1. 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
5th SPI Conference 2018, Indianapolis

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Design and analysis plan
We preregistered this study at
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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

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

15. Population sample (n = 1,232)
September 20, 2018
5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

16. 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis
Millionaires (n = 771)
September 20, 2018
5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

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

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

19. 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis
Amounts donated
+4%
+41%
September 20, 2018
5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis
Mechanisms
September 20, 2018
5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

25. 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

26. 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 later
September 20, 2018
5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

27. 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis
September 20, 2018
5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

28. 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis
September 20, 2018
5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

29. 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis
September 20, 2018
5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

30. 5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis
September 20, 2018
5th Science of Philanthropy Conference, Indianapolis

31. Contact: René Bekkers Center for Philanthropic Studies
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Blog: