Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior

In knowledge-intensive settings such as product or software development, fluid teams of individuals with different sets of experience are tasked with projects that are critical to the success of their organizations. Although building teams from individuals with diverse prior experience is increasingly necessary, prior work examining the relationship between experience and performance fails to find a consistent effect of diversity in experience on performance. The problem is that diversity in experience improves a team's information processing capacity and knowledge base, but also creates coordination challenges. We hypothesize that team familiarity - team members' prior experience working with one another - is one mechanism that helps teams leverage the benefits of diversity in team member experience by alleviating coordination problems that diversity creates. We use detailed project- and individual-level data from an Indian software services firm to examine the effects of team familiarity and diversity in experience on performance for software development projects. We find the interaction of team familiarity and diversity in experience has a complementary effect on a project being delivered on time and on budget. In team familiarity, we identify one mechanism for capturing the performance benefits of diversity in experience and provide insight into how the management of experience accumulation affects team performance.Diversity, Experience, Knowledge, Software, Team Familiarity

Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off

While a great deal of research has shown that people with more money are somewhat happier than people with less money, our research demonstrates that how people spend their money also matters for their happiness. In particular, both correlational and experimental studies show that people who spend money on others report greater happiness. The benefits of such prosocial spending emerge among adults around the world, and the warm glow of giving can be detected even in toddlers. These benefits are most likely to emerge when giving satisfies one or more core human needs (relatedness, competence, and autonomy). The rewards of prosocial spending are observable in both the brain and the body and can potentially be harnessed by organizations and governments

Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance

In three field studies, we explore the impact of providing employees and teammates with prosocial bonuses, a novel type ofbonus spent on others rather than on oneself. In Experiment 1, we show that prosocial bonuses in the form of donations tocharity lead to happier and more satisfied employees at an Australian bank. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we show thatprosocial bonuses in the form of expenditures on teammates lead to better performance in both sports teams in Canadaand pharmaceutical sales teams in Belgium. These results suggest that a minor adjustment to employee bonuses – shifting the focus from the self to others – can produce measurable benefits for employees and organizations

Making a Difference Matters: Impact Unlocks the Emotional Benefits of Prosocial Spending

When does giving lead to happiness? Here, we present two studies demonstrating that the emotional benefits of spending money on others (prosocial spending) are unleashed when givers are aware of their positive impact. In Study 1, an experiment using real charitable appeals, giving more money to charity led to higher levels of happiness only when participants gave to causes that explained how these funds are used to make a difference in the life of a recipient. In Study 2, participants were asked to reflect upon a time they spent money on themselves or on others in a way that either had a positive impact or had no impact. Participants who recalled a time they spent on others that had a positive impact were happiest. Together, these results suggest that highlighting the impact of prosocial spending can increase the emotional rewards of giving

Isoprene and monoterpene emissions from alder, aspen and spruce short rotation forest plantations in the UK

An expansion of bioenergy has been proposed to help reduce fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emissions, and short-rotation forestry (SRF) can contribute to this expansion. However, SRF plantations could also be sources of biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions, which can impact atmospheric air quality. In this study, emissions of isoprene and 11 monoterpenes from the branches and forest floor of hybrid aspen, Italian alder and Sitka spruce stands in an SRF field trial in central Scotland were measured during two years (2018–2019) and used to derive emission potentials for different seasons. Sitka spruce was included as a comparison as it is the most extensive plantation species in the UK. Winter and spring emissions of isoprene and monoterpenes were small compared to those in summer. Sitka spruce had a standardised mean emission rate of 15 µgCg−1h−1 for isoprene in the dry and warm summer of 2018 – more than double the emissions in 2019. However, standardised mean isoprene emissions from hybrid aspen were similar across both years, approximately 23 µgCg−1h−1, and standardised mean isoprene emissions from Italian alder were very low. Mean standardised total monoterpene emissions for these species followed a similar pattern of higher standardised emissions in the warmer year: Sitka spruce emitting 4.5 and 2.3 µgCg−1h−1 for 2018 and 2019, aspen emitting 0.3 and 0.09 µgCg−1h−1, and Italian alder emitting 1.5 and 0.2 µgCg−1h−1, respectively. In contrast to these foliage emissions, the forest floor was only a small source of monoterpenes, typically 1 or 2 orders of magnitude lower than foliage emissions on a unit of ground area basis. Estimates of total annual emissions from each plantation type per hectare were derived using the MEGAN 2.1 model. The modelled total BVOC (isoprene and monoterpenes) emissions of SRF hybrid aspen plantations were approximately half those of Sitka spruce for plantations of the same age. Italian alder SRF emissions were 20 times smaller than from Sitka spruce. The expansion of bioenergy plantations to 0.7 Mha has been suggested for the UK to help achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The model estimates show that, with such an expansion, total UK BVOC emissions would increase between <1 % and 35 %, depending on the tree species planted. Whereas increases might be small on a national scale, regional increases might have a larger impact on local air quality

The origin of efficient triplet state population in sulfur-substituted nucleobases

