Investing in Others: Prosocial Spending for (Pro)Social Change

Imagine the following: It is a Saturday morning in December and you have decided to have breakfast at your local diner. You take a seat in a booth by the window and order the usual – a mushroom and cheese omelet with a side of hash browns and a coffee. As you enjoy your omelet, you consider your plans for the day. You have a long list of errands to attend to before heading to a friend’s place tonight, so as soon as you finish your meal, you summon your waitress for the check. She makes her way to your table and tells you that your check has been paid by another customer who just left the diner and then adds, “Happy Holidays.” Your bill was not large, but you are emotionally moved by the kindness of this generous act. You reach for your wallet anyway and tell the waitress you would like to pay the check for the next table. You leave $20 and head out the door with a smile. And just like that, a favor has been paid forward. This may sound more like a scene from a movie than real life, but this is just what happened in a Philadelphia diner in the winter of 2009 (Johnson, 2009). The positive chain reaction was initiated by an unknown couple who paid for their bill and the bill of another customer. The couple did not leave their names or phone number, but simply asked that the waitress wait until they had left the restaurant before informing the other customer that their tab had been paid. This act inspired others to do the same. For the next 5 h, dozens of customers continued to pay the favor forward. The staff at the diner were amazed by the string of generous spending, so much so that one waitress reported that the “magical” event brought tears to her eyes. This occurrence provides a poignant example of how prosocial spending, that is, spending money on others, can lead to positive outcomes for the people spending the money, those receiving it, and even other individuals nearby. In this chapter, we unpack and explore the possibility of prosocial spending as a mechanism for positive social change. After providing some background, we review our research on the happiness benefits of prosocial spending. We discuss the impact of prosocial spending at four levels, starting first with the happiness benefits of prosocial spending for individuals, and then extending this discussion outward to dyads, to