Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior

Feeling Good about Giving 17

In this chapter, we explored whether organizations that seek to increase charitable giving
by advertising the benefits of giving are 1) making claims supported by empirical research and
most importantly 2) wise to make such claims. To the first point, the evidence we reviewed is
quite supportive: Happier people give more and giving makes people happier, such that
happiness and giving may operate in a positive feedback loop (with happier people giving more,
getting happier, and giving even more). To the second point, however, the evidence is less clear.
At minimum, charitable organizations should be concerned about the possibility of crowding out
their donors’ proclivity to donate in the longer term by incentivizing them (via gifts, etc.) in the
short term. While offering donors monetary or material incentives for giving may undermine
generosity in the long-term, our preliminary research suggests that advertising the emotional
benefits of prosocial behavior may leave these benefits intact and might even encourage
individuals to give more. Future research - both laboratory and field studies - is needed to
disentangle the possible costs and benefits of self-interested giving.

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