Elucidating the photophysical mechanisms in sulfur-substituted nucleobases (thiobases) is essential for designing prospective drugs for photo-and chemotherapeutic applications. Although it has long been established that the phototherapeutic activity of thiobases is intimately linked to efficient intersystem crossing into reactive triplet states, the molecular factors underlying this efficiency are poorly understood. Herein we combine femtosecond transient absorption experiments with quantum chemistry and nonadiabatic dynamics simulations to investigate 2-thiocytosine as a necessary step to unravel the electronic and structural elements that lead to ultrafast and near-unity triplet-state population in thiobases in general. We show that different parts of the potential energy surfaces are stabilized to different extents via thionation, quenching the intrinsic photostability of canonical DNA and RNA nucleobases. These findings satisfactorily explain why thiobases exhibit the fastest intersystem crossing lifetimes measured to date among bio-organic molecules and have near-unity triplet yields, whereas the triplet yields of canonical nucleobases are nearly zeroS.M., P.M. and L.G. thank the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) through project P25827, the COST action CM1204 (XLIC) and the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC) for the allocation of computational time. We also thank F. Plasser for assistance with the TheoDORE program. I.C. and L.M.-F. thank the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid, the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) for an FPU (L.M.-F.) grant, the Projects FOTOCARBON-CM S2013/MIT-2841 and No. CTQ2015-63997-C2, and the ERA-Chemistry Project PIM2010EEC-00751 for financial support, as well as the Centro de Computación Científica UAM for generous allocation of computational time. M.P., N.D. and C.E.C.-H. acknowledge the CAREER program of the National Science Foundation (Grant No. CHE-1255084) for financial suppor

It's the Recipient That Counts: Spending Money on Strong Social Ties Leads to Greater Happiness than Spending on Weak Social Ties

Previous research has shown that spending money on others (prosocial spending) increases happiness. But, do the happiness gains depend on who the money is spent on? Sociologists have distinguished between strong ties with close friends and family and weak ties—relationships characterized by less frequent contact, lower emotional intensity, and limited intimacy. We randomly assigned participants to reflect on a time when they spent money on either a strong social tie or a weak social tie. Participants reported higher levels of positive affect after recalling a time they spent on a strong tie versus a weak tie. The level of intimacy in the relationship was more important than the type of relationship; there was no significant difference in positive affect after recalling spending money on a family member instead of a friend. These results add to the growing literature examining the factors that moderate the link between prosocial behaviour and happiness

Using the theory of planned behavior to explore environmental behavioral intentions in the workplace

This paper presents a study using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explore environmental behavioral intentions in a workplace setting. The first stage of the research process was the development of a questionnaire covering TPB constructs, their antecedent beliefs, and environmental behavioral intentions across three scenarios (switching off PCs every time employees left their desks for an hour or more; using video-conferencing for meetings that would otherwise require travel; and recycling as much waste as possible), using best practice guidelines to ensure that it was specific and precisely defined for the target population. This was then administered to N = 449 participants, with the resulting dataset used to test hypotheses relating antecedent beliefs to behavioral intentions via the potentially mediating effect of TPB constructs. TPB constructs were found to explain between 46% and 61% of the variance in employee intentions to engage in three environmental behaviors, and to mediate the effects of specific antecedent beliefs upon employee intentions to engage in these behaviors. The results form a basis upon which interventions could be developed within the host organization, and are discussed in relation to their implications, in terms of theory, practice and future research

Aging in the Right Place

Background: This project builds upon a pilot study that documented innovative shelter/housing solutions that have not undergone rigorous evaluation but hold the promise of supporting “aging in the right place” for older persons (50+) with experiences of homelessness (OPEH) in Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver. “Aging in the right place” means older adults remain in their homes and communities supported by housing, health, social services responsive to their unique lifestyles and needs. While our pilot study identified innovative shelter/housing solutions that support OPEH to establish and maintain a home and work towards aging in the right place, there remains a knowledge gap regarding what works, why it works, and for whom it works. Methods/Design: Through a community-based participatory research approach, we will conduct evaluations of 11 different promising shelter/housing practices to determine the types of practices that appear most useful in supporting aging in the right place, and the groups of OPEH for whom the promising practices work based on intersections of risk (e.g., age, gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, disability, Indigenous status, and immigrant status). Our overall goal is to improve&nbsp;the shelter/housing options to meet the unique and complex health and social needs of OPEH across Canada. Discussion: Program evaluations will offer practice-based evidence of ways in which promising practices of shelter/housing might serve as best practices for supporting OPEH to establish and maintain a home and work towards aging in the right place. Project findings will inform housing, homelessness, health, and social service providers’ design and delivery of programs for OPEH to improve the sustainability of community housing, build provider capacity, and ensure supports that promote aging in the right place are sustained

Aging in the Right Place

Background: This project builds upon a pilot study that documented innovative shelter/housing solutions that have not undergone rigorous evaluation but hold the promise of supporting “aging in the right place” for older persons (50+) with experiences of homelessness (OPEH) in Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver. “Aging in the right place” means older adults remain in their homes and communities supported by housing, health, social services responsive to their unique lifestyles and needs. While our pilot study identified innovative shelter/housing solutions that support OPEH to establish and maintain a home and work towards aging in the right place, there remains a knowledge gap regarding what works, why it works, and for whom it works. Methods/Design: Through a community-based participatory research approach, we will conduct evaluations of 11 different promising shelter/housing practices to determine the types of practices that appear most useful in supporting aging in the right place, and the groups of OPEH for whom the promising practices work based on intersections of risk (e.g., age, gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, disability, Indigenous status, and immigrant status). Our overall goal is to improve&nbsp;the shelter/housing options to meet the unique and complex health and social needs of OPEH across Canada. Discussion: Program evaluations will offer practice-based evidence of ways in which promising practices of shelter/housing might serve as best practices for supporting OPEH to establish and maintain a home and work towards aging in the right place. Project findings will inform housing, homelessness, health, and social service providers’ design and delivery of programs for OPEH to improve the sustainability of community housing, build provider capacity, and ensure supports that promote aging in the right place are sustained