Lara B. Aknin

8.2k total citations · 3 hit papers
69 papers, 4.4k citations indexed

About

Lara B. Aknin is a scholar working on Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science and Applied Psychology. According to data from OpenAlex, Lara B. Aknin has authored 69 papers receiving a total of 4.4k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 51 papers in Social Psychology, 21 papers in Sociology and Political Science and 21 papers in Applied Psychology. Recurrent topics in Lara B. Aknin's work include Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (36 papers), Behavioral Health and Interventions (16 papers) and Cultural Differences and Values (16 papers). Lara B. Aknin is often cited by papers focused on Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (36 papers), Behavioral Health and Interventions (16 papers) and Cultural Differences and Values (16 papers). Lara B. Aknin collaborates with scholars based in Canada, United States and United Kingdom. Lara B. Aknin's co-authors include Elizabeth W. Dunn, Michael I. Norton, J. Kiley Hamlin, Julia W. Van de Vondervoort, Dylan Wiwad, Azim Shariff, John F. Helliwell, Ashley V. Whillans, Gillian M. Sandstrom and Rachael Shwom and has published in prestigious journals such as Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and PLoS ONE.

In The Last Decade

Lara B. Aknin

66 papers receiving 4.2k citations

Hit Papers

align trajectories

What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness

2008 1.0k citations Elizabeth W. Dunn, Lara B. Aknin et al. profile →
Mental Health During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review and Recommendations for Moving Forward

2022 272 citations Lara B. Aknin, Jan‐Emmanuel De Neve et al. profile →
Policy stringency and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal analysis of data from 15 countries

2022 132 citations Lara B. Aknin, Rafael Goldszmidt et al. The Lancet Public Health profile →

Peers

Lara B. Aknin

SPS

ECP

Joshua A. Hicks United States

Elizabeth C. Pinel United States

Eva Jonas Austria

D. Lance Ferris United States

Jan Cieciuch Poland

Katharine H. Greenaway Australia

Paul K. Piff United States

Veronika Huta Canada

Sheri R. Levy United States

Susan E. Cross United States

Joshua A. Hicks United States

Lara B. Aknin

2.8k ×1.1

1.1k ×0.9

SPS

1.3k ×1.3

1.2k ×1.3

846 ×1.5

ECP

Citations per year, relative to Lara B. Aknin Lara B. Aknin (= 1×) peers Joshua A. Hicks

Countries citing papers authored by Lara B. Aknin

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Lara B. Aknin's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Lara B. Aknin with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Lara B. Aknin more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Lara B. Aknin

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Lara B. Aknin. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Lara B. Aknin. The network helps show where Lara B. Aknin may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Lara B. Aknin

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Lara B. Aknin. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Lara B. Aknin based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Lara B. Aknin. Lara B. Aknin is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

Sort: Min cites: Since: Top N: Style:

20 of 20 papers shown

Proulx, Jason, et al.. (2025). A narrative review of the consistency, rigor and generalizability of experiments on prosocial behaviors and happiness. Discover Psychology. 5(1). 1 indexed citations

Aknin, Lara B., et al.. (2025). What types of gratitude expressions promote prosocial behavior?: A registered report. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 121. 104805–104805.

Park, Lora E., Lara B. Aknin, Sarah E. Gaither, Emily A. Impett, & Ashley V. Whillans. (2024). Starting and sustaining fruitful collaborations in psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. 18(4). 2 indexed citations

Proulx, Jason, Julia W. Van de Vondervoort, J. Kiley Hamlin, John F. Helliwell, & Lara B. Aknin. (2023). Are Real-World Prosociality Programs Associated with Greater Psychological Well-Being in Primary School-Aged Children?. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 20(5). 4403–4403. 3 indexed citations

Aknin, Lara B., Rafael Goldszmidt, John F. Helliwell, et al.. (2022). Policy stringency and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal analysis of data from 15 countries. The Lancet Public Health. 7(5). e417–e426. 132 indexed citations breakdown →

Aknin, Lara B., Daisy Fancourt, Edward Karam, et al.. (2021). The Lancet's COVID-19 Commission Mental Health Task Force. Acta Neuropsychologica. 19(3). 301–305. 1 indexed citations

Aknin, Lara B., Elizabeth W. Dunn, Daisy Fancourt, et al.. (2021). Mental Health During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review and Recommendations for Moving Forward. 2 indexed citations

Buchanan, Kathryn, et al.. (2021). Brief exposure to social media during the COVID-19 pandemic: Doom-scrolling has negative emotional consequences, but kindness-scrolling does not. PLoS ONE. 16(10). e0257728–e0257728. 46 indexed citations

Piff, Paul K., Dylan Wiwad, Angela R. Robinson, et al.. (2020). Shifting attributions for poverty motivates opposition to inequality and enhances egalitarianism. Nature Human Behaviour. 4(5). 496–505. 83 indexed citations

10.

Thornton, Emily M. & Lara B. Aknin. (2020). Assessing the validity of the Self versus other interest implicit association test. PLoS ONE. 15(6). e0234032–e0234032. 3 indexed citations

11.

Aknin, Lara B., et al.. (2020). Does spending money on others promote happiness?: A registered replication report.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 119(2). e15–e26. 93 indexed citations

12.

Whillans, Ashley V., et al.. (2019). Common variants of the oxytocin receptor gene do not predict the positive mood benefits of prosocial spending.. Emotion. 20(5). 734–749. 8 indexed citations

13.

Thornton, Emily M., Lara B. Aknin, Nyla R. Branscombe, & John F. Helliwell. (2019). Prosocial perceptions of taxation predict support for taxes. PLoS ONE. 14(11). e0225730–e0225730. 13 indexed citations

14.

Helliwell, John F. & Lara B. Aknin. (2018). Expanding the social science of happiness. Nature Human Behaviour. 2(4). 248–252. 67 indexed citations

15.

Aknin, Lara B., Julia W. Van de Vondervoort, & J. Kiley Hamlin. (2017). Positive feelings reward and promote prosocial behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology. 20. 55–59. 212 indexed citations

16.

Broesch, Tanya, et al.. (2017). Evidence for proactive and reactive helping in two- to five-year-olds from a small-scale society. PLoS ONE. 12(11). e0187787–e0187787. 16 indexed citations

17.

Aknin, Lara B., Tanya Broesch, J. Kiley Hamlin, & Julia W. Van de Vondervoort. (2015). Prosocial behavior leads to happiness in a small-scale rural society.. Journal of Experimental Psychology General. 144(4). 788–795. 154 indexed citations

18.

Aknin, Lara B., J. Kiley Hamlin, & Elizabeth W. Dunn. (2012). Giving Leads to Happiness in Young Children. PLoS ONE. 7(6). e39211–e39211. 203 indexed citations

19.

Aknin, Lara B., et al.. (2010). Putting the “Social” in Prosocial Spending: Interpersonal Giving Promotes Happiness. ACR North American Advances. 1 indexed citations

20.

Aknin, Lara B., Christopher Barrington‐Leigh, Elizabeth W. Dunn, et al.. (2010). Prosocial Spending and Well-Being: Cross-Cultural Evidence for a Psychological Universal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 104(4). 635–652. 28 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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