Does competition affect giving?

John Duffy and Tatiana Kornienko

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2010, vol. 74, issue 1-2, 82-103

Abstract: Charities often devise fund-raising strategies that exploit natural human competitiveness in combination with the desire for public recognition. We explore whether institutions promoting competition can affect altruistic giving - even when possibilities for public acclaim are minimal. In a controlled laboratory experiment based on a sequential "dictator game" , we find that subjects tend to give more when placed in a generosity tournament, and tend to give less when placed in an earnings tournament - even if there is no award whatsoever for winning the tournament. Further we find that subjects' experimental behavior correlates with their responses to a post-experiment questionnaire, particularly questions addressing altruistic and rivalrous behavior. Based on this evidence, we argue that behavior in our experiment is driven, in part, by innate competitive motives.

Keywords: Dictator; game; Charitable; giving; Competitive; altruism; Relative; standing; Tournaments; Factor; analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (74)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:74:y:2010:i:1-2:p:82-103

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