Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors (e.g. religiosity, sex, race, income, marital status, and education level) that best predict generosity. The level of a participant’s religiosity was measured with a questionnaire examining different self-reported factors, such as attendance of religious events, personal devotion, prayer and community life and scored on a self-devised scale. Generosity was operationally and separately defined as the actions of financial giving and volunteering. Also recorded were participants’ reactions to various scenarios, to better understand how helpful they are, as an additional measure of generosity. The scenarios exposed them to situations such as encountering a person begging for money, a homeless person, and a person who might need assistance after an accident. Separate multiple regression analyses were conducted with the two different measures of generosity as the dependent variable and religiosity, gender, race, annual income, marital status and education level as the independent variables. No statistical significance was found for either giving (r = .357, r² = .128) or volunteering (r = .314, r² = .098). Moderate correlations between marital status (e.g. being married) and giving (r = -.257, p = .014) and volunteering and religiosity (p = .254, p= .015) were found.

Recommended Citation

Barth, Carlo (2016) "Predicting Factors of Generosity," Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal: Vol. 1: Iss. 18, Article 10.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/psych_journals/vol1/iss18/10