Isolating Warm Glow in Charitable Auction Giving: A Comparison between Student and Non-student Subject Pools

In this study we use a novel experimental design to isolate warm glow from pure altruism and measure the extent of warm glow in an auction that contributes the sum of revenues by highest bidders to a charity. We conduct one set of sessions with a standard student pool and a second set of sessions with a sample of consumers drawn from the general population. Subjects bid to upgrade an agricultural product from a river basin that is not in good ecological status. Comparing results from the charitable auction to results from the standard auction (control) treatments, we find that warm glow motivations are only present in the student sample. Our results suggest that experiments with student subjects are likely to overestimate the extent of warm glow�.