Running head: PAY IT FORWARD 1

Pay It Forward
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Pay It Forward
Everyday life provides with the opportunity to be generous or greedy, cruel or kind,

prosocial or antisocial. Increasing research show that one of the key influencers on

individual’s selections between alternatives is the manner in which they were treated in their

past. A concept that explains this well is paying it forward which is a heart-warming notion

that develops a sequence of goodwill. The mantra employed in paying kindness forward is

“Help anybody if helped by somebody.” It is not lost on many that being good to someone, in

effect, is good for you. Numerous research has enumerated the numerous physical and

psychological advantages that arise from engaging in the selfless and kind behavior. For

instance, naturally occurring goodwill and volunteering attributes have been linked to

improve life satisfaction, lower blood pressure, enhanced longevity, and decreased

depression.

Moods do depict long-term emotional states that impact prosocial etiquette.

Frequently “counting one’s blessings” will over a period of time enhance a person’s mood

and maintain it while also increasing prosocial way of behaving. For instance, individuals

who do keep a personal diary thankfulness are at higher chance of providing emotional

support and assist others in comparison to those who do not record their altercations

(Pressman et al., 2015). Consequently, positive mood enhances prosocial conduct by

lessening the superficial costs of aiding others. Comparably, according to a study by Gray

(2014), constant occurrences of positive emotions over time widens cognition and attention,

develops lasting psychological resources, and with time enhances prosocial behavior (Gray et

al., 2014).

Ordinarily, individuals examine the conduct of others in deciding how to conduct

themselves. They utilize others to get to comprehend the social norms expected from them by
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societies. Social norms define the “standards and rules that are agreed by members of a

group, and that direct and/or compel social conducts within a society.” Even though a sole

action may be directed by diverse norms, individuals follow those crucial norms in their daily

lives (Pressman et al., 2015). For example, Persons will litter more in a littered environ likely

because they have established that other persons are also littering, and they will hang their

towels more often when they establish that other peoples are also hanging up their towels in

the preferred compound (Pressman et al., 2015).

Paying it forward is characteristically examined in its greatest prototypical and

optimistic form, with both mathematical models and experiments indicating the advancement

of generosity in animals and humans alike (Gray et al., 2014). These series of goodwill,

however, are unbalanced since they are effortlessly exploited by defector which means that

the individuals getting generosity without being generous to others. Consequently, it has been

put forward that positive paying it forward, that is generalized reciprocity, progresses

predominantly when societies are genetically related, interdependent and have sub-groups

(Gray et al., 2014). However, research indicates that individuals will pay forward kindness

without strict interdependence.

In Paying-it-forward (PIF), giving and receiving of a gift are its key tenets. These

canons are linked with generosity and reciprocation, and each phase may both have an impact

on and be affected by misunderstandings of others’ conduct tendencies. Pay-It-Forward is a

field limited in research, hence need to allocate resources and study actions of giving and the

outcomes that arise. In conclusion, prosocial (and antisocial) conduct like taking and giving is

usually determined by social context; both the results individuals experience and the effect

they believe they could have on their choices on how to treat others.
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References

Gray, K., Ward, A. F., & Norton, M. I. (2014). Paying it forward: Generalized reciprocity and

the limits of generosity. Journal of experimental psychology: General, 143(1), 247.

Pressman, S. D., Kraft, T. L., & Cross, M. P. (2015). It’s good to do good and receive good:

The impact of a ‘pay it forward’style kindness intervention on giver and receiver

well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 10(4), 293-302.