Francesca Cignola - 08.06.2011
Is altruism essentially a by-product of monotony, and can we attach monetary value to a smile?
Two articles from The Guardian caught my eye recently. One was about a study on how boredom can prompt pro-social behaviours, such as donating blood or working for charity, as people seek to bring purpose and meaning to their lives.
The other one reported on a team of academics who have estimated the value of a smile at one third of a penny. They studied smiles as a social currency, a reward that someone would pay to see, and found that smiles are also a token that facilitates all sorts of transactions and exchanges, provided they are authentic.
The common thread in these two relatively random bits of news is that the complex mix of factors that determine what people do, and how they make decisions, go well beyond the axioms of the rational-economic theory of motivation.
This is rather good news for those who believe there is a way to tap into people's spare "human capacity" to build a more connected and resilient society.
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