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The article focuses on countering the view that Christianity is a simplistic and ideologically confined worldview, arguing that such a perception overlooks the complex interactions between Christianity, science, and historical failures of religious institutions. Topics include the responses to criticisms of Christianity, the role of Christian thought in the development of modern science.

To understand human prosocial behaviour, one must consider not only the helpers and the requesters, but also the characteristics of the beneficiaries. To this aim, this articles reviews research on beneficiary effects in prosocial decision making, which implies that some human lives are valued higher than others. We focus on eight beneficiary attributes that increase willingness to help: (1) Temporal proximity, (2) Young age, (3) Female gender, (4) Misery, (5) Innocence, (6) Ingroup, (7) Identifiability (8) High proportion. We demonstrate that different psychological mechanisms explain different beneficiary effects, that the size and direction of beneficiary effects varies as a function of response mode (separate evaluation, joint evaluation, or forced choice), and outcome measure (attitudes or helping behaviour). We propose that beneficiary attributes differ in their evaluability, justifiability, and prominence, and conclude by discussing theoretical, moral, and applied aspects of beneficiary effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been suggested that having a reputation for being prosocial is a critical part of social status across all human societies. It has also been argued that prosocial behavior confers benefits, whether physiological, such as stress reduction, or social, such as building allies or becoming more popular. Here, we investigate the relationship between helping reputation (being named as someone others would go to for help), and hair-derived chronic stress (hair cortisol concentration). In a sample of 77 women and 62 men, we found that perceived helping reputation was not related to chronic stress. Overall, the results of our study suggest that, in an egalitarian society with fluid camp membership and widely practiced generosity such as the Hadza, helping reputation does not necessarily boost stress-related health benefits through prestige-signaling mechanisms observed in hierarchical, large-scale societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has indicated a link between the moral circle and an individual's prosocial behaviour. However, it remains uncertain whether this relationship holds across a broader range of countries and is influenced by sociocultural contexts. Drawing from an international dataset encompassing 49,540 participants from 57 countries, this study examined the impact of the moral circle on an individual's generosity and the moderating role of cultural religiosity. The results revealed a significant positive association between moral circle and generosity in a cross‐national context. Notably, in religious cultures, the connection between the moral circle and generosity was found to be weaker. Three robustness checks further affirmed that these findings are robust. The research confirmed a positive relationship between the moral circle and generosity in a multinational context but also highlighted the moderating role of cultural religiosity. This finding suggested that future research should further investigate how cultural and religious frameworks influence ethical behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between philanthropy and democracy, using the example of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's efforts in education. It explores different perspectives on philanthropy in political philosophy and discusses the potential benefits and drawbacks of philanthropic actions in a democratic society. The author argues that philanthropy and democracy represent two distinct forms of political authority, with philanthropy allowing individuals or organizations to unilaterally influence public decisions. The article does not take a normative stance on the compatibility of philanthropy and democracy, but rather provides an analytical exploration of the topic. [Extracted from the article]

Objective: Previous studies on charitable giving have emphasized the importance of socioeconomic status in explaining why individuals choose to donate or not to donate money. Other explanations, such as social capital or local contexts, have also been investigated, but these perspectives are rarely combined and tested against an actual behavioral outcome measure. We seek to compare the statistical importance of these explanations for individual‐level donation decisions. Methods: Our study investigates survey respondents' choices to repeatedly donate their earned incentive after a completed interview in the three waves of the Immigrant German Election Study II from 2021. In each wave, respondents were offered an incentive worth 10 euros, which they could either keep as a gift card or donate to the local food bank. This decision is a measurement of real rather than self‐reported donation behavior. We combine individual‐level variables and neighborhood‐level variables that capture the heterogeneity of our sample to systematically compare explanations for this donation decision. Results: We find that the respondents' self‐assessed economic situation and sociopolitical preferences in favor of more social spending by the state, rather than the respondents' objective socioeconomic status, have strong positive effects on the total amount