We study experimentally the effect of personality traits on the willingness to make and keep a promise to volunteer. In our experiment, Amazon Mechanical Turk participants were given the option to volunteer by donating time and effort to a charity. They also answered a series of questionnaires, including the Big Five personality test and attitudinal questions that we used to construct an index representing altruistic self-concept. Self-concept refers to the way we describe and evaluate ourselves. We find that altruistic self-concept mediates how personality affects volunteering decisions. In particular, agreeableness has a strong influence on the probability of making and keeping promises to volunteer through its effect on altruistic self-concept. Our findings have useful implications for non-profit organizations.

我们通过实验研究了人格特质对自愿做出和信守诺言的意愿的影响。在我们的实验中，通过向慈善机构捐赠时间和精力，使Amazon Mechanical Turk参与者可以选择自愿。他们还回答了一系列问卷，包括“五巨头”人格测验和态度问题，这些问题我们用来构建代表利他性自我概念的指数。自我概念是指我们描述和评估自己的方式。我们发现，利他的自我概念介导了人格如何影响志愿服务决策。特别是，随和，对决策和守信用，以志愿者的概率很强的影响力，通过它对利他自我概念的影响。我们的发现对非营利组织有有益的启示。