Prosocial Paradox: How Financial Constraints Amplify Strategic Donation Choices

In times of financial hardship, how do individuals navigate prosocial decisions such as charitable giving? While prior research has focused on how scarcity reduces generosity or limits decision-making, this paper examines how it may instead shape strategic preferences in donation choice architecture. Building on Impression Management Theory and Costly Signaling Theory, we investigate how perceived financial constraints influence preferences for single-category versus multi-category donation choices. Across three experiments, we show that individuals experiencing financial constraints are more likely to prefer multiple (vs. single) donation choices. This preference is mediated by face consciousness, reflecting concerns about maintaining social image under economic stress. Self-construal further moderates this effect: individuals with an independent self-construal prefer single donation choices, whereas those with an interdependent self-construal prefer multiple donation choices under financial constraints. These findings advance research on financial scarcity and prosocial behavior by shifting the focus from whether individuals donate to how they strategically choose among donation choices, and offer important implications for structuring donation choice architecture to enhance perceived social value.