The Influence of Social Norms and Personal Values on Charitable Giving Behavior

Although the non-profit sector is now the third largest sector of the global economy, relatively little is known about the psychological processes that underlie decisions to donate to charity. Across five experiments, the present research explores two factors that are thought to underlie giving: social norms and personal values. Study 1 elicits personal values and manipulates descriptive social norm information and finds that both of these factors influence giving behavior. Study 2 replicates these findings with injunctive norms in place of descriptive norms. Study 3 manipulates both descriptive and injunctive social norms within a single study and finds that while both have an influence on giving, they do not interact in any meaningful way with each other. Study 4 manipulates descriptive and injunctive norm information in the context of a realistic online donation decision and finds that both injunctive norms influence rates of giving, but that descriptive norm information alone influences willingness to give. Study 5 experimentally manipulates the costs and benefits associated with viewing social information and finds that while participants are willing to view social information when there are no associated costs, willingness to view information decreases dramatically under even very small costs. We conclude in Chapter 6 by discussing the implications of these findings and potential directions for future research.