ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Dyn.
Sec. Digital Impacts
Are People More Generous in the Internet Era? — A Study of Charitable Donation Behavior Based on Social Capital Theory
Provisionally accepted
- Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China
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Individual donations are the cornerstone for promoting the sustainable development of philanthropy. With the widespread use of the Internet, information transparency and the timeliness of dissemination have improved significantly, and individuals ' donation decisions have become embedded in a more complex interactive system. The Internet has gradually become an important medium for reshaping the logic of individual donation behavior. However, how exactly the Internet influences individual donation behavior remains to be further explored.Based on data from the five waves (2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022) of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study employs a double machine learning model to examine the impact of Internet use on individual donation behavior, taking household heads as the analytical unit, as well as to explore the underlying mechanisms. The findings reveal that:(1) Internet use not only significantly increases the likelihood of individuals engaging in donation behavior but also significantly raises the amount donated;(2) The heterogeneity analysis shows that the promoting effect of Internet use on donation behavior varies considerably across social groups. Specifically, the Internet has a more pronounced incentive effect on donations among individuals with lower educational attainment, the middle-income group, and rural households;(3) The mechanism analysis further demonstrates that Internet use indirectly influences household donation behavior by enhancing cognitive social capital. Moreover, structural and relational social capital play important moderating roles in this process, further strengthening the positive impact of Internet use on donation behavior.
Keywords: Double MachineLearning, Internet, philanthropy, Public Engagement in Charity, social capital
Received: 16 Dec 2025; Accepted: 19 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Huang, tan and guo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiang Huang
weigui guo
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