Recipients' happiness in prosocial spending: The role of social ties

Abstract

AbstractIn the past decade, a growing body of studies has explored spenders' happiness in prosocial spending (i.e., spending money on others). However, the happiness of recipients has been frequently ignored. Considering that most prosocial spending behaviors can be seen as a particular form of social interactions and emotional outcomes of social interactions depend on whom people interact with, the current study attempts to explore the influence of the social ties between spenders and recipients (strong vs. weak social ties) on recipients' happiness. More specifically, the present study also attempts to explain this influence from the aspect of basic psychological needs (i.e., relatedness, competence, and autonomy) satisfaction. Results of two studies reveal that gifts from strong social ties lead to recipients' greater happiness than those from weak social ties. Notably, relatedness satisfaction and competence satisfaction, but not autonomy satisfaction, explain this happiness effect of social ties.