Happiness from Giving: When Consumers Misforecast Their Affective Responses to Prosocial Behavior

Consumer giving has steadily declined over the last few years (Giving USA 2010). When consumers do give, approximately 50% are motivated to only give once and not give again (Nonprofit Times 2003). In order to continue to serve those in need, charities must effectively request help from donors. Consumers are more likely to engage in helping behavior when they will receive a positive emotional response (Batson 1998; Piliavin et al. 1981). However, research has not addressed whether consumers are accurate in their forecasts. Affective misforecasting is the difference between forecasted and experienced affect (Patrick, MacInnis, and Park 2007). There are several different biases that have been associated with misforecasting; however, they do not tap into the key drivers of prosocial behavior: the costs endured by the giver and benefit received by the person(s) in need (Piliavin et al. 1981). When consumers think about helping others, consumers are more likely to focus on the benefit to others. The focus of benefitting others is likely to induce predictions of positive affect as research has shown that thinking about the benefit to others produces strong feelings of positive affect (Salovey et al. 1991).When consumers experience the helping behavior, consumers are more likely to focus on the process to self. With prosocial behavior, consumers do not see the outcome produced to those in need. Therefore, they use their endured costs to inform the provided benefit. The cost-benefit inference is not taken under consideration during time of prediction.