Eamonn Ferguson, Claire Lawrence, Sarah Bowen, Carley N Gemelli, Amy Rozsa, Konrad Niekrasz, Anne van Dongen, Lisa A Williams, Amanda Thijsen, Nicola Guerin, Barbara Masser, Tanya E Davison
Explaining why someone repeats high-cost cooperation towards non-reciprocating strangers is difficult. Warm glow offers an explanation. We argue that warm glow, as a mechanism to sustain long-term cooperation, cools off over time but can be warmed up with a simple intervention message. We tested our predictions in the context of repeat voluntary blood donation (high-cost helping of a non-reciprocating stranger) across 6 studies: a field-based experiment (n = 5,821) comparing warm-glow and impure-altruism messages; an implementation study comparing a 3-yr pre-implementation period among all first-time donors in Australia (N = 270,353) with a 2-yr post-implementation period (N = 170, 317); and 4 studies (n = 716, 1,124, 932, 1,592) exploring mechanisms...
September 14, 2023: Nature Human Behaviour