Do Religious People Help More? Not So You’d Notice

PSYCHOLOGY TODAY December 1989 Do Religious People Help More? Not So You'd Notice By Alfie Kohn [This is a slightly expanded version of the published article.]  In a society that teaches us to associate morality with religion, it is easy to assume that a strong relationship exists between piety and pity, between God and good. After all, the sacred texts of ... Read More

Beyond Selfishness

PSYCHOLOGY TODAY October 1988 Beyond Selfishness By Alfie Kohn You realize you left your wallet on the bus and you give up hope of ever seeing it again. But someone calls that evening asking how to return the wallet to you. Two toddlers are roughhousing when one suddenly begins to cry. The other child rushes to fetch his own security ... Read More

Risking the Wind

NEW ENGLAND MONTHLY January 1987 Risking the Wind By Alfie Kohn They checked the weather forecast Friday morning because they always checked the forecast before a trip.  When you take a 50‑footer all the way out to Georges Bank to catch lobster, you had better know what the seas are going to be like.  Once you get far enough away ... Read More

Stop!: An Analysis of Boston Driving

BOSTON MAGAZINE September 1985 Stop! An Analysis of Boston Driving By Alfie Kohn What you've always suspected is absolutely true.  Boston is the most dangerous U.S. city in which to drive.  One in five insured Boston drivers put in a claim for collision in 1983.  The runner-up was New York City, where the rate was a paltry one in eight. You can ... Read More

Dialing for Dollars

NEW ENGLAND MONTHLY July 1985 Dialing for Dollars By Alfie Kohn It was a nice spread of cold cuts and potato salad, and it was meant as a celebration.  In a single week, members of the Audubon Society had been persuaded over the telephone to cough up almost $300,000.  Now, on a Sunday afternoon, some of the people who had ... Read More

Existentialism Here and Now

THE GEORGIA REVIEW Summer 1984 Existentialism Here and Now By Alfie Kohn TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ago, existentialism was a hot piece of intellectual property.  A wide reading public was buying up such new books as William Barrett's Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy and Viktor Frankl's From Death Camp to Existentialism (later republished under the title Man's Search for Meaning).  American psychologists were being introduced ... Read More