A recent study in Germany reported that individuals who perceived their socioeconomic status as higher were more likely to engage in charitable giving. Analyses indicated that this link might be mediated by mentalizing capacity. The study was published in NeuroImage.
Socioeconomic status is a measure that assesses an individual’s or family’s economic and social position within a society. It is based on income, education, occupation, and wealth. Socioeconomic status can significantly impact an individual’s access to various resources and opportunities, affecting their overall quality of life.
Children coming from families with higher socioeconomic status often have better access to education, healthcare, and employment prospects, while those coming from families with lower socioeconomic status face challenges in these areas more often.
Socioeconomic status is also known to shape social interactions. Altruistic behavior is one of them. A growing body of evidence indicates that individuals with a higher socioeconomic status are more inclined towards altruistic and generally prosocial behaviors. However, it remains to be determined if prosocial behaviors lead to higher socioeconomic status or if individuals with a higher status are inherently more altruistic.
Stefan Schulreich, the lead author of the study, and his team proposed that individuals of higher status might possess a greater capacity for mentalizing. This enhanced ability might enable them to better comprehend the emotions and thoughts of others, subsequently making them more altruistic. To verify this theory, they analyzed data from an experimental neuroimaging study centered on charitable donations.
“I was wondering whether the stereotype that poorer people are more prosocial than the more affluent really holds and what mechanisms could explain the link between social status and altruism. While some earlier studies indeed suggested that lower-status individuals are more prosocial, later work – including ours – found the exact opposite,” explained Schulreich, an assistant professor and head of the Nutrition and Decision Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Vienna.
To test their hypothesis, the researchers analyzed data from an experimental neuroimaging study that focused on charitable giving. The study involved 40 right-handed, healthy volunteers with an average age of 24 years. They were recruited through university flyers, Facebook student groups, and a student job portal, with 83% being students. Each participant was compensated 30 EUR for their involvement.
Participants completed an online survey in which, among other things, they provided a self-assessment of their socioeconomic status (the MacArthur Subjective Social Status Scale). Some days later (four on average), they came to the lab and completed a charitable donation task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The task consisted of 40 situations, each of which described a real-world charitable organization and asked the participant how much he/she would like to donate to it.
Donations could range from 0 to 20 EUR. Following each decision, participants indicated their level of perspective-taking (mentalizing), empathy, and compassion. Researchers informed participants that a random organization would receive their total donations from the trials. Simultaneously, participants would receive an additional 25% of the money they chose not to donate to their compensation. Moreover, a separate task assessed their capacity for mentalizing (the EmpaToM task), defined as the ability to understand and interpret others’ and one’s thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and intentions.
Results showed that donations participants gave in the donation task varied between 2.11 EUR and 19.50 EUR (out of 20 EUR possible). The average donation was 11.82 EUR. There was a very substantial association between mentalizing capacity and the amount donated. Participants with higher mentalizing capacity tended to give higher donations in the charitable giving task. Participants with higher socioeconomic status tended to give higher donations, but also tended to have higher mentalizing capacity.
Results showed that donation amounts ranged from 2.11 EUR to 19.50 EUR (with 20 EUR being the maximum). The average donation was 11.82 EUR. A significant correlation was observed between mentalizing capacity and donation amounts. Participants with a heightened mentalizing capacity generally donated more. Those with a higher socioeconomic status not only donated more but also exhibited a greater mentalizing capacity.
Subsequent analysis by the researchers tested a statistical model suggesting that mentalizing capacity might mediate the relationship between socioeconomic status and charitable donations. The results affirmed the possibility of such a relationship.
Neuroimaging data highlighted that participants with elevated socioeconomic status demonstrated stronger value coding in the right temporoparietal junction of their brains. The strength of this value representation was also linked to charitable giving and mentalizing.
“Our data clearly speaks against the notion that higher status always comes with more selfish behavior,” Schulreich told PsyPost. “We found that people with higher subjective socioeconomic status donated more to charity. So at least in some contexts the relationship between status and altruism can be positive, in line with several other studies. We also found a mechanism that can explain this link: Those with higher subjective status engaged more in so-called mentalizing (i.e., taking the perspective of others), which is a key driver of prosocial behavior, and we found this link also represented in the brain.”
The study sheds light on important links between social status and prosocial behavior. However, it also has limitations that need to be taken into account. Notably, the study sample was small and composed exclusively of young people, while the charitable donations included minor sums that participants did not give from their own funds. Results might not be the same on other age groups, if donations were larger, and if people had to give them from their own sources.
“It still surprises me that some studies continue to find positive and others negative relationships between higher status and prosociality,” Schulreich said. “The picture is quite mixed.”
“One limitation of our study is that we also cannot fully explain why in some contexts there is this positive link, while it’s negative in others. What we did show, however, is that the notion of generally less prosociality in higher-status individuals clearly does not hold, and we were able to provide a socio-cognitive and neural mechanism linking status and altruistic behavior via mentalizing.”
“Future studies need to have a closer look at the factors that determine the direction of the link between status and prosocial behaviors, and also investigate the generalizability to different forms of prosocial acts,” Schulreich concluded.
The study, “Higher subjective socioeconomic status is linked to increased charitable giving and mentalizing-related neural value coding”, was authored by Stefan Schulreich, Anita Tusche, Philipp Kanske, and Lars Schwabe.
