Better to give? A systematic review of prosocial spending and happiness

Abstract

Considerable research has amassed a plethora of evidence indicating that prosocial spending has a consistently positive effect on individual happiness. Nevertheless, this effect may be subject to various influencing factors that researchers have yet to systematically examine. The purpose of this systematic review is twofold: first, to document the empirical evidence of the relationship between prosocial spending and happiness, and second, to systematically categorize the influential factors affecting this relationship from the perspective of mediators and moderators. To achieve this goal, this systematic review incorporates the influential factors identified by researchers into an intra‐individual, inter‐individual, and methodological framework. Ultimately, this review includes 14 empirical studies that have effectively fulfilled the aforementioned two objectives. The systematic review concludes that engaging in prosocial spending consistently demonstrates a positive effect on individual happiness, irrespective of cultural or demographic factors, although the complexity of this relationship necessitates consideration of mediating and moderating factors, as well as methodological nuances.