The effect of childhood experience on consumers’ willingness to donate: an imprinting perspective

Ying Wang, Xiaogang He, Qiang Hu and Tingyuan Lou ()
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Ying Wang: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Zhejiang College
Xiaogang He: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Zhejiang College
Qiang Hu: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Zhejiang College
Tingyuan Lou: Zhejiang Normal University

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2025, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Plenty of research has been done to examine the influence of corporate marketing activities on consumer behavior; however, less attention is paid to exploring the childhood experience that shapes consumers’ donation intention. Most charitable organizations always view donations as a one-off effect, but charitable donation is a sustainable event resulting from childhood influence. Drawing on imprinting theory, this article deeply explores how perceived social support in childhood affects consumers’ willingness to donate, and further, is empirically tested utilizing a survey method. Prosocial motivation and perspective taking are first introduced to construct a chain mediating model to explain the relationship between consumers’ perceived social support in childhood and donation intention in adulthood. This paper concludes with discussions on the implications of theory, research, and practice.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-05807-7

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