Being my 1st post.Here is a re-post from my SmilingStart Blog. Have a look. Your comments & experiences are awaited.
The First Half
“There is a struggle that is more interesting than pleasure or ego satisfaction. There is something far more interesting than what money can buy.” — Jacob Needleman
There is always a fight within the self “Greed vs Generosity”. What gets you more “giving” or “greed”? There’s always a dilemma, always a confusion to answer this but few researches and studies have been able to prove that, in the fight between Greed vs. Generosity, Greed beats Generosity.
As human beings we are social, we face existential challenge individually and collectively regarding our concern levels for self and others. As raised by our traditions we are urged us to live a life of selflessness, expressing outward into the world instead of in reaction to externals. We look outside in instead of inside out. In our core we should find ourselves same as others, the oneness should be from within, which allows us to be more considerate, compassionate and accommodating.
The fear that holds us back in doing so is the material wealth and comfort. We get into our own comfort zones and stop moving, we only move when the move generates money. This is a factor which we all posses and unites us, but we become eccentric and the focus towards our core is lost in this run. Money and material wealth have become the language and measurement of human value. Buddhist teachings suggest that, three poisons in human consciousness that lead to the evil are greed, hate and ignorance that we create in the world and these are the decisive basis of our suffering.
It can be concluded that as a human being we have tendency to attach ourselves to the evil and loose ourselves to him. This happens when one searches for happiness in the outside world, we forget to look within. If everyone becomes mindful with this knowledge the road to life can be easily travelled. The life of ours and others will be satiated and peaceful.
You can also Watch : “Designing For Generosity” by Nipun Mehta, founder of ServiceSpace (formerly Charity Focus), an incubator of projects that works at the intersection of volunteerism, technology and gift-economy. What started as an experiment with four friends in the Silicon Valley & has now grown to an global ecosystem of over 350,000 members that has delivered millions of dollars in service for free.
The Counter Half
Another study published online in APA’s Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, which is the first systematic investigation of paying forward generosity, equality or greed, suggests that “With money or work, people are more likely to look out for themselves hence, Greed, not Generosity, is more likely to be ‘Paid Forward’”
As per new research published by the American Psychological Association – “Paying it forward” i.e. extending generosity when you receive generosity is a heart-warming concept, but it is less common than repaying greed with greed. Lead researcher Kurt Gray, PhD says “The idea of paying it forward is this cascade of goodwill will turn into a utopia with everyone helping everyone,” “Unfortunately, greed or looking out for ourselves is more powerful than true acts of generosity.”
Gray, an assistant professor of social psychology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, who conducted the study with researchers at Harvard University comments that “The bulk of the scientific research on this concept has focused on good behavior, and we wondered what would happen when you looked at the entire gamut of human behaviors,”
In five experiments involving money or work, participants who received an act of generosity didn’t pay generosity forward any more than those who had been treated equally. But participants who had been the victims of greed were more likely to pay greed forward to a future recipient, creating a negative chain reaction.
The results confirmed the researchers’ hypothesis that greed would prevail because negative stimuli have more powerful effects on thoughts and actions than positive stimuli. Focusing on the negative may cause unhappiness, but it makes sense as an evolutionary survival skill, Gray said. “If there is a tiger nearby, you really have to take notice or you’ll get eaten,” he said. “If there is a beautiful sunset or delicious food, it’s not a life-or-death situation.” The study also examined whether people would have similar reactions involving work rather than money. The results were the same, with greed being paid forward more than generosity.
As per Gray, “We all like to think that being generous will influence others to treat someone nicely, but it doesn’t automatically create a chain of goodwill; to create chains of positive behavior, people should focus less on performing random acts of generosity and more on treating others equally — while refraining from random acts of greed.”
So here we can conclude with a quote from famous writer and comedian , Woody Allen,
“Greed for the lack of better word is Good.”
Which part you court the most, Generosity or Greed? Which half is your half?
Did Greed beat Generosity or vice-versa. Share with us.
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Excerpts from:
“Paying It Forward: Generalized Reciprocity and the Limits of Generosity,” Kurt Gray, PhD, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Adrian F. Ward, MA; and Michael I. Norton, PhD, Harvard University; Journal of Experimental Psychology: General; online Dec. 17, 2012. Read the journal article Paying It Forward here (PDF, 236KB)
asha chaudhry
happy b’day abhinav!
this blog post is still the most viewed one at 117751 views 🙂
more power to you, your pen, and your startups!!