The Impact of Investment Priming on Donations to Social Causes: Evidence from Two Field Experiments

Abstract This study investigates the effect of investment priming on individuals’ donations to social causes. Using two field experiments, we examine donations to a plant-a-tree program of 1,480 investors who had invested in portfolios with large positive returns in the previous financial year. We compare the donations of investors who were reminded of their portfolio's returns (investment prime) before the donation request with those of investors who were not reminded of their portfolio's returns. We find that investment priming reduced the donations of non-prosocial investors who do not regularly donate to charities or invest in environmental funds. And among prosocial investors, we find that investment priming had no effect on donations. These findings extend previous research on money priming by suggesting that drawing investors’ attention to their investment gains may weaken their willingness to share their wealth and donate to social causes.