This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Are people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds more willing to help—or do the wealthy give more? For years, research has provided conflicting answers.
A new study by Kühne Logistics University (KLU), based on data from approximately 680,000 people, resolves this contradiction: Both statements are true, but only in different situations. When it comes to direct contact with people in need, the wealthy's advantage shrinks. When helping costs money, they give more.
The results have now been published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Ever since a widely acclaimed study was published in 2010, experts have debated the relationship between social class and willingness to help. One side argues that people with less money and education are more generous because they rely on one another more in everyday life and feel a stronger sense of connection to others.
The other side counters that helping others requires resources, and those who have more can give more. Empirical studies have sometimes found one result, sometimes the other and often no correlation at all. The team led by doctoral student and first author Johannes Stark (formerly at KLU, now at Hong Kong Polytechnic University) has demonstrated in three complementary studies that the two perspectives do not contradict each other but rather complement one another.
A reanalysis of a meta-analytic dataset comprising approximately 160 studies and around 680,000 respondents revealed that the slight overall increase in generosity among higher socioeconomic classes is significantly greater when helping involves a financial cost—such as making donations. In contrast, this difference diminishes when helping requires direct personal contact, such as when someone needs specific support. The researchers explained why this is the case using data from the long-term Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, which included more than 8,500 people in Germany: People from lower socioeconomic classes experience greater dependence on others.
As a result, they help one another. People from higher socioeconomic classes have greater financial resources—and can therefore donate more. This was confirmed by a so-called preregistered experiment involving about 960 participants: Those who felt dependent on others or had more money at their disposal shared more generously.
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