Leave Them Smiling: How Concretely Framing a Prosocial Goal Creates More Happiness

A growing body of research has demonstrated that behaving prosocially creates a “helper’s high” (Luks, 1988) and increases subjective well-being (Anik et al., 2009; Lyubomirsky et al., 2004; Post, 2005; Thoits & Hewitt, 2001). But, do certain prosocial pursuits more effectively increase personal happiness? We explore this question, examining one factor linking prosocial acts and happiness: How the goal of the act is framed. Goals can be framed at various abstraction levels (Emmons & Kaiser, 1996; Oettingen & Gollwitzer, 2001), and striving for concrete (versus abstract) goals has been correlated with less psychological distress and greater well-being (Carver et al., 1988; Carver & Scheier, 1990; Emmons, 1992). Building upon these results, we hypothesize that prosocial acts lead to greater giver happiness when the act’s goal is framed concretely (e.g., make someone smile) versus abstractly (e.g., make someone happy).