Goal

Altruism is central to living a meaningful, purpose-filled, flourishing life [1-3]. Whether volunteering, donating to charity, or simply helping a neighbour, people have a natural appetite for altruism, a need to connect.
However, previous research suggests that current levels of altruism are sub-optimal. People do not help as much as they would like to; they are pleasantly surprised by how much they enjoy it when they do. Thus individuals and society do not reap the rewards of altruism. Instead, people are left feeling increasingly alienated, isolated and anxious.
What are the obstacles to altruism, and how can they be overcome? What real world acts of altruism are people prepared to do, and for whom? How can altruism be made more emotionally rewarding? Are different personality types suited to different types of altruistic acts? Is it possible to increase altruism with kindness clubs, gamification, local-based mobile apps?
The goal of 'Activating Altruism' will be to answer these questions by experimenting with real-world altruism programmes and interventions. These projects will do good while investigating good. And they will unlock the untapped altruistic potential of the human spirit, and satisfy the deep need to make a difference, and live a flourishing life.

Opportunity

Previous research has made great progress in illuminating the theoretical basis, biological underpinnings, psychological circuitry, and the social conditions that foster altruism. And there has been no shortage of demonstrations of altruism in artificial laboratory tasks [4]. However, there has been relatively little work translating these insights to activating altruism in the real world.
Activating Altruism also provides the opportunity to use the tools that have been developed for evaluating charitable donations (Charity Navigator, GiveWell) and applying them to other, everyday acts of altruism.

Roadblocks

It would be a mistake to focus yet more energy on relitigating the theoretical disputes of the past, or providing further theoretical or empirical demonstrations of altruism in the lab. We have enough theories of altruism already [4].
It would also be a mistake merely to re-run lab experiments 'in the wild', rather than taking advantage of the opportunities that modern technology provides for mass, spontaneous, location-specific, targeted altruism – projects that have the potential to activate altruism at a local, national and global scale.

Breakthroughs Needed

First, we need to broaden our definition of altruism. We need to go beyond monetary transfers, to real-world everyday acts of kindness. We need a huge library, a database, an archive of such acts - assessed for their feasibility and effectiveness.
Second, we need to explore how we can use modern technology to inspire and activate altruism in others – how we can deliver the right acts of altruism, to the right people, at the right time, and do so at scale. And we need to find new ways of collecting data on the effects of altruism – for example with ecological momentary assessment (EMA), and other techniques [5].
Third, we need to investigate the social context of altruism. Are people more likely to do the right thing alone, or in a group? In private, or in public? In competition, or as part of a collective? We need game designers to experiment with leaderboards, achievement badges, synchronized flash mobs, crowdsourcing… a Pokémon GO for altruism?

Key Indicators of Success

3 years: Do we have a sufficient variety of projects to identify what works, and why? Have we recruited enough users? Have users performed enough acts of altruism?
5 years: Have we been able to scale the successful local projects up to a national level? Have we generated sufficient interest and engagement – as measured by users and acts?
10 years: Have we been able to scale the successful national projects up to a global level? Do we have enough culturally-universal acts of altruism? Have we generated sufficient worldwide interest and engagement – as measured by users and acts?

Additional Information

Activating Altruism
Altruism is central to a flourishing life. But why are people altruistic? Why aren't they more altruistic? And how can we create the conditions under which altruism flourishes? Previous research has established many complementary theories of altruism, and shown how they work in the lab. But there has been a relative lack of attempts to translate these insights, to use them to activate altruism in the real world. This call for funding will do just that. Experimenting with interventions and programmes to activate altruism in the real world, making full use of the networked world in which we live: finding out what people will do for whom, how it makes them feel, and how to keep it going. The goal will be to identify local and national winners, and take them global. Thus this programme has opportunity to literally make the world a more altruistic place.

References
1. Happy to help? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of performing acts of kindness on the well-being of the actor (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2018.02.014)
2. The Science of Meaning in Life (https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-072420-122921)
3. Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life (https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.830764)
4. Cooperation Database (https://cooperationdatabank.org)
5. Morality in everyday life (http://science.sciencemag.org/content/345/6202/1340.abstract)

Collaborators
Max Krasnow, Psychology, Harvard
Mark Brandt, Psychology, Michigan State
Nichola Raihani, Psychology, UCL
Athena Aktipis, Psychology, Arizona State
Liane Young, Psychology, Boston College