Work

The effect of childhood experience on consumers’ willingness to donate: an imprinting perspective

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Plenty of research has been done to examine the influence of corporate marketing activities on consumer behavior; however, less attention is paid to exploring the childhood experience that shapes consumers’ donation intention. Most charitable organizations always view donations as a one-off effect, but charitable donation is a sustainable event resulting from childhood influence. Drawing on imprinting theory, this article deeply explores how perceived social support in childhood affects consumers’ willingness to donate, and further, is empirically tested utilizing a survey method. Prosocial motivation and perspective taking are first introduced to construct a chain mediating model to explain the relationship between consumers’ perceived social support in childhood and donation intention in adulthood. This paper concludes with discussions on the implications of theory, research, and practice.

Source: Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-05807-7

Authors: Ying Wang, Xiaogang He, Qiang Hu, Tingyuan Lou

Institutions: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Zhejiang College of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Zhejiang Normal University, Xingzhi College Zhejiang Normal University

Language: English

Topic: Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,890