The Joy of Giving Evidence from a Matching Experiment with Millionaires and the General Population René Bekkers – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Ashley Whillans – Harvard Business School Michael Norton – Harvard Business School Paul Smeets – Maastricht University Preregistration, materials, data, code, paper, this presentation: posted at https://osf.io/bvs6t/ 5th SPI Conference 2018, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis Thanks Co-authors: Ashley Whillans, Michael Norton, and Paul Smeets Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm for suggestions on the interpretation of results The ministry of Security and Justice (V&J) and Education, Culture and Science (OCW) for funding the GINPS Jos van Hezewijk (Elite Research) for letting us use the HNW database September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Does giving make people happy? Donors Private benefit €  Intermediary organizations grants Match: x 2 programs Recipients Public benefit September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Does giving make donors happy? Private benefit €  Intermediary organizations grants Match: x 2 programs Recipients Public benefit September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis The Joy of Giving Which areas of the brain are active when money given to participants is taken from them to benefit a charity or when they give it themselves? 1. In all conditions giving was associated with activity in areas that are related to pleasure (caudate, right nucleus accumbens) 2. The activity is larger when the gift is voluntary n = 19 female students @U Oregon September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis No Joy of Giving n = 261 students of unknown origin September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

What price do donors care about? Their checkbook amount = what donors have to pay to make a gift The amount that the charity receives as a result of their gift = the impact of the gift With the match, we are increasing the amount the charity receives without additional cost to the donor. September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis Matching: Who cares? Matches usually increase the amounts charities receive, and more so than mathematically equivalent rebates. Our hypothesis was that matches would not increase the satisfaction of donors. September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Design and analysis plan We preregistered this study at https://osf.io/x69ds/ Experiment conducted among a large population sample (n = 1,232) of participants in the 2015 Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey (GINPS) And among a sample of 771 millionaires in the 2015 High Net Worth GINPS oversample September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Procedure: control group After the survey, participants read: Among all participants in this survey we raffle five amounts of €100. If you are the winner, you can receive the amount in the form of a gift card, but you can also donate it to a charity of your choice. If you are one of the winners, would you like to: 1. receive €100 in the form of a voucher; 2. receive €50 in the form of a voucher, and give €50 to a charity; 3. donate €100 to a charity. Recipients were 12 popular charities in the Netherlands: Amnesty International - Doctors Without Borders (MSF) - Society for the protection of animals - Greenpeace - Netherlands Heart Association - Church in Action - National Cancer Foundation - Oxfam Netherlands - Stop Aids Now! – Unicef – Warchild - World Wild Life Fund - another charity, namely:……………………… September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis The match After the survey, participants read: Among all participants in this survey we raffle five amounts of €100. If you are the winner, you can receive the amount in the form of a gift card, but you can also donate it to a charity of your choice. Attention: the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam doubles the value of your gift to charity. If you are one of the winners, would you like to: 1. receive €100 in the form of a voucher; 2. receive €50 in the form of a voucher, and give €50 to a charity; the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam increases this amount by €50, so that he charity receives €100 3. donate €100 to a charity; the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam increases this amount by €100, so that he charity receives €200. Recipients were 12 popular charities in the Netherlands: Amnesty International - Doctors Without Borders (MSF) - Society for the protection of animals - Greenpeace - Netherlands Heart Association - Church in Action - National Cancer Foundation - Oxfam Netherlands - Stop Aids Now! – Unicef – Warchild - World Wild Life Fund - another charity, namely:……………………… September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Measuring the joy of giving Post-test mood: After participants made their decisions, we asked: “Finally we have this question for you: how are you feeling at the moment?” Response options ranged from 1 (labeled ‘Very bad’) to 10 (labeled ‘Excellent’). September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Measuring the joy of giving Pre-test satisfaction with life: During the survey, participants had responded to the question: “how would you evaluate your life in general on a scale from 1 to 10?”, with 1 labeled ‘very unhappy’ and 10 ‘very happy’. Mood benefits of giving: post-test mood minus pre-test satisfaction with life (r = .59) September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Yes, we have regressions September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Population sample: control group September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Population sample: match group September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Millionaires: control group September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Millionaires: match group September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Giving in population sample September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Giving by millionaires September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis Amounts donated +4% +41% September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis Conclusions Happiness made people give (more). Giving did not make donors happier than they already were. Matches did not make donors happier than they already were. These findings are in line with the martyrdom hypothesis and the pure warm glow model. September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis Two puzzles Why do people give a chance of winning a €100 to charity when their mood does not improve? Why did the millionaires not respond to the match? September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis Implication Use matches to attract donations, but not to make donors happy. September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis Speculations Giving is more satisfying when it is more costly and provides a certain benefit to a close other. This makes giving to charity less hedonically rewarding than keeping or giving to a specific other person. Mood benefits vary between donors: Effective altruists should care (more) about the impact of their gifts. September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis Mechanisms September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis Mechanisms Joy: - Impact = efficacy, - Duty / guilt = psychological benefit Match: - Quality signal - Social pressure September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis Next steps Add controls for participant characteristics such as the joy of giving, and donations in the past year Explore moderation by mechanisms Write the paper – please check back https://osf.io/bvs6t/ later September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis September 20, 2018 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

Contact: René Bekkers Center for Philanthropic Studies Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam r.bekkers@vu.nl Blog: http://renebekkers.wordpress.com Twitter: @renebekkers