Is Altruism Sensitive to Scope? The Role of Tangibility

Alex Imas and George Loewenstein

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2018, vol. 108, 143-47

Abstract: Prior work has shown that people appear insensitive to the scope of their altruistic acts and prosocial behavior. While they respond positively when their choices lead to increasing rewards for themselves, people do not change their behavior when the outcomes for others increase. We demonstrate that the scope sensitivity of altruism depends critically on its tangibility, and suggest that this relationship operates through mental accounting. We show that by increasing the level of tangibility, people can become just as sensitive to changes in the size of rewards for others as if they were earning the rewards themselves.

JEL-codes: D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20181094
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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