Giving Back—Giving Forward

Giving Versus Giving In

Altruism is central to organizational and social life, but its motivations are not well understood. We propose a new theoretical distinction that sorts these motivations into two basic types: “giving” indicates prosocial behaviors in which one willingly engages, while “giving in” indicates prosocial behavior in which one reluctantly engages, often in response to social pressure or obligation. U...

Giving Permission Implies Giving Choice

This article presents the formalisation of the weak and strong permission in deontic logic based on the logic of enactment. A permission that follows from the absence of a prohibition, we call a weak permission; this permission is not enacted. A strong permission is always enacted (implicitly or explicitly), and implies a giving choice. The distinction between these two types of permission is a...

Selfless giving.

In four studies, we show that people who anticipate more personal change over time give more to others. We measure and manipulate participants' beliefs in the persistence of the defining psychological features of a person (e.g., his or her beliefs, values, and life goals) and measure generosity, finding support for the hypothesis in three studies using incentive-compatible charitable donation d...

Charitable Giving

In 2005 charitable giving in the United States totaled over $260 billon, or around 1.9% of personal income, making it a significant fraction of the economy. Individual giving accounted for 77% of this total, while foundations accounted for 12%, bequests for 7%, and corporations for 5% (Giving USA, 2006). Almost 70% of US households report giving to charity. While the US typically has one of the...

Charitable Giving