Individuals who engage in altruistic behaviors generally acquire a good reputation. However, recent studies have suggested that altruists are not always welcomed by others. We examined the possibility that norm-deviant altruism leads to unfavorable evaluations; distributing quite large amounts of one's resources could be less favored because the behavior deviates from social norms. In four studies, participants rated their feelings (i.e., liking and respect) toward a person who distributed his/her resources to others. We found that altruistic behavior that deviates from social norms was less favorably regarded than modestly altruistic behavior (Study 1–4), specifically in a culture with low tolerance for norm deviation (Japan; Study 3) and especially when the degree of the deviance was high (Study 2). These findings suggest that altruistic behavior is less favored when the behavior deviates from social norms and norm deviation is evaluated negatively.

从事利他行为的个人通常会获得良好的声誉。但是，最近的研究表明，利他主义者并不总是受到他人的欢迎。我们研究了违反规范的利他主义导致不利评价的可能性。分配大量的资源可能不那么受欢迎，因为这种行为偏离了社会规范。在四项研究中，参与者对将资源分配给他人的人的感觉（即喜欢和尊重）进行了评估。我们发现，偏离社会规范的利他行为不如适度的利他行为（研究1-4）受到偏爱，特别是在对规范偏差容忍度较低的文化中（日本；研究3），尤其是当偏离程度为高（研究2）。