A Cross-country Study on the Effects of Cultural Tightness on Donation Request Compliance

The world is becoming increasingly dependent on charities to solve inequality and poverty. Charitable giving is a social phenomenon heavily dependent on cultural factors. One such underexplored factor is cultural tightness/looseness (CTL), or the degree to which individuals within a society adhere to the social norm. Prior literature indicated that there may be greater extrinsic motivations for individuals in tighter cultures to comply with donation requests based on very limited data. To verify this hypothesis, we used data from [1] and the 2021 World Giving Index Report across 54 different nations. We then developed a model for the relationship between CTL and the donation request compliance rate in a cross-country study. The model was then adjusted with other factors such as GDP per capita, ethnic tensions, and internal conflicts to improve the accuracy. We find evidence that as the culture is looser, individuals are less willing to comply with donation requests, validating the initial hypothesis and expanding on the external validity of past literature. We reveal a critical link between culture and donor behavior, and we also provide a strong foundation for future research regarding cultural effects on donor behavior at the individual level.