Yeh there is a lot of research showing that giving can make one happier overall, which GWWC summarised here (https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/sites/givingwhatwecan.org/files/attachments/giving-without-sacrifice.pdf). I believe that observing this, and using it to try to motivate people to give, may well be self-defeating though, since it may undercut the grounds for altruistic motivation if we frame giving as (potentially) self-interested. Importantly, I’m not saying that it might simply replace moral motivation with equally or more efficacious non-moral motivation, but that making people think of giving as something that is in their self-interest might reduce their motivation to do it overall: for example, by making them unable to think of it as a sacrifice about which they can feel morally virtuous (and maybe even making them think of it as a form of selfish hypocrisy about which they should feel guilty).
Yeh there is a lot of research showing that giving can make one happier overall, which GWWC summarised here (https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/sites/givingwhatwecan.org/files/attachments/giving-without-sacrifice.pdf). I believe that observing this, and using it to try to motivate people to give, may well be self-defeating though, since it may undercut the grounds for altruistic motivation if we frame giving as (potentially) self-interested. Importantly, I’m not saying that it might simply replace moral motivation with equally or more efficacious non-moral motivation, but that making people think of giving as something that is in their self-interest might reduce their motivation to do it overall: for example, by making them unable to think of it as a sacrifice about which they can feel morally virtuous (and maybe even making them think of it as a form of selfish hypocrisy about which they should feel guilty).
Thanks for responding. You articulated exactly what I wanted to better than I could.