IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jconsa/v56y2022i2p766-787.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income and geographically constrained generosity

Author

Listed:
  • Yujie Zhao
  • Xinyue Zhou

Abstract

How to target individuals for charitable behavior to distant others is a major challenge. This paper tests the possibility that individuals with higher income engage in more charitable behavior toward distant beneficiaries relative to individuals with lower income. A multi‐method approach offers evidence for this prediction. Survey data (N = 2957) demonstrates that income is positively related to allocations of money to distant beneficiaries (foreign medical staff). Richer (vs. poorer) individuals are also more likely to volunteer to assist distant beneficiaries (Study 2, N = 397; Study 3, N = 250). Moreover, we tested this prediction with data from 66,669 respondents across 49 countries and found that those with higher income have higher global identity, which, in turn, leads to proffering more help toward distant others (Study 4).

Suggested Citation

  • Yujie Zhao & Xinyue Zhou, 2022. "Income and geographically constrained generosity," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 766-787, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:56:y:2022:i:2:p:766-787
    DOI: 10.1111/joca.12441
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12441
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/joca.12441?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Korndörfer & Boris Egloff & Stefan C Schmukle, 2015. "A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-48, July.
    2. Derek D. Rucker & David Dubois & Adam D. Galinsky, 2011. "Generous Paupers and Stingy Princes: Power Drives Consumer Spending on Self versus Others," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 37(6), pages 1015-1029.
    3. Yinlong Zhang & Adwait Khare, 2009. "The Impact of Accessible Identities on the Evaluation of Global versus Local Products," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 36(3), pages 524-537.
    4. Jens Ludwig & Greg J. Duncan & Paul Hirschfield, 2001. "Urban Poverty and Juvenile Crime: Evidence from a Randomized Housing-Mobility Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 116(2), pages 655-679.
    5. Yunhui Huang & Jaideep Sengupta & Fischer Eileen & Leonard Lee, 2020. "The Influence of Disease Cues on Preference for Typical versus Atypical Products," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 47(3), pages 393-411.
    6. Martin Korndörfer & Boris Egloff & Stefan C. Schmukle, 2015. "A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior," Working Papers 1601, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    7. Helen Bernhard & Urs Fischbacher & Ernst Fehr, 2006. "Parochial altruism in humans," Nature, Nature, vol. 442(7105), pages 912-915, August.
    8. Verhallen, Theo M. M., 1982. "Scarcity and consumer choice behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 299-322, December.
    9. Esteban Moro & Dan Calacci & Xiaowen Dong & Alex Pentland, 2021. "Mobility patterns are associated with experienced income segregation in large US cities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Martin Korndörfer & Boris Egloff & Stefan C. Schmukle, 2015. "A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 808, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    11. Eesha Sharma & Adam L. Alter, 2012. "Financial Deprivation Prompts Consumers to Seek Scarce Goods," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 39(3), pages 545-560.
    12. Stephanie M. Tully & Hal E. Hershfield & Tom Meyvis, 2015. "Seeking Lasting Enjoyment with Limited Money: Financial Constraints Increase Preference for Material Goods over Experiences," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 42(1), pages 59-75.
    13. Richard G Netemeyer & Dee Warmath & Daniel Fernandes & John G LynchJr. & Eileen FischerEditor & Olivier ToubiaAssociate Editor, 2018. "How Am I Doing? Perceived Financial Well-Being, Its Potential Antecedents, and Its Relation to Overall Well-Being," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 45(1), pages 68-89.
    14. Morgan K. Ward & Susan M. Broniarczyk, 2011. "It's Not Me, It's You: How Gift Giving Creates Giver Identity Threat as a Function of Social Closeness," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 164-181.
    15. Gautam Rao, 2019. "Familiarity Does Not Breed Contempt: Generosity, Discrimination, and Diversity in Delhi Schools," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(3), pages 774-809, March.
    16. David Dubois & Derek D. Rucker & Adam D. Galinsky, 2011. "Generous Paupers and Stingy Princes: Power Drives Consumer Spending on Self versus Others," Post-Print hal-00621230, HAL.
    17. Rajesh Iyer & James A. Muncy, 2016. "Attitude toward Consumption and Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 48-67, March.
