Expectation, Commitment, and Charitable Giving: The Mediating Role of Trust and the Moderating Role of Social Status

This study suggests that the expectation of an individual about the outcome of their charitable donating can guide their action. Based on reciprocity theory and research, outcome expectation was dichotomized as altruistic versus egoistic, and an expectation-based psychological model of giving has been proposed. In this model, expectation leads to trust in charities, manifesting in strengthened engagement, which in its turn generates an increased amount of donations. In addition, social status moderates the effect of outcome expectation on charitable commitment. Overall, the proposed model was supported by the results of 530 responses of an online survey. Furthermore, social status moderated only the effect of egoistic expectation on charitable commitment. This indicated a stronger positive relationship between egoistic expectation and commitment for individuals of low social status than for those of high social status.