Thomas Pyszczynski and his colleagues tracked down men and women walking down a street in Boulder and asked them to take a short survey. Some people were interviewed in front of a funeral home and others were interviewed three blocks away. Everyone received identical surveys.
The survey asked people their opinions about a number of charities. In return for completing the survey, the psychologists offered to make a small donation to a charity of each person's choice.
Pyszczynski found that people who answered the survey while standing in front of the funeral home -- which had a large sign reading "Howe's Mortuary" -- were more positive about charitable donations than those interviewed 150 feet away. Not only that, the people interviewed near the funeral home were more likely than those interviewed three blocks away to say that kindness and generosity were qualities that were personally important to them.
