Predicting Factors of Generosity

The purpose of this paper is twofold, as it includes a literature review concerning factors influencing generosity, as well as a proposal for study that investigates generosity based upon five factors, religiosity, gender, race, annual income and education level, and it is supposed to conclude which out of five factors best predict generosity. Inspiration for the study was found in Will and Cochran (1995) finding drastic differences in giving in different religious affiliations, income, sex, race, and denomination. Regnerus, Smith and Sikking (1999) even attested almost a twofold likelihood to give to religious people. Other notion to be discussed are the idea of generosity being dependent upon a person’s networks (Wiepking, 2009), and the importance of reciprocal expectations and behavior in relation to giving (Jones, Doughty and Hickson, 2006). In the study, I will measure religiosity of participants with a questionnaire examining different self-reported factors, such as attendance of religious events, personal devotion, prayer and community life. Generosity will be operationally defined as both financial giving, but also social giving, for example, volunteering. I will also examine participants’ reactions to various scenarios, to better understand how helpful they are, as an additional measure of generosity. The scenarios they will encounter include situations such as encountering a person begging for money, a homeless person, a person who might need assistance after an accident. Separate multiple regression analyses will be conducted with the different measures of generosity: financial giving, social giving, and general helpfulness, as the dependent variable and religiosity, gender, race, annual income and education level as the independent variables