Relationship-Based Motives for Helping: Are They Seen as Selfish or Selfless?

When a prosocial actor helps someone, how do observers perceive their motives? Prior work has largely focused on two kinds of helping motives: selfish and selfless. We add nuance by examining perceptions of motives that fall somewhere in the middle: relationship-based motives (e.g., showing care, strengthening the helper-recipient relationship). We examine relationship-based motives across different social relationships and helping formats (e.g., anonymous, public). Across four studies (three preregistered, N = 1,882), we found that relationship-based motives are judged as less morally good than selfless motives (e.g., virtue) but more morally good than selfish motives (e.g., reputation-signaling). A selfish motive was ascribed more often, and a selfless motive less often, to agents who helped family versus strangers. Relationship-based motives were ascribed more often to agents who helped family versus strangers and to agents who revealed their identity only to the recipient versus to no one (anonymous) or to everyone (public).