Social Information, Status and Real Donation in the Lab

The widening wealth gap makes charitable giving vital for improving welfare of the poor and equality for the society. This article examines how social information from different sources affects donation willingness. Using a lab experiment with real donations, participants decided whether to donate their earned money after learning about others’ donation. We find that willingness to donate decreases significantly after seeing generous donations from low-income individuals. In addition, donors tend to give larger amounts after receiving information from high-income groups. The study reveals that social information can erode intrinsic motivation to donate, lowering overall willingness to give. The results provide important evidence on the effectiveness of social information and the motivation behind charitable behavior.