donated throughout the survey. Conclusion: Not the rich per se, but those who think they are doing well economically, and who are on the redistributive left, give more to others. These findings remain robust after controlling for the strong heterogeneity of our sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives Prosociality refers to voluntary behaviors that intend to benefit others. Most of the existing literature suggests that older adults tend to act more prosocially compared to younger adults, whereas some studies show that older adults might not be that prosocial under certain conditions. The current study aimed to summarize the mixed findings and quantify the age difference in prosociality by conducting a qualitative systematic review and a quantitative meta-analysis. Research Design and Methods Literature search was conducted based on 5 databases. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were followed and this review was registered at PROSPERO (CRD42022333373). Results Based on the qualitative synthesis of 51 studies, older adults (n = 109,911) were more prosocial than younger adults (n = 68,501). The meta-analysis of 46 studies further supported this age effect (Hedges' g = 0.31, 95% confidence interval [0.24, 0.37]), and this age effect might be moderated by the types of prosociality. We discovered a moderate age effect in sharing (Hedges' g = 0.53), but a nonsignificant age effect in helping (Hedges' g = 0.11), comforting (Hedges' g = −0.20), or mixed prosociality (Hedges' g  = 0.15). Additionally, the age effect was only significant when older adults had higher socioeconomic status than younger adults. Discussion and Implications Future research should develop more comprehensive measures of prosociality, examine more variables that influence aging and prosociality, and investigate the neural mechanism(s) of prosociality to achieve a thorough understanding of the age difference in prosociality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights the limitations of unidimensional analyses in the comparative welfare state literature and emphasises the need for a more holistic, multidimensional approach incorporating social spending, welfare state outputs and outcomes. To illustrate the utility of a multidimensional approach, we examine the long‐term welfare state trajectories of Sweden and Germany, prototypical social‐democratic and conservative welfare states, respectively, and compare them against the baseline of Europe's prototypical liberal welfare state, the United Kingdom. The social spending (expenditure) and output (generosity) allowed us to identify significant changes in the Swedish welfare state (i.e., retrenchment). The outcome dimension alerts us to a policy drift in the German Welfare State, as relatively stable public spending and welfare generosity until the first half of the 2000s were nonetheless associated with sharply increased inequality and poverty. Overall, our findings suggest that a holistic, multidimensional approach is necessary to fully understand the complexities of welfare state change and continuity, as focusing solely on one dimension can lead to analytical misjudgments. The sharp rise in inequality and poverty across countries raises doubts about whether policymakers and researchers rely too much on outdated assumptions of normality that fail to meet the welfare state realities of today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In partnership with a sport-based Experiential Philanthropy Intervention – The Play Better Program – we conducted a pre-registered, longitudinal experiment examining whether repeatedly reflecting on prosocial activity could boost adolescents' objective generosity. Adolescents (N = 114; aged 9–16) practiced charitable giving throughout their 2-month sports season and were randomly assigned to repeatedly reflect on the importance of their prosocial activity (Reflection condition) or to write about their everyday activities (Control condition). Adolescents completed an objective measure of generosity at pre- and post-intervention and self-reported measures of prosocial character. Across conditions, adolescents donated objectively more at post- vs. pre-intervention. However, adolescents in the Reflection (vs. Control) condition were no more generous and did not report greater prosocial character at post-intervention. Overall, these findings highlight the malleability of human prosociality and the need for additional scholar-practitioner collaborations to uncover whether and how Experiential Philanthropy Interventions boost long-term generosity among the next generation of givers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract It has been suggested that having a reputation for being prosocial is a critical part of social status across all human societies. It has also been argued that prosocial behavior confers benefits, whether physiological, such as stress reduction, or social, such as building allies or becoming more popular. Here, we investigate the relationship between helping reputation (being named as someone others would go to for help), and hair-derived chronic stress (hair cortisol concentration). In a sample of 77 women and 62 men, we found that perceived helping reputation was not related to chronic stress. Overall, the results of our study suggest that, in an egalitarian society with fluid camp membership and widely practiced generosity such as the Hadza, helping reputation does not necessarily boost stress-related health benefits through prestige-signaling mechanisms observed in hierarchical, large-scale societies.

Fragility continues to present major challenges to achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). International aid, particularly the Official Development Assistance (ODA), is a critical source of finance to deliver humanitarian assistance, development projects, and peace operations in fragile contexts. This study analyses if and how donors are motivated by fragility in their aid allocation across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. Employing the random-effect Tobit method, the role of fragility as a donors' motive is analysed alongside three conventional categories of motives: self-interest, recipients' needs, and merit. The empirical analysis demonstrates an association between aid allocation across the nexus and fragility, but also a great degree of heterogeneity depending on the donor and the pillar of the nexus. It also detects a significant difference between how the state of fragility correlates with aid allocation and how the degree of fragility does so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Easterlin Paradox theory posits that high-income people tend not to become any happier when their income increases. If the situation occurs among high-income Malaysians, what other non-material factors could make them happy? This study adopted a research model from the World Happiness Report (WHR) to examine the effects of generosity and social support on the happiness of 393 individuals from high-income households (T20) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Data were collected using homogeneous convenience sampling technique and analyzed using multiple regression technique. The results of multiple regression analysis (R²=57.6%) showed that increasing income from T1 to T2 had no significant effect on happiness, however generosity and social support had significant positive effects in raising T20 individuals' happiness. However, the effect of generosity (β=0.115; p<0.01) was larger and more significant than social support (β=0.085; p<0.05) in increasing happiness. Given that increased income was not significant in raising happiness among T20 individuals, this study suggests that any effort to develop strategies that build intact social interactions among community members is essential. This aims to foster community individuals who give each other social support and are more generous to the needy. This mechanism can enhance social capital in society and further contribute to happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the relationship between generosity in charitable dictator games (CDGs) and public good games (PGGs). We construct a novel generalized game that subsumes both as special cases and present experimental subjects with different blends of CDG and PGG tasks. Generosity in the CDG and PGG are only weakly correlated, in spite of close experimental control on confounding factors. We furthermore demonstrate how underlying preferences shape these behaviors, revealing important distinctions between preferences for charity and public good provision. Our findings have implications for the generalizability of existing experimental results that rely upon these games. • Charitable Dictator Games (CDGs) and Public Good Games (PGGs) common in the lab. • Both used to study real-world charity and public goods, but different properties. • We construct generalized game that nests CDGs and PGGs as special cases. • Results indicate weak correlation between generosity in CDGs and PGGs. • Implications for generalizability of results from CDGs and PGGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the supervisory process, dialectical tensions arise between the supervisee and the supervisor. Often, the source of these tensions is the significant difference in their perceptions of the meanings of the unfolding therapeutic reality, intensified by belonging to distinct professional generations and reconstructing therapeutic interactions in different ways. According to the Hegelian model, mutual recognition and validation as independent and autonomous professionals help the supervisory dyad overcome dialectical tensions, reach new understandings, and grow as clinicians. Supervisors who acknowledge their vulnerability and manifest generosity and solidarity with supervisees can readily recognize and validate the supervisees and minimize the dialectical tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising out of the devolution of public services to private actors during the Reagan administration, the food banking economy in the United States is now a multi-billion-dollar industry. The social and political movements that institutionalized charitable food networks are diverse and often contradictory, offering a window into the politics and competing interests of a U.S. food system that has long grappled with glaring contradictions between food waste and hunger. In this paper, I analyze shifting moral economies of hunger relief within a diverse social movement (re)negotiating a set of legal codes and social norms established over the past forty years of hunger relief through charity. I argue that charitable food networks offer a window into the political contest currently unfolding over the future of the U.S. food system. As such, the debates within these spaces are critical to understand the broader politics of food provisioning in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Church is called to be a sign, an instrument, and an embodiment of God's love and justice for the world. One of the church's important vocations is to serve the vulnerable and marginalized, including those with disabilities. The Church needs to reflect on God's heart and mission that is full of mercy, equality, and justice for all without exception. This article will explore how the church can live out this divine calling by actively involving congregational members who have disabilities in ecclesiastical life and ministry. So far, church service is still in the concept of charitable diaconia rather than diaconia of community initiative development or also transformative diaconia. The research method used to solve this problem is qualitative. The expected outcome of this study is to ensure the full involvement and participation of everyone with disabilities in church service, as well as an appreciation for their dignity and uniqueness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages the contested question of feminist critique, suggesting that reflecting on how we 'do' critique as feminist scholars is integral to the work of examining the broader politics of feminist worldmaking and knowledge production. Building on the work of Rosalyn Diprose and Audre Lorde, I suggest that the concept of 'epistemic generosity' opens space for the development of a lexicon in which the nuances of an open and receptive attitude to feminist critique can be explored. As a stance of open receptivity, epistemic generosity is associated with waiting, slowness and listening, rather than pursuit, suspicion, vigilance and self-affirmation. Furthermore, as a non-directive mode of relating, epistemic generosity does not presume to know. Open to surprise, wonder and connection, it is fundamentally an orientation to thinking and knowing rooted in hopefulness. At the same time, epistemic generosity is not without risks. What thinking generously means, its risks and its costs, differs according to social positioning. For those located in privileged positions, epistemic generosity is only possible in conjunction with constant practices of self-critique that involve attending to friction, discomfort, difference and difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates how people can manipulate their beliefs in order to obtain the self-image of an altruistic person. I present an online experiment in which subjects need to decide whether to behave altruistically or selfishly in an ambiguous environment. Due to the nature of ambiguity in this environment, those who are pessimistic have a legitimate reason to behave selfishly. Thus, subjects who are selfish but like to think of themselves as altruistic have an incentive to overstate their pessimism. In the experiment, I ask subjects how optimistic or pessimistic they feel about an ambiguous probability and then, through a separate task, I elicit their true beliefs about the same probability. I find that selfish subjects claim to be systematically more pessimistic than they truly are whereas altruistic subjects report their pessimism (or optimism) truthfully. Given the experiment design, the only plausible explanation for this discrepancy is that selfish subjects deliberately overstate their pessimism in order to maintain the self-image of an altruistic person. Altruistic subjects, whose behavior has already proven their altruism, have no such need for belief manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how men of the rural 'middling sort' in late medieval England used movable goods to perform their status and gender by applying relational approaches from material culture studies to bequests in their wills and testaments. It is based on analysis of 403 wills produced by husbandmen, yeomen and gentlemen from Norfolk and Suffolk, c. 1425–1538. Ranking between the gentry and peasantry, these men were major landholders, administrators and consumers in the English countryside, but their mentalities and wills have received little attention. Wills provide evidence for how rural men interpreted their belongings in life and how they imagined objects could help them prolong their patriarchal authority after death. By focusing on three moments when wills intervened in the lifecycles of things – commodity exchange, gift-giving and animation – this analysis models the relational interpretation of medieval material culture and reveals how objects helped create male, middling-status identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a provocative and insightful analysis, Ramos et al. (Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2024) propose the introduction of Moral Foundations Theory (hereafter MFT)—as a useful framework to (1) explain moral consumer decision‐making more granularly and (2) set forth unique, testable future hypotheses in the field of marketing and consumer psychology. I discuss and build on their analysis to expand (1) but also narrow (2). I couch their conceptualization in the context of a multiple‐identity framework (Consumer Psychology Review, 2021, 4, 100) and move slightly away from their useful but perhaps more taxonomic approach. I try to buttress their work by situating MFT in the context of how the process of moral identity (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2002, 83, 1423) competes with other identities (cf. Journal of Marketing Research, 2020, 57, 375; Current Opinion in Psychology 2016, 10, 94) to help determine when and how the building blocks of moral foundations may become critical drivers of consumption in the areas of persuasion, emotions, and prosocial charitable consumer behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I endeavor to advance discussion of the symbolic "meaning" of sacrifice during the Second Temple period by examining the wisdom instruction of Ben Sira. As part of his longest exposition of his views on sacrifice, Ben Sira emphasizes the "gift" aspects of the regular, literal altar service initiated by an individual (35:6-13). Such ritual gifts sought to be "acceptable" (35:9a) and communicated a relationship of gratitude for God's prior generosity (35:11-13). These gifts may also have aimed, as the contemporaneous Samaritan inscriptions would have it, at "good remembrance" (cf. Sir 35:9b)--perhaps concretely realized as Yhwh's bestowal of benefits like healing upon his pious dependent (38:9-11). The ritual joy and generosity initiated by the individual participated in a divinely ordained temple cultus by which the cosmos was thought to be properly ordered, and contributed conceptual support for broad circles of reciprocity encompassing God, the pious Israelite, and neighbors who may never have been able to "repay" (35:3-4; cf. 29:8-13). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study consists of seven in-depth-interviews about antecedents and consequences of grace experiences analyzed by CQR. Results indicated that situations of difficulty can provide fertile ground for experiencing grace. Opening up in being and doing were considered to be helpful to recognize and actively receive grace. Participants reported growing closer to themselves, others/the Other and life itself. Through cross-analysis a cluster of circular dynamics emerged encompassing virtues serving as interlinking facilitators regarding the giving and receiving of grace in daily life. This study also suggests that grace experiences may be linked with personal growth processes related to meaning making and virtue- and character development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reciprocal exchanges of messages, likes, and pictures on social media are typical expressions of mobile youth culture. After all, it is well-established that young people's disclosure practices support their efforts to maintain relationships, gain autonomy, and, by large, consolidate a place in the world. What