Charitable giving after indulgence: forgiveness for past sins

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that consumers are more likely to make indulgent choices after making charitable contributions. Indulgent purchases become easier to justify and rationalize when they are linked to charitable contributions, and thus are more likely to occur. This paper further investigates how the virtues of charitable contributions offset the sins of making indulgent choices. The main findings are fourfold. First, people are willing to make greater charitable contributions in money and in time after making more indulgent choices, as compared to non-indulgent choices. I call this the "forgiveness" effect. Giving to charities, in part, offers forgiveness for the sins of a prior indulgence. Furthermore, I demonstrate that people in fact make even greater proportional charitable contributions relative to indulgent spending, when charitable giving follows rather than precedes indulgent choices. That is, the relative magnitude of the forgiveness effect is greater than the previously documented licensing effect. Third, the magnitude of the forgiveness effect is greater to the extent that people use more abstract mental models. And finally, I demonstrate that the forgiveness effect is based on choosing indulgences, not necessarily on spending money or time on indulgences.