What Would You Do With $10,000 of Free Cash?

You just got a $10,000 gift!

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Imagine you’re given $10,000 and the only requirement is that you must spend it in the next three months. How would you spend it? And if others received this gift, how do you think they would spend it?

Pause for a moment and jot down your answers. Seriously, put them in writing. Once you're done, read on to see what happened when this was done with 200 people from around the world.

In a fascinating new study published on August 2, 2023, in the journal Psychological Science, Elisabeth Dunn and colleagues did exactly this. The researchers were surprised by the results—and you might be too.

Prior research on generosity has been limited in many ways. These include the amounts used (often $10 or less), laboratory settings (not the real world), and the lack of diversity in the participants (college students.) These studies have left open the question, “How generous are people in real life, especially when the stakes are high?”

The Level of Generosity

In this “one-of-a-kind” study, participants from three “low-income” countries were recruited—Brazil (8), Kenya (39) and Indonesia (50)—along with four “high-income countries”: Australia (12), Canada (12), the United Kingdom (25) and the United States (54). Their average age was 34 years (range 21-75, SD = 12). For participants from low-income countries, the median household income was less than $8,000. On average, this $10,000 gift more than doubled their yearly income.

The $10,000 was given via a single payment and for the next three months participants reported how they spent it. One participant failed to report their spending. Their data was recorded as missing, resulting in 199 total participants.

On average, participants in the study spent over $6,400 (64 percent) on things that benefited others, including almost $1,700 (17 percent) in gifts to charity. For comparison, a prior meta-analysis of over 100 studies of generosity showed an average of 28 percent was used in ways that benefited others.

“What Will Others Think?” Did Not Influence Generosity

The researchers expected that if people publicly shared how they spent their money, they would be more generous. To check if this was correct, they asked half of the participants to post on Twitter about how they spent the money. The other half was asked to keep their spending “private.”

By following what the participants posted on Twitter, the researchers saw that “generous spending was similar” between Twitter and private groups. This suggests that people give not so much to boost their reputation but for other reasons, perhaps because it feels satisfying as prior research suggests.

The backstory to this study is also one of remarkable generosity. Initially, the anonymous donor couple offered to donate $1 million. That meant 100 people would each receive $10,000.

Dunn was grateful for the donor’s generosity. She also wanted the study to be as scientifically rigorous as possible, and knew that a larger study would provide stronger data and a more convincing outcome. Therefore, she asked if the donor couple might consider giving $2 million so that 200 people could each get $10,000. The couple agreed, and this unique study became more scientifically robust. It has a power of 0.8 for detecting an effect of at least d = 0.2.

This study meets rigorous scientific criteria in other ways as well. It was preregistered on the Open Science Framework (OSF) and the exact research methodology was provided prior to the start of the study. This prevents “after the fact” analyses (a.k.a. “p-hacking”) that can make results appear important or “significant” when this is not fully accurate.

By virtue of the fact that it used large sums of money and was conducted in the real world using participants from across the globe, this study provides the strongest and clearest findings on human generosity to date.

Learning about the generosity of others is inspiring, and perhaps challenging. It can prompt the question, “How might I be more generous?”

Altruism Essential Reads

How to Foster the Value of Generosity in Your Children

“Don’t Be a Sh*tty Person”

Are You Hesitant to Ask for Help?

A happy implication of this study is this: When you need help, know that others are often willing to be generous. That can take many forms including time, expertise, and simply listening with care. And know that you, like others, are also capable of generosity in its many forms.

As news of calamities and tragedies bombards us, this study brings a big dose of good news: Humans can be surprisingly generous, even when money is scarce, and no one is watching.

Quite simply, this study offers hope for the future, and that's priceless.

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