Does having a negative impact on others decrease one’s well-being? In three separate pre-registered studies (n = 111, n = 445, & n = 447), participants engaged in a button-pushing activity for 4 min in three conditions: earning money for themselves (~60c), also earning money for the Red Cross (~15c), or also reducing the money distributed to the Red Cross (~15c). The results of the individual studies and a meta-analysis across them showed that positive impact increased well-being, but even though participants were aware of the negative impact they were having, there was no increased ill-being in the negative impact condition. In Study 3 we examined whether participants in the negative impact condition are mentally compensating by emphasizing the positive impact they are having towards science.

对他人产生负面影响会降低一个人的幸福感吗？在三项独立的预注册研究（n = 111、n = 445 和 n = 447）中，参与者在三种情况下进行了 4 分钟的按按钮活动：为自己赚钱（~60c），也为自己赚钱红十字会（~15c），或者减少分配给红十字会的钱（~15c）。个别研究的结果和对它们的荟萃分析表明，积极影响增加了幸福感，但即使参与者意识到他们所产生的消极影响，在消极影响条件下也没有增加幸福感。在研究 3 中，我们检查了处于负面影响条件的参与者是否通过强调他们对科学的积极影响来进行心理补偿。