Who is expected to donate to charity, and how much should they give? Intuitively, the less financially constrained
someone is the more they should give. How then do people evaluate who is constrained and who has
money to spare? We argue that perceptions of spare money are reference-dependent with respect to one’s current
self: those who earn more than oneself are perceived as having an abundance of spare money and thus as
ethically obligated to donate. However, those higher earners themselves report having little to spare, and thus
apply lower donation standards to themselves. Moreover, a meta-analysis of our file-drawer reveals an asymmetry:
individuals overestimate the spare money of higher earners but estimate the scant spare money of lower
earners more accurately. Across all incomes assessed, people “pass the buck” to wealthier others (or to their
future wealthier selves), who in turn, “pass the buck” to even wealthier others.