Abstract
Four studies investigated the differential effects of giving time vs. giving money on well-being and related mechanisms. Studies 1 and 2 used a recall paradigm, Study3 was a laboratory experiment, and Study 4 combined daily surveys with a recall procedure. Across the studies, we failed to find any substantial difference in happiness or meaningfulness associated with the two types of prosocial behaviors, which was probably due to insufficient statistical power. Yet, we found that individuals tended to recall experiences of giving time (vs. money) that were associated with higher satisfaction of the needs for relatedness and competence. Moreover, for both types of prosocial behaviors, the fulfillment of the three basic needs in SDT, autonomy, competence, and relatedness, as well as beneficence (i.e., perceived prosocial impact), all acted as important predictors of happiness and meaningfulness. Implications for research on the psychological consequences of prosocial behaviors, and the roles of basic needs and beneficence in promoting well-being are discussed.
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Notes
In Studies 1 and 3, we also measured positive affect (with the five items, happy, excited, enjoyed, content and pride), negative affect (with the five items, depressed, angry, sad, anxious, frustrated), general life satisfaction (with the satisfaction with life scale, Pavot et al. 1991) and meaning in life (with the 5-item presence of meaning subscale of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Steger et al. 2006). No significant difference was found in terms of all these variables in both studies. Therefore, we chose not to include these variables in the main text.
To make a more direct comparison with the results from Study 1, we compared the outcome variables associated with giving money in the money-first group and those associated with giving time in the time-first group (because these data were not contaminated by carry-over effect). The results indicated that consistent with Study 1, giving time fostered more relatedness (M = 4.64, SD = 1.40 vs. M = 4.05, SD = 1.50, t(96) = 2.12, p = .046) and competence (M = 4.73, SD = 1.17 vs. M = 4.14, SD = 1.32, t(96) = 2.35, p = .021) than giving money. All other comparisons were non-significant, ts(96) < 1.39, ps > .17.
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This research is supported by Grant from the National Social Science Foundation of China allocated to the first author (Gant No. 19BSH129). The authors thank Ms. Beibei Zhuo for her assistance in material preparation and data collection.
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Zhang, H., Zhu, J., Wei, L. et al. A Comparison between the Psychological Benefits of Giving Money vs. Giving Time. J Happiness Stud 22, 2677–2701 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00336-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00336-3