Commodity

Many people who donate to charity believe it’s important to help people in need. They feel that people should give to others because it’s the right thing to do. However, the psychological origins of wanting, or even needing “to feel what you’re doing is right” can be simplified as pride. This is not to bash on the vanity of philanthropy as much as it is to identify the motivations behind it. It’s completely natural (and thankfully so!) that people take pride when they know that they are helping someone else.

This sense of ‘altruism,’ referring to behavior that benefits another individual at a cost to oneself, is typically said to be the main motivation behind donations. While psychologists debate whether pure altruism is real, altruistic people emotionally enjoy giving and receive pleasure from the action.