Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving

1990 ◽  
Vol 100 (401) ◽  
pp. 464 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Andreoni
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Warm Glow ◽  
Impure Altruism

Citizenship Status, Warm Glow, and Prosocial Behavior: A Quasi-Experiment on Giving Behavior by Host-Country Citizens and Asylum Seekers

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-184
Author(s):  
Ulf Liebe ◽  
Andreas Tutić
Keyword(s):  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
High Status ◽  
Warm Glow ◽  
Impure Altruism ◽  
Class And Status

Abstract This paper is concerned with the question of whether and how social class and status affect prosocial behavior among status groups.We conducted dictator games in which both host-country citizens (high social status) as well as asylum seekers (low social status) make monetary donations towards their respective in- and out-groups. As a novelty, we varied the number of recipients in the dictator game (i.e. one, two or three recipients). Our results indicate that host-country citizens donate significantly more than asylum seekers and that asylum seekers receive significantly higher donations than host-country citizens. Donations vary only marginally with the number of recipients. These findings and answers to a follow-up questionnaire show that prosocial behavior among status groups, and in particular prosocial behavior from high-status towards low-status actors, might be instances of impure altruism, i.e., motivated by a warm glow of giving or a purchase of moral satisfaction.

Public Goods Provision and Well-Being: Empirical Evidence Consistent with the Warm Glow Theory

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio R Videras ◽  
Ann L Owen
Keyword(s):  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Warm Glow ◽  
Public Goods Provision ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
The Public ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Societal Norms

AbstractUsing a broad multi-country sample, we find that individuals who contribute to the public good of environmental protection report higher levels of life satisfaction and happiness. We show that this result is robust to the use of an instrumental variables technique and provide several pieces of evidence that this positive relationship between contributions and well-being is due to a warm-glow motive. First, well-being does not increase proportionally with contributions, consistent with the warm-glow model that it is the act of giving that generates utility. Second, individuals who think of themselves as socially responsible derive greater satisfaction from their contribution to environmental protection as would be the case if the contribution reinforces a favorable self image. Interestingly, conforming to a social norm may be a motivation for some individuals, but the presence of this motive depends on individual attitudes towards social responsibility. Among those who express the highest level of social responsibility, conforming to the norm makes them less satisfied with life. However, individuals with a moderate level of social responsibility do report higher levels of happiness when their public goods contributions conform to societal norms.

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