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Who gives? - The Roles of Empathy and Impulsiveness

Author

Listed:
  • Andreoni, James
  • Koessler, Ann-Kathrin
  • Serra-Garcia, Marta
Abstract
We investigate the impact of empathy and impulsiveness on charitable giving using a real donation experiment. We confirm that greater empathy predicts greater charitable giving. Contrary to recent literature, however, we find a significant negative relationship between impulsiveness and donation behavior. Specifically, when financial resources are scarce, donations are more often made by decisionmakers who are able to suppress an intuitively egoistic response.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreoni, James & Koessler, Ann-Kathrin & Serra-Garcia, Marta, 2018. "Who gives? - The Roles of Empathy and Impulsiveness," EconStor Preprints 183140, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:esprep:183140
    Note: Copyright statement: Please note this is a pre-review version of the article published in Scharf, Kimberley, and Mirco Tonin (eds.), The Economics of Philanthropy: Donations and Fundraising, pp. 49-62. © 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, courtesy of the MIT Press. http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/economics-philanthropy
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    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/183140/3/WP-AndreoniKoesserSerraGarcia.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean Tirole & Roland Bénabou, 2006. "Incentives and Prosocial Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1652-1678, December.
    2. Andreoni, James & Rao, Justin M., 2011. "The power of asking: How communication affects selfishness, empathy, and altruism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 513-520.
    3. Cueva, Carlos & Iturbe-Ormaetxe, Iñigo & Mata-Pérez, Esther & Ponti, Giovanni & Sartarelli, Marcello & Yu, Haihan & Zhukova, Vita, 2016. "Cognitive (ir)reflection: New experimental evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 81-93.
    4. David G. Rand & Joshua D. Greene & Martin A. Nowak, 2012. "Spontaneous giving and calculated greed," Nature, Nature, vol. 489(7416), pages 427-430, September.
    5. James Andreoni & B. Douglas Bernheim, 2009. "Social Image and the 50-50 Norm: A Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of Audience Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(5), pages 1607-1636, September.
    6. Fehr, Ernst & Leibbrandt, Andreas, 2011. "A field study on cooperativeness and impatience in the Tragedy of the Commons," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9-10), pages 1144-1155, October.
    7. Dan Ariely & Anat Bracha & Stephan Meier, 2009. "Doing Good or Doing Well? Image Motivation and Monetary Incentives in Behaving Prosocially," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(1), pages 544-555, March.
    8. James Andreoni & Justin M. Rao & Hannah Trachtman, 2017. "Avoiding the Ask: A Field Experiment on Altruism, Empathy, and Charitable Giving," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(3), pages 625-653.
    9. Jeremy Cone & David G Rand, 2014. "Time Pressure Increases Cooperation in Competitively Framed Social Dilemmas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(12), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Andreoni, James, 1989. "Giving with Impure Altruism: Applications to Charity and Ricardian Equivalence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(6), pages 1447-1458, December.
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    12. Shane Frederick, 2005. "Cognitive Reflection and Decision Making," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 25-42, Fall.
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    Cited by:

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    3. Ugur, Zeynep B & Molina Pérez, Alberto, 2023. "The toll of COVID-19 on organ donation and kidney transplantation in Europe: Do legislative defaults matter?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    4. Antonio M. Espin & Valerio Capraro & Brice Corgnet & Simon Gachter & Roberto Hernan-Gonzalez & Praveen Kujal & Stephen Rassenti, 2021. "Differences in Cognitive Reflection Mediate Gender Differences in Social Preferences," Working Papers 21-22, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Charitable Giving; Donation; Empathy; Impulsiveness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General

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