Warm glow and evaluation modes: Effects of separate and joint evaluation on anticipated warm glow from charitable giving
Abstract: The present research tests how different evaluation modes (separate and joint) affect anticipated warm glow resulting from helping behavior. Warm glow can be defined as the positive feelings that arise from helping behavior. In two survey studies, participants were asked to anticipate how strongly they thought they would experience warm glow-related feelings in different situations in which they donated different amounts of money to charity. Half of the participants of each study only saw one specific amount of money (separate evaluation mode) while the other half saw several different amounts of money (joint evaluation mode). When the participants were in joint evaluation mode, both studies found significant differences in anticipated warm glow between all the different amounts of money donated. In separate evaluation mode, only the difference in anticipated warm glow between donating nothing and donating something was significant. The studies also indicated that imagining relatively large donations (200, 400 and 600 SEK) leads to higher anticipated warm glow in joint than in separate evaluation mode, while the reverse is true when the donations are smaller (20, 40 and 60 SEK). These results show us that the way information is presented can affect the affective rewards of generous behavior significantly.
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