new findings reported in Psychological Science.
When someone performs an act of altruism (especially if it involves helping another person), the afterglow of positive feelings can extend to those who merely witness the good deed. Well, a group of psychological scientists wanted to investigate whether this second-hand uplift, known as "elevation," could spur bystanders to perform virtuous acts themselves.
Simone Schnall from the University of Cambridge, Jean Roper from the University of Plymouth, and Daniel M.T. Fessler from the University of California, Los Angeles, devised a study in which volunteers watched scenes from a nature documentary or a segment from the Oprah Winfrey show. While the nature scenes were considered neutral, the Oprah clip of musicians thanking their mentors, was designed to induce feelings of elevation. Volunteers then wrote an essay describing what they watched. As they received their payment and a receipt, they were to indicate if they would be willing to participate in an additional study.
Those who viewed the uplifting Oprah clip, were more likely to volunteer for another research study than volunteers who watched the documentary, suggesting that elevation may make us more willing to help others. The researchers then wanted to see if elevation would result in actual helping behavior.
In the next experiment, a different set of volunteers watched one of three TV clips: the neutral TV clip or the uplifting TV clip used previously, or a clip from a British comedy, intended to induce mirth. After they viewed the TV clip, the research assistant conducting the study pretended to have trouble opening up a computer file required for the experiment. She told the volunteers that they were free to leave but as they were leaving, she asked them if they would be willing to complete a questionnaire for another study (unbeknownst to the volunteers, the actual experiment was measuring whether or not they helped with the additional study). The researcher noted the questionnaire was boring and that the volunteers could leave whenever they wanted.The results of this second experiment were striking - the participants who viewed the uplifting TV clip spent almost twice as long helping the research assistant than participants who saw the neutral TV clip or the comedy clip, indicating that elevation may lead to helping behavior.The authors conclude that "by eliciting elevation, even brief exposure to other individuals' pro-social behavior motivates altruism, thus potentially providing an avenue for increasing the general level of pro-sociality in society."In other words, it's the Pay It Forward effect.
