Online tipping, or virtual gift-giving, on live-streaming platforms is an increasingly common consumer behavior in cyberspace. Perplexingly, when live-stream viewership itself is free, viewers voluntarily spend money to buy virtual gifts and send them to their preferred streamers. The present study aimed to examine the motivational mechanism underlying these voluntary tipping behaviors from the perspectives of materialism and self-enhancement. By a representative online survey (N = 1224), we found that participants' materialist beliefs were positively associated with both the likelihood and the amount of online tipping, and the self-enhancement motive could significantly mediate this association; furthermore, streamer endorsement could moderate the link between the self-enhancement motive and tipping amount. These findings suggest that materialist beliefs and downstream self-related motivations are among the main driving forces for online tipping. The present results extended previous research on materialism by testing its effects in a newly emerging online consumer behavior and providing direct evidence for the moderation role of the “symbolic-ness” of materialist behaviors. Practical implications for live-streaming platforms, educators and policymakers, such as introducing tipping amount caps, were also discussed.

中文翻译：

---

通过打赏获得社会关注：唯物主义通过自我提升动机预测直播平台在线打赏

直播平台上的在线小费或虚拟送礼是网络空间中越来越普遍的消费者行为。令人困惑的是，当直播观看本身是免费的时，观众会自愿花钱购买虚拟礼物并将其发送给他们喜欢的流媒体。本研究旨在从唯物主义和自我提升的角度研究这些自愿倾倒行为背后的动机机制。通过有代表性的在线调查（N = 1224），我们发现参与者的唯物主义信念与在线小费的可能性和数量呈正相关，而自我提升的动机可以显着调节这种关联；此外，主播代言可以缓和自我提升动机与小费金额之间的联系。这些发现表明，唯物主义信仰和下游的自我相关动机是在线小费的主要驱动力。目前的结果通过测试其对新兴在线消费者行为的影响，扩展了先前对唯物主义的研究，并为唯物主义行为的“象征性”的调节作用提供了直接证据。还讨论了对直播平台、教育工作者和政策制定者的实际影响，例如引入小费金额上限。