is often missing, however, is an exploration of how the specific socio-cultural contexts of ethno-religious minority youths shape and are shaped by social media appropriations. Therefore, we conducted a 15-month ethnographic study among ethno-religious minority youths in which we investigated networked gift-giving practices. We stress the notion of "networked" because the results illustrate how these young people appropriate the amplified visibility of their relational maintenance behaviors on social media in order to negotiate status and social ties. We connect these findings to the concept of a "distrustful society" as the participants hold a general distrust in society due to experiences of racism and marginalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are philosophical arguments as effective as narratives in influencing charitable giving and attitudes toward it? In four experiments, we exposed online research participants to either philosophical arguments in favor of charitable giving, a narrative about a child whose life was improved by charitable donations, both the narrative and the argument, or a control text (a passage from a middle school physics text or a description of charitable organizations). Participants then expressed their attitudes toward charitable giving and were either asked how much they would hypothetically donate if given $10 (Experiment 1) or told they had a 10% chance of winning $10 and given the opportunity to donate from their potential winnings (Experiments 2–4). Across the four experiments, participants in all of the narrative conditions and in some of the argument conditions tended to express more positive attitudes toward charitable giving and donated about $1 more on average than did participants in the control conditions. These effects appear to have been mediated by the "narrative transportation" scale, which suggests that appeals to donate can be effective if they engage participants' emotions, imagery, and interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study delves into the correlation between individual income inequality as measured by the relative deprivation index and charitable giving, while also examining urban–rural heterogeneity. Additionally, it further explores the mechanisms by which online and offline forms of social interaction operate in this context. Methods: Utilizing data from the 2014–2020 China Family Panel Studies, we employed several methodologies including Probit regression models, cross‐model average marginal effects difference testing based on bootstrap method, instrumental variable method, and the Karlson–Holm–Breen (KHB) effect decomposition method. Results: The findings reveal that individual income inequality measured by the relative deprivation index significantly reduces charitable giving among Chinese households. The inhibitory effect of individual income inequality on social charitable giving is higher than that on charitable giving directed toward friends or colleagues. Furthermore, this impact exhibits some heterogeneity between urban and rural areas. Mechanism analysis indicates that the adverse effect of income inequality on charitable giving operates through reducing social interaction, including both online and offline forms. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that income inequality has distinct adverse effects on two types of charitable giving and explain the mechanisms underlying these effects through social interaction. A pattern of the differential mode of association similar to "ripples" in Chinese society is beneficial for understanding these differentiated impacts. We believe it is necessary to improve economic inequality conditions and enhance the enthusiasm of the Chinese public for participating in charitable donations by promoting various forms of social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Research on prosocial behavior among Black1 Americans should account for the daily realities that many face, including racial discrimination and cultural resources which may provide sources of resilience amidst injustice, such as religiosity and spirituality. We assessed whether racial discrimination, religiosity, and existential well-being (EWB) are related to the odds of engaging in prosocial behaviors for Black men. Method: Using data from a community-dwelling sample of 171 Black men in the United States, we used logistic regression tests to assess whether racial discrimination, organizational religiosity, personal religiosity, and EWB were associated with Black men's volunteering, mentoring, and charitable giving. We also examined whether racial discrimination moderated the association between religiosity and prosocial behavior. Results: Discrimination was not significantly associated with Black men's odds of engaging in prosocial actions. Odds of volunteering were significantly greater among Black men who reported more regular involvement at their religious institutions. Personal religiosity was also significantly associated with greater odds of mentoring youth and charitable giving. Discrimination did not significantly moderate any associations. Conclusions: Black men's faith is a relevant contributor to their prosocial action. Religious institutions and psychologists can work collaboratively in supporting this positive trajectory. Public Significance Statement: Actions oriented toward helping others (prosocial behavior) are healthy for individuals who are prosocial and for society as a whole; yet, Black men are rarely considered in research on this topic. Further, Black men make decisions to be prosocial despite the antisocial racial adversity they face commonly. This study tested whether racial discrimination, religious involvement in places of worship, personal acts of religiosity and spirituality (e.g., praying), and a sense of purpose in life is related to Black men's volunteering, mentoring, and charitable giving. Black men who were more involved in their places of worship and who practiced more personal faith-based behaviors volunteered, gave to charities, and mentored youth more often than those who were not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on online advice-giving have focused on non-profit public platforms but rarely examined it in commercial contexts, where the advisor has the motive of seeking economic interests. This study investigates advice-giving in the first five-minute part of paid live talks, which is free but designed to entice the audience to pay for the remaining part. Transcripts of 123 five-minute recordings are collected. This study analyzes individual speakers' use of discursive