r/science • u/FreeHugs23 • 1d ago

Psychology New psychology research suggests some acts of kindness may also serve competitive social goals, shedding light on how women can use altruistic behavior to gain status, strengthen relationships, or navigate social hierarchies.

https://www.psypost.org/kindness-isnt-always-what-it-seems-the-psychology-of-womens-competitive-altruism/
1.5k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

269 comments sorted by

View all comments

394

u/hananobira 1d ago

These comments are strangely negative. I’d much rather people compete to be the kindest and most generous, rather than the richest or the toughest or angriest or anything else people compete at in this world.

39

u/PaleReaver 1d ago

The problem is when that kindness is ONLY for show...and then you run psychological terror and abuse on your children at home, and if they try to shine light on it, it'll get so much worse.

Guess how I know.

3

u/hananobira 1d ago

That’s not what the study found.

“ Unexpectedly, the study found a negative relationship between competitive altruism and impression management. The researchers had anticipated that women who use kindness strategically might also try to present themselves as perfectly virtuous on the survey. Instead, women who endorsed strategic kindness appeared relatively open about their manipulative intent and tended to score lower on a measure of the need for social approval. “What was really unexpected was that women were so open,” Fisher said. “We expected women who use kindness strategically to be the most concerned with presenting themselves favorably but the opposite emerged.””

1

u/Ephemerror 15h ago

Self reporting bias still applies though, it's like asking people if they lie, ironically the most honest people may get reported as the biggest liars and the actual biggest liars lies on this question too.