It’s Better to Give Than To Receive – Maybe

At the height of Powerball-mania a few weeks back, my wife came home with two tickets. Conservative by nature, she’s not one to spend money on long-shots, but the thought of a quarter-million dollars and a life in the lap of luxury was enough for her to plunk down a couple of bucks at the local gas station. Somewhat sheepishly she admitted she intended to buy one ticket for us and another for a co-worker as a birthday present, but the thought of giving away a winning ticket was too depressing (she still bought her co-worker an instant game scratch-off ticket). I assured her had she given the co-worker a winning Powerball ticket, I was certain she would have gotten something back in return…at least a million dollars. I then began to wonder, “What would the average person do?” and “What would the average person think someone else would do?”

So we asked 750 Americans, 18 and older, how much they would likely give back to someone who bought them a winning lottery ticket worth $250 million as a gift. Since we were curious whether people categorize themselves as being more or less generous than other people, we decided to ask a different but comparable 750 people how much somebody else would likely give to the person who bought them a winning lottery ticket worth the same amount.

First things first. People both think of themselves and other people as relatively generous, just not quite to the same degree: 63% of people surveyed say they, themselves, would give back a million dollars or more. However, our respondents are less optimistic about the generosity of other people: only 52% say other people would give back a million dollars or more. When examining the flip side, only about 3% of respondents say they, themselves, would give nothing back to the ticket buyer, whereas 13% believe other people would actually stiff the person who made them rich.

I suspect that when push comes to shove and the money is ours to do as we please, the decision on how much to give back wouldn’t be an easy one. We would just have to cross that bridge when get there. Or as my grandmother used to say “from your mouth to God’s ears”.