Multiple facets of altruism and their influence on blood donation

Economic theory provides a number of often complementary suggestions for modeling social motives related to altruistic behavior. Questionnaire research on altruism (Rushton et al., 1981) can enable identification of “facets” of altruism. But can we match these facets with pro-social behavior, stated reasons for such behavior, and theoretical concepts for modeling altruism? In this paper, we show that such matching is possible and plausible. Our questionnaire results suggest that overall altruism is related to charity giving, but not to blood-donation behavior. Only when investigating different facets of altruism separately can we link specific motives to specific behaviors.

► Questionnaire research is applied to investigate different models of social motives and facets of altruism.
► General altruism and facets of altruism are related to observable pro-social behaviors and reported reasons for these behaviors.
► Overall questionnaire altruism is connected to charity giving, but not to blood donation behavior.
► Facets of altruism differently link to specific motives and pro-social behaviors.