Laypeople’s Belief of the Influence of Thank-You Gifts on Charitable Giving

Abstract

Abstract. Although offering gifts to encourage prosocial behaviors is a popular daily strategy, its underlying mechanism remains unknown. This study investigated the effect of thank-you gifts on charitable giving in laypeople’s beliefs ( N = 1,293). Study 1 showed that laypeople believe thank-you gifts increase charitable giving. Study 2 found that laypeople believe thank-you gifts increase both charitable giving and positive emotions of donors. Study 3 further showed that laypeople’s anticipation of donors’ emotional gain might play a mediating role in the effect of thank-you gifts on charitable giving. Study S1 found that participants’ donated amounts in the benefit-to-others thank-you gifts condition exceeded other conditions on actual donation behavior. These findings emphasize the emotional value of the gift in laypeople’s beliefs.

Another reason for the counterintuitive effects of thank-you gifts on charitable giving

“…Ten years later, as today, the paper is still a milestone that researchers would refer to when they study altruism and gift in a donation. For example, Huang et al (2021) followed their study to further investigate laypeople's belief of the influence of thank-you gifts on charitable giving, which confirmed that laypeople believe thankyou gifts would raise charitable donations and one mediation of the effect is anticipated positive emotion; another study found that thank you gifts increase (decrease) the weight that donors place on self-interested (prosocial) motives, leading to changes in donation patterns as the gift may activate mindsets or norms that emphasize self-interested motives instead of more prosocial, other-regarding motives (Chao and Fisher, 2022).…”