Measuring the Welfare Effects of Shame and Pride

Public recognition is frequently used to motivate desirable behavior, yet its welfare effects—such as costs of shame or gains from pride— are rarely measured. We develop a portable empirical methodology for measuring and monetizing social image utility, and we deploy it in experiments on exercise and charitable behavior. In all experiments, public recognition motivates desirable behavior but creates highly unequal image payoffs. High-performing individuals enjoy significant utility gains, while low-performing individuals incur significant utility losses. We estimate structural models of social signaling, and we use the models to explore the social efficiency of public recognition policies. (JEL C93, D64, D82, D91)

Charitable Behavior of Muslim in Indonesia during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Tobit Model Analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a decline in social welfare. In such a situation, community philanthropy, including from the Muslim community, becomes critical. This study aims to explore the charitable behavior of Muslims in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tobit regression was used to analyze data from online surveys to determine the pattern changes of donations during the pandemic as well as the factors affecting the amount of donation. This study uncovered that Zakat Management Organizations (BAZNAS and LAZ) were some of the main choices for distributing zakat and alms (sedekah) during the pandemic. It was found that the factors with a positive and significant effect on the probability of increasing the percentage of donations were education, length of stay, and expenses. The results of this study contribute to the policy of developing the Zakat Management Organization as institutions trusted by the community in distributing zakat funds. This study supports the fundraising of the zakat organizations in terms of offering valuable insights and clear description about the Indonesian people’s charitable behavior. More importantly, this study suggests that improving the quality of education is crucial to increase community awareness in performing Islamic philanthropy such as giving zakat, sedekah, and waqf.

Long Term Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Concerns

While some local, temporary past crises have boosted overall charitable donations, there have been concerns about potential substitution effects that the Covid-19 pandemic might have on other social objectives, such as tackling climate change and reducing inequality. We present results from a donation experiment (n = 1, 762), with data collected between April 2020 and January 2021. We combine data from (i) an online donation experiment, (ii) an extended questionnaire including perceptions, actions, and motives on the Covid-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and poverty, as well as charitable behavior and (iii) epidemiological data. The experimental results show that donations to diverse social concerns are partially substituted by donations to the Covid-19 fund; yet, this substitution does not fully replace all other social concerns. Over time we observe no systematic trend in charitable donations. In regards to the determinants of individual donations, we observe that women donate more, people taking actions against Covid-19 and against poverty donate more, while those fearing risks from poverty donate less. In addition, we observe that the population under consideration is sensitive to the needs of others, enhancing total donations for higher Covid-19 incidence. For donations to each charity, we find that trusting a given charitable organization is the strongest explanatory factor of donations.JEL: L3, D64, Q54, I3, D9

Prosociality Beyond Big Five Agreeableness and HEXACO Honesty-Humility: Is Openness/Intellect Associated With Cooperativeness in the Public Goods Game?

Who is cooperative? Although Big Five (B5) Agreeableness and HEXACO Honesty-Humility are correlates of charitable prosociality, distinctions between “charity” and “cooperation” suggest that additional traits could be associated with cooperative prosociality. Echoing prior theoretical and empirical indications that B5 Openness/Intellect may play a role in cooperation, Study 1 ( N = 119; exploratory) revealed a significant correlation between Openness/Intellect and cooperativeness in the one-shot Public Goods Game that did not generalize to charitableness in the Dictator Game. We therefore conducted three preregistered replications to discern the robustness of this Openness/Intellect–cooperativeness link. As expected, Openness/Intellect showed no consistent correlation with charitable behavior. Surprisingly, the predicted correlation between Openness/Intellect and cooperative behavior was also inconsistent, partially replicating in Study 3 ( N = 304) but not Studies 2 or 4 ( Ns = 131; 552). Across our replications, cooperative behavior was most strongly correlated with Honesty-Humility (internal meta-analytic [Formula: see text] = .15, p = .005). The correlation between Openness/Intellect and cooperative behavior across our replications was significant and identical in magnitude to that between Agreeableness and cooperative behavior, though this effect-size was weak (internal meta-analytic [Formula: see text] = .08, p < .001). We therefore conclude that Openness/Intellect is a nonnull but very modest correlate of cooperativeness.

