“Acted in the benefit of ” vs. “acted for the benefit of ” vs. “acted to the benefit of ”

Question

I am not sure about this quote:

As to whether the president acted for the benefit of the majority, 35 percent of the respondents said that he did not, 30 percent that he only partly acted in the benefit of the majority.

Shouldn’t it be to the benefit of instead of in the benefit of ? And what about for the benefit of ?

Answer 1

Neither to not in.

OED says "Advantage, profit, good. (The ordinary sense.) for the benefit of: for the advantage of, on behalf of."

Answer 2

You can legitimately use either 'for' or 'to' depending on the situation, but 'in' seems universally incorrect. "For" has a slight implication of intent or purpose. Contrast these two examples:

... the Jury found, that the captain was perfectly warranted in the sale, and that he had acted for the benefit of all concerned.

My point, Senator Bankhead, is that the compression acted to the benefit of the warehouse, not to the benefit of the cotton shipper that purchased it.

In the first, the captain was doing what he thought was best for "all concerned", so he was acting for their benefit. In the second, it's just saying that the compression happened to benefit the warehouse. There may or may not have been intent.

Consider the NGram:

Answer 3

All three seem to be used quite interchangeably nowadays:

• "for the benefit of" 313 mln results on Google
• "in the benefit of" 306 mln results on Google
• "to the benefit of" 303 mln results on Google

Ngram's take on this is quite different though: