English, asked by BBCOOKY, 5 months ago

What is the moral of the story 'a merry Christmas' do you think giving to others is important? Why?​

Answers

Answered by itspinkglitter
1

Answer:

Get started

Open in app

Impakter.com

Follow

505 Followers

About

Get started

Open in app

WHY DO WE GIVE AT CHRISTMAS?

Impakter.com

Impakter.com

Feb 23, 2018·7 min read

Image for postImage for post

Christmas is a time for giving. This often extends beyond friends and family to charity donations. Many charities run specific Christmas appeals and there is evidence more people give at Christmas, compared to during the rest of the year.

Why is this? Research from psychology and neuroscience suggests certain factors which increase motivations to give may be particularly powerful during the festive period.

It’s been over a decade since a team of neuroscientists first looked at brain activity using an fMRI scanner while people made decisions whether or not to give to charity. In that study and others done since, a key finding is that giving to charity activates the regions of the brain involved in processing rewards. For example, the same regions are active during donating as during receiving money, eating nice food and taking addictive drugs. This finding is interpreted as the neural basis of the warm fuzzy feeling or “warm glow” people get from giving.

Image for postImage for post

There are a number of possible explanations for this warm glow which will be explored in more detail below. Regardless of why it feels good to give, a behaviour which leads to this reward-related brain activity is more likely to be repeated.

Giving to friends and family at Christmas may give us a taste of how it feels to spend money to do something nice for someone else. In some cases, people may consciously recognise this positive feeling and decide to give more widely, including a charity donation. It is also possible to be swayed by the learning that giving feels good without explicitly recognising it. Making a decision on whether or not to donate is likely to involve lots of factors we are not completely aware of, including our experiences of previous generosity.

One explanation for why it feels good to give is the social approval associated with helping others. Doing things which society values is particularly important to humans and has been associated with reward-related brain activity in studies on a number of behaviours, including giving. This means we may be more likely to give if there is an opportunity to tell other people about our donation, even if this only includes friends or family.

Christmas may provide such opportunities to give in a way which others are aware of, for example asking for or giving a donation as a present.

Some charities have been quick to make the most of this idea, offering specific items as gifts which someone buys in the form of a donation. Perhaps the best-known example is the Oxfam Unwrapped range which offers supporters the option to donate items, such as a goat, to someone in need and receive a card for a friend or family member telling them about the gift. As well as being a fun and quirky way to give, the focus on a specific item encourages giving through identifying a concrete impact that the gift will have.

Studies on the psychology of giving suggest that people prefer to donate when they have an idea of exactly what their money can achieve. This is similar in some ways to the preference to buy gifts for people we know, rather than give money, as it’s easier to imagine their enjoyment of an object than cash.

Imagining the positive impact of a donated item will be particularly powerful if it is something that the supporter can relate to. Giving is often linked with empathy and empathy can be increased for issues we have personal experience of. For example, I have never experienced needing to own an animal to provide food for my family, but I have felt huge appreciation for a hot drink on a freezing cold day. In many countries, Christmas is associated with cold weather which may particularly encourage giving associated with helping people that this is a difficult time for.

Image for postImage for post

Food and drink are likely to be especially prominent at Christmas, a time of overindulgence. This tradition to “eat, drink and be merry” could lead to feelings of guilt for those who cannot take part and prompt giving to provide food for people in need.

Research in social psychology suggests that actions in one area of moral behaviour can affect decisions about other morally-charged actions. The theory of moral self-licensing suggests that making a moral decision such as giving to charity leaves the donor in moral “credit” which may lead to being less moral at the next opportunity. Perhaps this could also work the other way round with guilt about overindulging at Christmas creating feelings of moral “debt” which a donation to charity could call

Explanation:

plz Mark me as a brainliest plz

Similar questions