Altruistic self-concept mediates the effects of personality traits on volunteering: Evidence from an online experiment

C. Monica Capra, Bing Jiang () and Yuxin Su

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2021, vol. 92, issue C

Abstract: We study experimentally the effect of personality traits on the willingness to make and keep a promise to volunteer. In our experiment, Amazon Mechanical Turk participants were given the option to volunteer by donating time and effort to a charity. They also answered a series of questionnaires, including the Big Five personality test and attitudinal questions that we used to construct an index representing altruistic self-concept. Self-concept refers to the way we describe and evaluate ourselves. We find that altruistic self-concept mediates how personality affects volunteering decisions. In particular, agreeableness has a strong influence on the probability of making and keeping promises to volunteer through its effect on altruistic self-concept. Our findings have useful implications for non-profit organizations.

Keywords: Charitable donations; Volunteering; Personality; Self-concept; Experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 D64 D9 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:92:y:2021:i:c:s2214804321000379

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2021.101697

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