moves and the corresponding relational strategies, as well as their effectiveness in boosting online sales. The results indicate that four discursive moves, i.e., metacomment, general information, advice, and assessment, are the most frequently used, with a large majority of advice phrased in declaratives. Statistical analysis showed that inexperienced, non-expert, and low-community-status speakers tend to use more bonding, and expert, experienced, high-community-status, and male speakers prefer to use more hedging. In addition, the effects of bonding, empathizing, and hedging on sales are consistently positive, while those of criticizing are negative; the above effects are moderated by the speaker's social status. This study adds to the understudied issue of advisors' relational negotiations and their resultant outcome in public commercial contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its formulation by Edmund Husserl, phenomenology has been regarded as a 'method'. This is contested by Michel Henry, who speaks of the 'question' of phenomenology. This article traces Henry's objection to the classification of phenomenology as method, and considers both what he means by phenomenology being a question and what the answer to this question would be. To this end, the notions of 'first givenness' and 'Life' are explored, both of which are identified by Henry as being essential to phenomenality. The single answer to the question of phenomenology is 'first givenness' or 'Life', as both are identical. Christianity speaks of God as Life, which is frequently referred to by Henry. The theological interest in this topic is therefore the question of whether God is, in the end, Henry's answer to the question of phenomenology. This article explores the way in which Henry cites from the Bible and expresses theological notions. It concludes that the Christian articulation of God as Life, and its approach to truth, are essentially phenomenological. Thus, for Henry, 'God' is not the answer to the question of phenomenology, rather the Christian notion of God as Life indicates the correct phenomenological answer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wills made in the English probate system during the seventeenth century were emotion-filled documents that allowed their testators to continue to speak and influence the living after their deaths. Read aloud during the probate process, their terms carried out by representatives appointed in an emotionally reciprocal exchange, and made available for public consumption in records offices after the death of the will-maker, wills allowed the words used and their self-fashioning to linger in minds and memories. Beyond words, early modern testators left bequests of personal items, charitable gifts, and material goods, all grounded in emotional meaning. This article examines a sample of seventeenth-century wills written by Londoners during the restoration of the English monarchy (1660–1700). Through linguistic and socio-cultural analysis, it finds that early modern Londoners intentionally utilised their wills to express expectations of their surviving kin which were grounded in emotional terms, and to maintain post-mortem relationships with their living executors from their positions in death in order to ensure their ongoing influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In four online experiments involving 16,461 public professionals, we examined the causal effects of reciprocity styles at work on colleagues' expected job satisfaction and motivation. Our findings indicate that giving, which involves helping others when the benefit outweighs personal cost, is the supervisory reciprocity style that maximizes expected satisfaction among subordinates (Study 1). Additionally, it is expected that public employee motivation will be highest when their supervisor or colleagues exhibit a giving reciprocity style. Interestingly, the positive motivational effect of a giving peer is found to be relatively larger than that of a giving supervisor (Study 2). Furthermore, the expected motivation of current team members is enhanced by the prospect of a giver joining their unit, while the arrival of a taker (someone who only helps if the benefits exceed personal costs) reduces colleagues' motivation compared to the departure of a taker (Study 3). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the significance of gift-giving in human relationships, with a particular focus on traditional Korea. It discusses how gift exchanges create value and satisfaction for both parties involved, and examines the principles of gift exchange as outlined by anthropologists Marcel Mauss and Karl Polanyi. The article also explores the practical and symbolic functions of diplomatic gifts in establishing and fortifying international relationships and political order. It provides examples of diplomatic gift exchanges between China and neighboring countries, as well as between European countries and China. The article concludes by mentioning three papers that will further examine the practice of diplomatic gifts in East Asia, with a focus on Korea. [Extracted from the article]

Giving is a unique attribute of human sharing. In this review, we discuss evidence attesting to our species' preparedness to recognize interactions based on this behavior. We show that infants and adults require minimal cues of resource transfer to relate the participants of a giving event in an interactive unit (A gives X to B) and that such an interpretation does not systematically generalize to superficially similar taking events, which may be interpreted in nonsocial terms (A takes X). We argue that this asymmetry, echoed in language, reveals the operations of a mechanism of event construction where participant roles are encoded only when they are crucial to rendering an action teleologically well-formed. We show that such a representation of giving allows people to monitor the direction (who gave to whom) and kind (what was given) of resource transfer within a dyad, suggesting that giving may be interpreted as indicative of a relationship based on long-term balance. As this research suggests, advancing the study of the prelinguistic representation of giving has implications for cognitive linguistics, by clarifying the relation between event participants and syntactic arguments, as well as social cognition, by identifying which kinds of relational inferences people draw from attending to acts of sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article further probes three of the findings of the author's DMin project thesis, which explored God's call of racial justice