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

Are some prosocial pursuits better able to increase personal happiness? We demonstrate that, contrary to people’s intuitions, performing a prosocial act with the concretely-framed goal of making someone smile (versus the abstractly-framed goal of making someone happy) boosts the giver’s happiness by shrinking the gap between their expectations and reality.



Citation:

Melanie Rudd, Jennifer Aaker, and Michael Norton (2013) ,"Leave Them Smiling: How Concretely Framing a Prosocial Goal Creates More Happiness", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 41, eds. Simona Botti and Aparna Labroo, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: .

Authors

Melanie Rudd, University of Houston, USA
Jennifer Aaker, Stanford University, USA
Michael Norton, Harvard Business School, USA



Volume

NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 41 | 2013



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