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Helping Yourself before Helping Others: How Sense of Control Promotes Charitable Behaviors
Author(s) -
Xu Qian,
Kwan Canice M. C.,
Zhou Xinyue
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1002/jcpy.1163
Subject(s) - psychology , sense of control , distress , social psychology , instinct , helping behavior , appeal , control (management) , prosocial behavior , altruism (biology) , clinical psychology , management , evolutionary biology , political science , law , economics , biology
This research elucidates the conditions under which distress appeals can evoke the instinct to help without turning recipients away from uncomfortable situations. Five experiments demonstrated with behavioral evidence that evoking a sense of control by irrelevant causes prior to appeal exposure can increase the likelihood of registering as a volunteer (Studies 1 and 3) and the tendency to donate (Studies 2, 4, and 5) in a subsequent unrelated situation. The authors found that this effect was not evident in the absence of distress and for participants with enhanced distress tolerance. The results further showed that enhanced control increased distress tolerance, which mediated the observed effect on charitable acts but had no impact on self‐efficacy in contributing as a helper. The findings have both theoretical and managerial implications for promoting charitable behaviors.