    18. Yongxiang Chen & Liqi Zhu & Zhe Chen, 2013. "Family Income Affects Children’s Altruistic Behavior in the Dictator Game," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-1, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xushan Sheng & Tiantian Mo & Xinyue Zhou, 2022. "The Moderating Role of Age in the Effect of Video Playback Speed on Urgency Perception in the Context of Climate Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-16, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhu, Haidong & Huiru, Zhang & Zhiwei, Cao & Xiaoshan, Jia, 2023. "The suppression effect of subjective social status and tolerance for uncertainties on the relationship between family socioeconomic status and prosocial risk taking," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Matías Strehl Pessina, 2022. "Sectores de altos ingresos y preferencias por redistribución," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 22-15, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    3. Ashley V Whillans & Elizabeth W Dunn, 2018. "Agentic appeals increase charitable giving in an affluent sample of donors," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Gereke, Johanna & Schaub, Max & Baldassarri, Delia, 2018. "Ethnic diversity, poverty and social trust in Germany: Evidence from a behavioral measure of trust," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 13(7), pages 1-15.
    5. Fehr, Dietmar & Rau, Hannes & Trautmann, Stefan T. & Xu, Yilong, 2020. "Inequality, fairness and social capital," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    6. Antonio Tintori & Giulia Ciancimino & Rossella Palomba & Cristiana Clementi & Loredana Cerbara, 2021. "The Impact of Socialisation on Children’s Prosocial Behaviour. A Study on Primary School Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-14, November.
    7. N Lettinga & P O Jacquet & J-B André & N Baumand & C Chevallier, 2020. "Environmental adversity is associated with lower investment in collective actions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-23, July.
    8. Rockenbach, Bettina & Tonke, Sebastian & Weiss, Arne R., 2021. "Self-serving behavior of the rich causes contagion effects among the poor," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 289-300.
    9. Johanna Gereke & Max Schaub & Delia Baldassarri, 2018. "Ethnic diversity, poverty and social trust in Germany: Evidence from a behavioral measure of trust," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(7), pages 1-15, July.
    10. Mukherjee, Ashesh & Lee, Seung Yun & Burnham, Thomas, 2020. "The effect of others’ participation on charitable behavior: Moderating role of recipient resource scarcity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 213-228.
    11. Ting Wang & Xue Wang & Tonglin Jiang & Shiyao Wang & Zhansheng Chen, 2021. "Under the Threat of an Epidemic: People with Higher Subjective Socioeconomic Status Show More Unethical Behaviors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-14, March.
    12. Felipe González-Arango & Javier Corredor & María Angélica López-Ardila & María Camila Contreras-González & Juan Herrera-Santofimio & Jhonathan Jared González, 2022. "The duality of poverty: a replication of Mani et al. (2013) in Colombia," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 92(1), pages 39-73, February.
    13. Shan Zhang & Xinlei Zang & Sainan Zhang & Feng Zhang, 2022. "Social Class Priming Effect on Prosociality: Evidence from Explicit and Implicit Measures," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-9, March.
    14. Cha, Moon-Kyung & Yi, Youjae & Lee, Jaehoon, 2020. "When people low in social class become a persuasive source of communication: Social class of other donors and charitable donations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 45-55.
    15. R. Bret Leary & Rhiannon MacDonnell Mesler & Bonnie Simpson & Matthew D. Meng & William Montford, 2022. "Effects of perceived scarcity on COVID‐19 consumer stimulus spending: The roles of ontological insecurity and mutability in predicting prosocial outcomes," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 1046-1061, September.
    16. Quan, Sixiang, 2021. "Socioeconomic status and prosocial behaviors among Chinese emerging adults: Sequential mediators of parental warmth and personal belief in a just world," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    17. S. Venus Jin & Ehri Ryu, 2022. "“The greedy I that gives”—The paradox of egocentrism and altruism: Terror management and system justification perspectives on the interrelationship between mortality salience and charitable donations ," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 414-448, March.
    18. Koyama, Yuna & Fujiwara, Takeo & Isumi, Aya & Doi, Satomi, 2020. "Degree of influence in class modifies the association between social network diversity and well-being: Results from a large population-based study in Japan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    19. James Andreoni & Nikos Nikiforakis & Jan Stoop, 2021. "Higher socioeconomic status does not predict decreased prosocial behavior in a field experiment," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    20. Katarzyna Samson, 2018. "Trust as a mechanism of system justification," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-22, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:56:y:2022:i:2:p:766-787. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-0078 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.