Since 2019, Burrow and his researchers have selected about 1,200 college and high school students to receive $400 no-strings “contributions” to use “to pursue what matters most” to them — something that benefits their community, family or even themselves. Before awarding the funds (eligible recipients are selected randomly, not on the merits of their proposals), he tests all applicants based on standard measures of well-being and emotions. Six to eight weeks after awarding the $400 — the time during which the recipients have to make their contributions — he again tests those who received the funds and those who didn’t. https://contributionproject.org/

The preliminary results, which Burrow has just begun to present in academic conferences and shared publicly here for the first time, are unambiguous. At the start, both groups typically scored the same on psychological measures. Eight weeks later, those who received the contributions scored significantly higher than the non-recipients on all measures: latent well-being, sense of purpose, sense of belonging, sense of feeling needed and useful, and affective balance (a measure of positive and negative emotions).

Burrow’s takeaway: “Invite people to think about a contribution they want to make and help them [to] make that contribution, and that person may walk around with greater purpose than if they hadn’t done that.”
Since 2019, Burrow and his researchers have selected about 1,200 college and high school students to receive $400 no-strings “contributions” to use “to pursue what matters most” to them — something that benefits their community, family or even themselves. Before awarding the funds (eligible recipients are selected randomly, not on the merits of their proposals), he tests all applicants based on standard measures of well-being and emotions. Six to eight weeks after awarding the $400 — the time during which the recipients have to make their contributions — he again tests those who received the funds and those who didn’t. https://contributionproject.org/ The preliminary results, which Burrow has just begun to present in academic conferences and shared publicly here for the first time, are unambiguous. At the start, both groups typically scored the same on psychological measures. Eight weeks later, those who received the contributions scored significantly higher than the non-recipients on all measures: latent well-being, sense of purpose, sense of belonging, sense of feeling needed and useful, and affective balance (a measure of positive and negative emotions). Burrow’s takeaway: “Invite people to think about a contribution they want to make and help them [to] make that contribution, and that person may walk around with greater purpose than if they hadn’t done that.”
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Black-and-white photo of Buckminster Fuller gesturing dismissively with his open hand, palm outward toward the camera. Solid blue background with white text:

"We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors & people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school & think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along & told them they had to earn a living."
         Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983)

                        Truths2SetUsFree
Black-and-white photo of Buckminster Fuller gesturing dismissively with his open hand, palm outward toward the camera. Solid blue background with white text: "We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors & people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school & think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along & told them they had to earn a living." Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) Truths2SetUsFree