Does prosocial behavior increase hedonic and eudaimonic well-being and decrease loneliness among young adults?

Abstract This study examines the relations between prosocial behavior—defined as voluntary, intentional actions that benefit others (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998)—loneliness (i.e., subjective perception of discontent with one's social and relational life; Shevlin et al., 2014, and both hedonic (i.e., Subjective assessment of one’s life satisfaction and happiness (Ryan & Deci, 2001) and eudaimonic well-being(i.e., actualization of human potential in alignment with personal goals, including concepts like meaning in life and closeness to others) in young adults (18–35 years). We employed an innovative methodological approach integrating randomized intrapersonal encouragement within a dynamic perspective. Using the Within-Person Encouragement Design (WPED; Schmiedek & Neubauer, 2020) within the Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling (DSEM) framework (Hamaker et al., 2018), we implemented randomized encouragement to manipulate prosocial behavior at the intrapersonal level. For 21 consecutive days, participants completed a daily questionnaire assessing their prosocial behavior and transient loneliness. Additionally, on 11 non-consecutive mornings, they received smartphone messages encouraging them to engage in more prosocial actions than usual. Findings revealed that directly encouraging prosocial behavior did not significantly reduce transient loneliness on the same day nor did it enhance hedonic or eudaimonic well-being. However, overall daily prosocial behavior—including spontaneous behaviors—was associated with lower transient loneliness and higher levels of well-being. Specifically, on days when participants engaged in more prosocial behavior than their usual baseline, they reported reduced transient loneliness (β = -0.32) and increased hedonic (β = 0.32) and eudaimonic well-being (β = 0.44). These results suggest that while externally prompted prosocial behavior may not yield immediate benefits, spontaneous prosocial engagement plays a crucial role in reducing loneliness and enhancing well-being. This aligns with the theoretical framework of Agency and Communion (Bakan, 1966), emphasizing the importance of self-initiated prosociality in fostering social and psychological flourishing.