WeChat provides clues for why people 'pay it forward'

Every now and then, we come across one of those feel-good stories about people receiving generous gestures from complete strangers and then paying it forward to another person they don’t know. These stories intrigue us partly because they seem to go against our basic understanding of how human beings behave. If we’re all rational creatures, shouldn’t we act selfishly at all times?

Scientists are equally fascinated. For years, they’ve been trying to learn more about how altruism works. Now a group of American and Chinese researchers have found the perfect opportunity to study pay-it-forward behavior: Observing users on China’s most popular social platform.

Tencent’s WeChat is omnipresent in China and boasts more than a billion monthly active users. One of its most popular features is the ability to send digital red packets, allowing people to send each other gift money over the app up to RMB 200 (US$30). The 21st century take on an age-old East Asian ritual proved immensely popular and helped popularize WeChat Pay.

You might think this would result in a bunch of group chat free riders, but here’s where things get interesting. Researchers found that the recipients don’t always pocket all their winnings. Instead, they may choose to pay it forward by using some of that money to create another shareable red packet. Among the 3.4 million WeChat users examined, recipients on average paid forward about 10% of the amount they received.