The Impact Of Money Priming And Social Comparison On Pro-social Behavior

Money priming is a technique that allows researchers to study the impact of money on the behavior of people by stimulating the concept of money.Studies have shown that the persons’ income and money priming can influence their pro-social behavior.At the same time,some studies have shown that compared with the objective income,the relative income has a greater impact on the persons’ pro-social behavior.However,the impact of relative income and money priming on the persons’ pro-social behavior was rarely discussed by previous scholars.Therefore,based on the theories of money priming,this paper studies how does money priming and income comparison affect the persons’ pro-social behavior.In experiment 1,the paper verified the effect of money priming on college students,and studied the changes of individual pro-social behaviors in 113 subjects under the situation of high,low and neutral priming.It was found that the high-money and low-money groups were less willing to donate than the control group.In experiment 2,the paper introduced variable social comparison,and the effects of money priming and income comparison on individual pro-social behaviors were investigated by using a 2(money priming,neutral concept priming)*2(relative rich,relative poor)inter-subject design.182 subjects took part in the study.It was found that the main effects of money priming(p<0.05)and income comparison(p<0.001)was significant.The interaction of income comparison and money priming(p<0.01)reached significant level.When individuals were compared with individuals that have worse income,the donation willingness of the neutral concept priming group was more than the money concept priming group.When individuals were compared with individuals that have better income,the donation willingness of the two group didn’t reach significant level.Since people tend to perceive money through quantity,based on Experiment 2,in experiment 3,money was quantified.An inter-subject design of 2(high money,low money)*2(relatively rich,relatively poor)was adopted to study the influence of high and low amount of money and income comparison on individual pro-social behaviors.169 subjects participated in the study.It was found that the main effects between the different amount of money priming(p<0.01)and the income comparison(p<0.01)reached significant level.The interaction of income comparison and high and low amount of money(p<0.01)reached significant level.When individuals were compared with individuals that have worse income,the high-money group had a higher donation willingness than the low-group;When individuals were compared with individuals that have better income,the donation willingness of the two groups didn’t reach significant level.Conclusion: First,downward comparison is beneficial to the persons’ pro-social behavior.Second,money priming is not beneficial to the persons’ pro-social behavior.At the same time,the high-money group donates more than the low-money group.Thirdly,income comparison and money priming have interactive effects on the persons’ pro-social behavior.Fourthly,the high and low amount of money priming and income comparison have an interactive effect on the persons’ pro-social behavior.