Age, frequency of volunteering, and Present-Hedonistic time perspective predict donating items to people in need, but not money to combat COVID-19 during lock-down

Restrictions due to COVID-19 necessitated staying at home, but in some cases, encouraged charitable behavior, e.g., donating items to people in need (e.g., clothes, food), or money to support combatting COVID-19. Drawing on the previous findings regarding helping during disastrous situations and roles of time perspective in helping behaviors, the study tested the predictive value of age, gender, previous volunteering, altruistic social value orientation, and time perspectives of donating items to people in need or money to combat COVID-19. The study is pioneering in terms of including time perspectives as individual differences which might contribute to making donations during COVID-19 circumstances. The study was questionnaire-based and conducted online in the eighth week of social distancing in Poland. 150 young adults (age 18–35) took part in the study. Results of multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated that age, frequency of volunteering before the epidemic, and Present-Hedonistic time perspective predict donating items to people in need, but none of the tested variables predicted donating money to combat COVID-19. The findings suggest that charitable behavior, especially in the context of extraordinary social situations, needs to be treated as a multifaceted phenomenon. The study indicates that a Present-Hedonistic time perspective would be a promising individual difference to test in future studies on prosociality.

Obligatory Publicity Increases Charitable Acts

To entice new donors and spread awareness of the charitable cause, many charity campaigns encourage donors to broadcast their charitable acts with self-promotion devices such as donor pins, logoed apparel, and social media hashtags. However, this voluntary publicity strategy may not be particularly attractive because potential donors may worry that observers will attribute their publicized charitable behavior to “impure” image motives rather than “pure” altruistic motives. We propose and test a counterintuitive campaign strategy—obligatory publicity, which requires prospective donors to use a self-promotion device as a prerequisite for contributing to the campaign. Five studies (N = 10,866) test the application and effectiveness of the proposed strategy. The first three studies, including two field experiments, find that obligatory-publicity campaigns recruit more contributions and campaign promoters than voluntary-publicity campaigns. The last two studies demonstrate that the obligatory-publicity strategy produces a greater effect among people with stronger image motives and that the effect is mitigated when the publicized charitable act signals a low level of altruism. Finally, we discuss limitations and implications of this research.

They ought to do it too: Understanding effects of social information on donation behavior and mood

Social information, providing potential donors with information about the donation amount given by earlier donors, is often applied as an intervention in online donation contexts. It has been suggested that social information informs others about the most common (descriptive norm) or appropriate (injunctive norm) behavior, and that these perceived social norms explain its effects. We present evidence from a preregistered online experiment testing to what extent perceived social norms mediate effects of social information on charitable giving. In addition, we examine whether social information affects donors’ moods. A positive mood after donating is important to avoid negative side effects of a nudge like social information. We argue that social information increases social pressure to donate in a certain way and therefore decreases donors’ moods. In an experiment among British citizens (n = 1029), we manipulated descriptive and injunctive social information. We show that injunctive social information, mentioning the appropriate donation amount, increases donation amounts (10%) and donors’ moods (10%). Contrary to earlier research, merely stating descriptive social information did not affect the donation behavior or mood. We found no evidence that social information affects giving behavior or mood via perceived social norms. Our findings how different types of social information affect charitable giving are important for fundraisers or policy makers aiming to increase charitable behavior.

Intergenerational effects on individual charitable donation: an innovative study on philanthropy in China

The family, which is the basic unit of Chinese society, serves as the micro foundation of individual charitable behavior. This study examines the intergenerational effects on individual charitable donations in China based on China’s unique social structure, traditional culture, and philanthropic history. The study identifies the mutual influence of children’s charitable donation and parent’s charitable donation through both downward and upward intergenerational transmission. The effect of upward transmission is stronger than that of downward inheritance, especially among families with children born in the 1980s and 1990s. The findings reflect the “family-oriented” culture of Chinese society and highlight the necessity and urgency of developing a charitable donation theory rooted in Chinese experiences.

Does Use of Emotion Increase Donations and Volunteers for Nonprofits?

Nonprofits offer services to disadvantaged populations, mobilize collective action, and advocate for civil rights. Conducting this work requires significant resources, raising the question: how do nonprofits succeed in increasing donations and volunteers amid widespread competition for these resources? Much research treats nonprofits as cold, rational entities, focusing on overhead, the “price” of donations, and efficiency in programming. We argue that nonprofits attract donors and volunteers by connecting to their emotions. We use newly available administrative IRS 990 e-filer data to analyze 90,000 nonprofit missions from 2012 to 2016. Computational text analysis measures the positive or negative affect of each nonprofit’s mission statement. We then link the positive and negative sentiment expressed by nonprofits to their donations and volunteers. We differentiate between the institutional fields of nonprofits—for example, arts, education, social welfare—distinguishing nonprofits focused on social bonding from those focused on social problems. We find that expressed positive emotion is often associated with higher donations and volunteers, especially in bonding fields. But for some types of nonprofits, combining positive sentiment with negative sentiment in a mission statement is most effective in producing volunteers. Auxiliary analyses using experimental and longitudinal designs provide converging evidence that emotional language enhances charitable behavior. Understanding the role of emotion can help nonprofit organizations attract and engage volunteers and donors.