Impact of Personality (Gunas) and Belief Systems on Helping

The belief in the law of karma is an essential element of the Indian worldview and gunas constitute the Indian personality theory. The ideal of Indian philosophy is to achieve a sense of oneness with all creation. In this study, we investigate the effects of sattva guna (a dimension of Indian personality theory) and belief in the law of karma (an essential aspect of Indian culture) on oneness and helping behaviors in teams. We studied a group of 292 students over a period of 45 days while they worked on a live team project. We measured the students’ beliefs and their personality (gunas) at the start of the study and their peers rated the students’ helpfulness in a group activity after 45 days. We found that students who were high on sattva guna and who believed in the law of karma were more likely to experience a sense of oneness (relatedness) with others. In addition, these students were perceived by their team members to be more helpful.