The Interaction between Prosocial (Giving) Behaviours and Social Cohesion

A controlled experiment establishes that differences in relational proximity can evoke or suppress a willingness to give to an unrelated cause. Four treatment groups underwent the same set of exercises but two in a closer relational environment and two in a more distant relational environment. Half of the subjects in each relational environment further received an unannounced doubling of pay. On exit, all participants had the option to give to charity. The experiment showed that the charitable giving was driven by relational factors, not by pay. We can learn that pro-social (pro-giving) inclinations interact with the wider social environment, and that these complex relational parameters may be evaluated by easy-to-measure giving patterns.