Abstract
This paper shows that receiving help could be psychologically harmful for recipients, and passing on help to others after receiving help ("helping forward") is a good strategy to improve and restore help recipients' self-competence. Participants (N=87) received autonomy- or dependency-oriented help and anticipated helping forward or not. Compared to receiving autonomy-oriented help, receiving dependency-oriented help negatively affected participants' self-competence and their evaluation of the helper. Anticipation of future helping increased the liking for and evaluation of the helper. After paying help forward, participants felt more self-competent than before helping, and this effect was more pronounced among former recipients of dependency-oriented help. These results show that helping forward can negate the psychological threat associated with receiving help.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-9 |
| Journal | Journal of Applied Social Psychology |
| Volume | 2015 |
| Issue number | 45 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |