When having less elevates more: Benefactor income, moral elevation, and prosocial contagion among observers

Across nine experiments featuring both hypothetical donations and incentive-compatible designs, we examine how benefactor income shapes observers' emotional and behavioral responses to witnessing prosocial behavior. We show that identical acts of giving elicit different levels of moral elevation and downstream generosity depending on who gives. Specifically, generosity from low-income (vs. high-income) benefactors is perceived as more altruistically motivated, which elicits stronger feelings of moral elevation and, in turn, prosocial contagion. We theorize that these effects occur not because high-income benefactors are demotivating but because low-income benefactors reduce observers' skepticism, consistent with a virtue discounting account. These effects are context dependent such that the presence of high-income benefactors attenuates moral elevation and generosity even when low-income benefactors are also present, whereas making altruistic motives salient attenuates income-based differences in moral elevation and subsequent giving. We further show that these effects are not fully explained by alternative mechanisms such as general positive affect, guilt, or self-reflection. By linking income-based motive inferences, virtue discounting, and moral elevation, this research advances understanding of how prosocial behavior spreads socially and why identical acts of generosity can inspire markedly different downstream responses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).