What Good is Charitable Giving for the Giver? The Combined Effect of Charitable Giving and Construal Level on Giver Creativity

Abstract

What good is charitable giving for the giver? While previous research has examined ways of increasing charitable donations of money and their associated emotional benefits, extant studies have overlooked the cognitive consequences of giving for the giver. The present research examines the causal relationship between charitable donation of money and giver creativity. Data from a laboratory experiment support our hypothesis that charitable giving improves the giver's creativity when the consequences of the giving are not specific and the giver in question has a high-level construal (thinks of the outcome of giving rather than means). Charitable giving behavior with non-specific consequences appears to motivate givers with a high-level construal to imagine novel ways in which their money will be useful for others and thus activates creative cognition. Indeed, we observe the creativity-boosting effect of charitable giving only when givers contemplated the unknown consequences of their charitable behavior.