Social influence in charitable giving.

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Economics
Degree name
Master of Commerce
Publisher
University of Canterbury
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
English
Date
2015
Authors
Wei, Shanshan
Abstract

Charities often publicize generous contributions as a fund-raising strategy to encourage individuals to donate more. This paper presents a laboratory experiment to analyze the effect of social influence in charitable giving. I conjecture that different types of social information about other donors’ decisions will have different positive effects on donations, both to increase the proportion of positive donations and the total donations contribution. In a sample of one hundred and twenty one university students, social information regarding the mode contribution and information about randomly chosen contribution suggestively increases the proportion of positive donations and total donation amount. However, neither effect is statistically significant in this experimental design.

Description
Citation
Keywords
social influence; charitable giving; dictator game; social information
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
All Rights Reserved