Blood donors' helping behavior is driven by warm glow: more evidence for the blood donor benevolence hypothesis.
BACKGROUND
The benevolence hypothesis (both donor and recipient gain) suggests that blood donors, compared to non-blood donors have a general altruistic motivational preference based on warm glow (i.e., "I donate because it makes me feel good"). With objective behavioral economics tests of altruism and warm-glow giving, this paper offers the first direct experimental test of this hypothesis. The prediction that blood donors will be motivated in general by warm glow was compared to predictions from other theoretical models: strong reciprocity and empathy.


METHODS
Four experiments and one prospective study examined blood donors' and nondonors' motivations for general charitable giving and blood donation. Variants of the dictator game (DG; a charity DG [CDG] and a warm-glow version of a CDG) were used to provide objective measures of altruism.


RESULTS
Blood donors gave less than nondonors on the CDG, but gave more on the warm-glow version. Blood donors' actual donations (in the CDGs and blood donation) were associated with feelings of warm glow. There was no evidence that blood donors were motivated by strong reciprocity or empathic concerns.


CONCLUSIONS
This paper offers objective behavioral evidence that blood donors' charitable giving and blood donation, compared to non-blood donors, is more strongly motivated by warm glow. This provides additional support for the benevolence hypothesis of blood donation.
Personality, Social Psychology and Health PSPH Group, School of Psychology, and the Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economic, CEDEX, School of Economics, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK. eamonn.ferguson@nottingham.ac.uk
Eamonn
E
Ferguson
Michael
M
Taylor
David
D
Keatley
Niall
N
Flynn
Claire
C
Lawrence
D000328:Adult; D000533:Altruism; D026686:Beneficence; D001782:Blood Donors / Q000523:psychology*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D037921:Gift Giving; D006240:Happiness; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011678:Punishment; D011897:Random Allocation; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult