Greater income and financial well-being are associated with higher prosocial preferences and behaviors across 76 countries

Abstract

Prosocial preferences and behaviors-defined as those that benefit others-are essential for health, well-being, and a society that can effectively respond to global challenges. Identifying factors that may increase or decrease them is therefore critical. Wealth, in the form of income or subjective financial well-being (FWB), may be crucial in determining prosociality. In addition, individuals' experience of precarity (inability to meet basic needs) or country-specific factors could change how wealth correlates with prosociality, yet this impact is unknown. Here, we tested how self-reported household income (HHI) and FWB were associated with seven measures of prosociality in a global, representative sample of 80,337 people across 76 countries. We show a consistent positive association between wealth and prosociality, across both measures and for both financial and nonfinancial prosocial preferences and behaviors. HHI was positively associated with altruism, positive reciprocity, donating money, volunteering, and helping a stranger, but negatively associated with trust. FWB was positively associated with all aspects of prosociality, including trust. Individuals' experience of precarity reduced the strength of wealth associations for prosocial preferences but increased them for prosocial behaviors. Positive associations between wealth and prosociality were found around the world and across country-level wealth and cultural factors. These findings could have important implications for enhancing prosociality, critical for a healthy and adaptive society.

Keywords: altruism; prosocial; reciprocity; trust; wealth.

Fig. 1.

Greater wealth is associated with higher prosociality around the world. A) Income showed positive associations with altruism, positive reciprocity, and negative reciprocity and a negative association with trust, B) FWB was positively associated with all preferences, C) Income was positively associated with all behaviors with donating being particularly strong, and D) FWB was positively associated with all behaviors. Plots show predictions from LMMs of prosocial preferences/behaviors, controlling for gender, age, physical health, and cognitive ability. Preferences were modeled as standardized continuous variables, and binary behaviors were modeled with generalized LMMs (see Methods). Linear models are shown here with the quadratic models reported in supplementary materials. Plots were created by predicting response data from model fits, the shaded area representing 95%CI (plots showing individual data points, Figs. S1–S4).

Fig. 2.

Experience of precarity reduced associations between wealth and prosocial preferences but enhanced associations with prosocial behaviors. Models tested an interaction effect between wealth and a four-level precarity factor (no precarity, food precarity, shelter precarity, and both), with the significant interactions plotted above. The two significant interactions for preferences, A) income–altruism and B) FWB and positive reciprocity, were both negative, meaning that experience of precarity decreased the strength of the wealth–prosociality association. C) In contrast, the positive interaction between precarity and the income—helping a stranger relationship meant the strongest association with wealth was for those with experience of precarity. All three interactions between FWB and precarity with D) helping a stranger, E) donating, and F) volunteering were also positive.

Fig. 3.

Associations of income with prosocial preferences across the globe. Income was positively associated with A) positive reciprocity in 69/76 (91%, binomial proportion test comparing to 50% P < 0.001) countries, B) altruism in 67/76 (88%, P < 0.001) countries, C) trust in 33/76 (43%, P = 0.900) of countries with 43/76 (57%, P = 0.200) showing negative relationships, and neither proportion being statistically significant, D) negative reciprocity in 53/76 (70%, P < 0.001) countries. β values are standardized regression coefficients. Income was measured by self-reported HHI, adjusted to achieve purchasing power parity for legitimate comparison between countries (see Methods).

Fig. 4.

Associations of FWB with prosocial preferences across the globe. FWB was positively associated with A) positive reciprocity in 48/68 (71%, P < 0.001) countries, B) altruism in 55/68 (81%, P < 0.001) countries, C) trust in 50/68 countries (74%, P < 0.001), and D) negative reciprocity in 44/68 countries (65%, P = 0.01). β values are standardized regression coefficients. FWB was measured by a four-item scale capturing participants’ perceptions of their personal economic situation (see Methods).

Fig. 5.

Associations of income with prosocial behaviors across the globe. Income had a positive association with A) donating in 52/57 (91%, P < 0.001) countries, B) volunteering in 45/57 countries (79%, P < 0.001), and C) helping a stranger in 48/57 countries (84%, P < 0.001). ORs > 1 mean the behavior is more likely with increased income representing a positive association, and vice versa for OR < 1.

Fig. 6.

Associations of FWB on prosocial behaviors across the globe. FWB had positive relationships with A) donating in every country measured 59/59 (100%, P < 0.001), B) volunteering in 57/59 (97%, P < 0.001) countries, and C) helping a stranger in 49/59 countries (83%, P < 0.001). ORs > 1 mean the behavior is more likely with increased income representing a positive association, and vice versa for OR < 1.

Fig. 7.

Moderation of GNI and individualism–collectivism on the wealth–prosociality association by quartile. GNI moderated the association of FWB with A) donating, B) volunteering, and C) helping a stranger. Positive wealth correlations were smaller in the richest countries but remained consistently positive in all quartiles. Individualism–collectivism moderated D) volunteering and E) helping a stranger. The association between wealth and prosociality was smaller in more individualistic countries, but again remained positive across quartiles.