Context of Success, Affective Arousal, and Generosity: The Neglected Role of Negative Affect in Success Experience

Abstract

The present investigation explored the hypothesis that the magnitude of generosity toward peers displayed by grade school boys following a moderate success experience would vary as a function of both the resulting positive and negative affects. The role of the context (skill vs. chance attribution conditions) of moderate success in relation to affective arousal and generosity was explored also. Subjects were 101 third, fourth, and fifth grade boys. As anticipated, more sharing occurred in the skill condition than in the chance condition, and lesser amounts of reported unhappiness were associated with greater amounts of sharing. Reported happiness did not show up as a reliable predictor of generosity, but this could be attributed to a ceiling effect. The condition effect and the reported unhappiness effect accounted for 45 percent of the variance in sharing. These results document the relevance of considering the influence of negative affect as well as the positive affect induced by success experiences. The results also highlight the importance of considering the context of success. Finally, results of this study caution educators to seek out the child’s perspective of adult-defined success experiences.