Effects of Recipients’ Negative Emotional Expressions on Donors’ Preference for Survival Helping Versus Developmental Helping

Abstract

In this research, we focus on the difference between helping that fulfills people’s development needs and helping that fulfills people’s survival needs. Across five studies, the current research shows that compared to positive emotional expressions, negative emotional expressions of a recipient will make donors less optimistic about the recipient’s future, thus perceive the recipient to have a higher need for survival helping but a lower need for developmental helping, and ultimately have a stronger preference for survival helping over developmental helping to the recipient.