“This one’s on me!”: Differential well-being effects of self-centered and recipient-centered motives for spending money on others

Past research reliably shows that spending money on others (termed prosocial spending) makes people happier than spending money on oneself. The present research tested whether the happiness benefits of prosocial spending may be reduced when spending money on others for self-centered reasons—to benefit the self—than when done for recipient-centered reasons—to benefit the recipient. Four specific spending motives—spending on others to self-enhance, out of obligation, to enhance recipients, and to support recipients—were derived empirically and tested for their unique effects on hedonic and eudaemonic well-being. Across four studies, recipient-enhancement, a recipient-centered motive with a positive effect on well-being, and obligation, a self-centered motive with a negative effect on well-being, emerged as the most reliable motivational predictors of well-being from prosocial spending, across hedonic and eudaemonic forms. These findings offer the first evidence of specific interpersonal motives on prosocial spending behaviors and their effects on levels of rewards in addition to kinds of rewards.