Center for Behavioral Decision Research

CBDR : Seminar Series : Seminar by Lise Vesterlund

Why Do People Give? An Experimental Test of Pure and Impure Altruism

	presented by Lise Vesterlund (University of Pittsburgh)


	Thursday, February 26	link to paper
	12pm
	Porter Hall 223D	link to Speaker's Site

	Abstract:

	The charitable-giving literature distinguishes between the pure and impure altruism models. The pure altruism model argues that the sole motive for giving is a concern for increasing the charity’s total output, whereas the impure altruism model also allows for the possibility that a donor gets a private benefit – a warm glow – from being the one who makes a gift to the charity. In comparing these models, traditionally studies have focused on testing pure altruism, and have systematically rejected it. Impure altruism has, as the alternative, become the accepted model of charitable giving. We design an experiment that enables an examination of both models, and thus improves our ability to identify the relative strength of the altruistic and warm glow components in the impure altruism model. We test the motives for giving in an environment that closely mirrors that analyzed in the theoretical literature. Specifically, each subject singlehandedly determines the charity’s total output – the total dollar amount to be transferred to a recipient of the charity. Our results are in line with the predictions of the impure altruism model. However, for the type of charity we study, the warm-glow component is small.

	Host at CMU: Weber