Thesis
The effect of incentive on motivation, helping behavior, prosocial spending, and subjective well-being
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/103601
Abstract
The goal of this master thesis was to address the roles of different types of incentives and their psychological consequences. Specifically, in Study One and Two, I examined two competing theories regarding the roles of different types of incentives. Since monetary incentive has been found to reduce helping behavior, in Study Three and Four, I attempted to use social framing to attenuate the negative effects of monetary incentive. In Study Five, Six, and Seven, I moved beyond merely distinguishing theoretically between social and monetary incentive or examining the applied implications of different types of incentives. Rather, I examined the psychological consequences of spending. In Study Five and Six, I found that participants’ affective forecasts regarding donation affected prosocial spending, which in turn affected their subjective well-being longitudinally. In Study Seven, I examined another cognitive bias, the identifiable victim effect, which affected participants’ decision to donate. Emotion was found to mediate the relationship between the identifiable victim effect and prosocial spending. Implications for the current studies were discussed.
Metrics
14 File views/ downloads
47 Record Views
Details
- Title
- The effect of incentive on motivation, helping behavior, prosocial spending, and subjective well-being
- Creators
- Kai Chi Yam
- Contributors
- Matthew F. Bumpus (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Human Development, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525299601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis