A research conducted by the team of American and Swedish scientists shows that being altruistic pays off. Literally. Selfish men tend to have fewer children and lower wages, unlike sensitive and generous guys.

Selfish men don’t procreate well. They also earn less

On the surface, being self-serving could seem to be a productive life strategy. No one is able to take a better care of yourself than you. However, as a new research demonstrated, this approach to life stops egoists from procreating and doesn’t get you as many promotions as the caring folk achieves.

Researchers from Stockholm (Sweden) and South Carolina (the United States) decided to find out how selfishness affects different areas of life, Science Daily reported.

In general, people believe that egoistic individuals will be wealthier than people with pro-social attitudes.

But the Swedish-American team of scientists says it’s not actually true. Being non-selfish not only helps you to have better relationships and be healthier, both physically and psychologically, but it also makes you richer in financial terms.

Selfishness doesn’t pay off. Altruism does

It’s been discovered in previous studies that sensitive and kind people are more satisfied with their lives and have better relationships.

Using the data from one of the previous studies about income and procreation as the basis, the researchers explored the topic deeper referring to the number of kids a man left and his income.

Scholars discovered that unselfish men have higher income and tend to have more children in comparison to egoists.

To be more specific, the most empathetic and kind people have the highest number of kids and the moderately generous ones get the highest wages.

The results are relevant both for American and European citizens.

The outcomes had been re-checked and examiners came to the same conclusions that being unselfish pays off.

People who had scored as unselfish had a higher income after a while, Kimmo Eriksson from Stockholm University states.

Such a test was carried out in order to make sure the results were accurate and could be used as a call to action.

It helps to be generous

Every participant in the study was tested in different ways: via interviews, describing the behaviour of others, and feedback from other members of the group. There were in total 5 studies that were concentrated on how egoistic attitudes and behaviours influence individual outcomes in terms of money and fertility.

The authors believe that the reason why altruistic people earn more may have something to do with the fact that such people are able to build and maintain better relationships, which is extremely important in today’s world where team work is required for corporations to succeed.

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