in a predominantly white, affluent Episcopal church. The research revealed theological and missional challenges that inhibit the church from joining in God's mission of justice, namely participants viewing the church as the host of missional engagement, white privilege hindering the practice of listening and the reluctance of members to articulate the presence and activity of God as it relates to justice. In consideration of these obstacles, this article recommends the indiscriminate generosity of God for funding the imagination of the missional community for faithful innovation related to racial justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many aid donors from the developed world have engaged in democracy promotion, especially following the end of the Cold War. One strand of this effort—democracy aid—involves assistance to governments, political parties, and other nongovernmental groups and organizations. Like more general foreign assistance, democracy aid is substantially driven by donor interests. While ideational and humanitarian factors matter, donors seek political and economic benefits from their democracy aid, just as they do for their foreign aid. Does democracy aid deliver and provide those benefits? Building on studies of foreign and democracy aid that find significant roles for donor interests in allocation decisions, this article examines US democracy aid allocations to assess the impact of democracy assistance on donor political and economic interests in recipient countries. We argue that, because of its nature, democracy aid helps to cultivate political friends for and provide economic benefits to the US. We test our argument against US democracy assistance to the developing world from 1975 to 2013, controlling for other factors relevant to political, economic, and security relationships and find evidence to support our argument. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for democracy promotion policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welfare generosity is a multidimensional concept that refers to both the access to benefits and the levels of benefits (in terms of the amounts paid to recipients). However, in analyses of public support for welfare, this distinction has been largely disregarded. To gain a fuller picture of attitudes towards welfare redistribution, the current study explicitly compares the two elements and examines which distributive justice principles—that is, equality, equity, and need—are preferred to govern, on the one hand, the access to benefits and, on the other hand, their levels. The article evaluates this distinction in two different distributive contexts (pensions and unemployment benefits) and contrasts social-structural as well as ideological dividing lines. For this purpose, data from the Belgian National Elections Study 2019 are analysed. The results indicate that the access to and levels of benefits are clearly distinct dimensions in public opinion, as different justice principles are preferred for the two policy dimensions. In addition, structural equation models illustrate that the access dimension is more ideologically structured, whereas preferences regarding the levels of benefits are more strongly stratified along social-structural lines. Overall, the results imply that social justice preferences are clearly different when considering the access to benefits or their level. This distinction should be taken into account in welfare attitude research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the concept of the Absurd seems to be characteristic only of modernity, especially since WWII, we face the intriguing opportunity to investigate its likely first emergence in the early thirteenth century in Der Stricker's Pfaffe Amîs (ca. 1220). While the narrative framework insinuates that meaning and relevance continue to be the key components of the priest's life, especially because he constantly seeks new sources of income for his own generosity and hospitality, his various victims increasingly face absurd situations and are abandoned even to the threat of insanity and death. The analysis of the verse narrative suggests that the protagonist begins to embrace crime and violence as the norm for his operations as a fake merchant. Thus, in some of the episodes of this famous Schwankbuch, elements of the absurd become visible, creating considerable irritation and frustration, if not horror and desperation, among the priest's innocent victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article explores the complexities of gift-giving and reciprocity in different societies, using the story "Counterfeit Money" as an example. It raises questions about the subject/object opposition and challenges traditional notions of subjectivity and objectivity in relation to the gift. The text also discusses the etymology of the word "thing" and its connection to familial relationships and pleasure. Additionally, it examines the interpretations of contracts and the definition of the contracting party. The article concludes by discussing the ideas of Lévi-Strauss and Lacan regarding the concept of the unconscious and the role of language in society, suggesting that the concept of the gift is crucial in understanding the symbolic function of language. [Extracted from the article]

AbstractThis study investigates how culture influences job satisfaction among academics. Through a two-stage interview process involving 294 Arab academics, 20 satisfaction categories were identified, with ‘institutional givingness’ emerging as the most significant. Institutional givingness, rooted in Arab culture, reflects the key to satisfaction. It manifests in three forms: tangible, emotional, and cognitive. Three perspectives on satisfaction were highlighted: the role of givingness in organizational dynamics, technology’s influence on satisfaction, and emotional obstacles to givingness. These insights underscore the interaction of cultural, technological, and hierarchical elements in Arab academia. The study contributes in three ways: advocating a ‘power and give’ approach for boosting job satisfaction in Arab contexts; revealing cultural differences in satisfaction determinants, with Arabs placing significant emphasis on givingness; and underscoring the importance of addressing hierarchical, technological, and emotional aspects of givingness. These findings are crucial for policymakers and educational leaders, offering a strategic framework to create a more satisfying academic environment aligned with Arab cultural values and expectations, thereby fostering a more engaged and committed academic workforce.

In countries where Christmas is celebrated, people are under pressure in the pre-Christmas period to spend on gift giving and socializing. In two surveys we investigated the role of the meaning of Christmas and other psychological factors in predicting propensity to spend and to borrow at Christmas (UK, N = 190; Norway, N = 234). Factor analysis identified three components of the meaning of Christmas: financial concerns, indulgence, and social aspects. In both surveys: (1) experienced financial hardship predicted lower propensity to spend and greater propensity to borrow; (2)more proactivemoneymanagement practices predicted lower propensity to borrow; (3) material values predicted both propensity to spend and propensity to borrow; and (4) seeing Christmas as a time for indulgence, experiencing more negative affect, or less positive affect, predicted greater propensity to spend. Additionally: (1) in the UK survey, participants who said that lately they had been feeling more negative (more angry, sad etc.) had a greater propensity to borrow; and (2) in the Norway survey, an obligation gift motivation predicted propensity to spend. The findings show that in addition to experienced financial hardship and proactive money management practices, the psychological factors of material values, affect, and gift motivation play significant roles in propensity to spend and/or borrow at this time of high pressure. We discuss implications for theory and financial interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asian (EA) social welfare has been described as productivist, where social policies are subordinate to economic development. However, EA comparative studies often focus on a few select social policies and seldom examine welfare programs as a bundle. We contribute to the depiction of divergent features of EA safety nets by exploring welfare content (generosity, coverage, protective vs. productive, and work incentives) and welfare outcomes (poverty reduction and income redistribution) for lower‐income populations in the largest city in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. We collected model family (MF) data and analyzed the data through descriptive statistics and regression models. We found that Taiwan and Hong Kong, followed by Japan, have more generous programs for reducing poverty, while Korea focuses on productive programs; Singapore offers wide coverage and strong work incentives for low‐income families yet lags behind in generosity; and China appears to be a laggard in welfare provision in the region. Our findings reveal heterogeneity within EA welfare systems, and our synthesis of welfare features using MF data offers a promising, innovative strategy for conducting comparative research in regions with limited comparable data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Descartes consolidates the transition from the science of truth to the science of man. In this science a cura sui prevails, that will end up empowering the subject internally, while blurring the other. Every man could be wise. However, not through the experience of consciousness as a methodical and theoretical exercise of the soul, but through a forma vitae that taught the strengthening of the will. The form of virtue is generosity, and even though it includes the diverse forms of love, the cartesian cogito fails to escape self-referential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used questionnaires eliciting quantitative and qualitative data to investigate (1) foreign language learners' beliefs about peer feedback on pronunciation before and after a peer feedback intervention and (2) peer feedback providers', peer feedback receivers', and teacher feedback receivers' experiences of the intervention. Participants included 127 first-year learners of German. They were assigned to a peer feedback provider group, a peer feedback receiver group, a teacher feedback receiver group, or a control group. After a general pronunciation training for the first three groups and a metacognitive instruction session for the first two groups, the peer feedback providers were instructed to give feedback on their peers' pronunciation whereas the peer feedback receivers were asked to incorporate their peers' feedback and the teacher feedback receivers were asked to incorporate feedback from their teachers. Quantitative and qualitative data from a pre- and post-intervention beliefs questionnaire revealed that while all groups held mostly positive beliefs about peer feedback before the intervention, only the peer feedback providers' beliefs changed over time, specifically, their beliefs about peer feedback were significantly more positive after the intervention. Data from an exit questionnaire further indicated that the teacher feedback receivers found their feedback more useful than the peer feedback receivers. Moreover, while the peer feedback providers found correcting peers beneficial for their own language development, many of them felt uncomfortable giving feedback, whereas the peer feedback receivers did not feel uncomfortable receiving it. These findings suggest that peer feedback providers may need additional instruction to help them feel more comfortable correcting other learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]