Study Finds Bigger Bonuses Don’t Result in More Giving

Participants in a study by economists at the University of Southampton on income and charity were less likely to donate after getting a bigger workplace bonus, United Press International reports.

Researchers at the English university recruited 104 people to do data-entry work for a low, fixed hourly wage. By random assignment, half the workers received bonuses that were more than double that of their peers. When asked at the end of the experiment to give to charity, 37 percent of the low-bonus recipients donated, against 21 percent of those better-compensated.

The findings echo other research showing lower-income Americans give away a higher proportion of their earnings than the wealthy. Mirco Tonin, co-author of the Southampton study, speculated that “people instinctively attribute their high pay or bonuses to being a reward purely for their own skills and effort, even if there is actually an element of luck involved. As such, they feel entitled to the money.”