Donation is a prosocial behavior of giving one’s income and assets without expecting anything in return, serving as an important measure of a society’s social integration and cultural development. This paper explores how objective social status an...
Donation is a prosocial behavior of giving one’s income and assets without expecting anything in return, serving as an important measure of a society’s social integration and cultural development. This paper explores how objective social status and subjective social status influence donation behavior, categorizing donation behavior into four groups: (1) the indifferent group, which is not interested in donating, (2) the simple intention group, which has the intention to donate but has not taken action, (3) the temporary participation group, which donates but has no future plans to continue, and (4) the active participation group, which actively plans and participates in donations. For the analysis, the 2023 “Social Survey” data from Statistics Korea was used. The results of the multinomial logit analysis showed that the probability of being in the active participation group was highest when income level and subjective class consciousness were at their peak. Additionally, even among low-income households with a monthly income of less than 1 million won (USD 750), the likelihood of expressing interest in or participating in donations increased as subjective class consciousness rose. The study’s findings, which indicate that the higher the socioeconomic status, the greater the likelihood of participating in donation behavior, differ from some western studies like Piff et al. (2010). Furthermore, the analysis found that residing in a metropolitan area increased the probability of donation intention and participation, and that the baby boom generation had higher donation participation and intention compared to the MZ generation. These results remained robust even after introducing various demographic and social control variables.