Charity Case
The Number of Fatalities Drives Disaster Aid: Increasing Sensitivity to People in Need
Ioannis Evangelidis & Bram Van den Bergh
Psychological Science, November 2013, Pages 2226-2234
Abstract:
In the studies reported here, an analysis of financial donations in response to natural disasters showed that the amount of money allocated for humanitarian aid depends on the number of fatalities but not on the number of survivors who are affected by the disaster (i.e., the actual beneficiaries of the aid). On the basis of the experimental evidence, we discuss the underlying cause and provide guidelines to increase sensitivity to people in need.
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Wen-Bin Chiou, Szu-Wei Chen & Da-Chi Liao
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, forthcoming
Abstract:
Communication tools on social networking sites (SNSs) provide users with an efficient way to distribute information to the public and/or their friends simultaneously. In this article, we show that this kind of indiscriminate one-to-many (i.e., monologue) communication, in which the diverse interests of recipients are not considered, may induce a tendency toward egocentrism that interferes with other-oriented concerns, resulting in a reduced inclination to display prosocial behavior. In Experiment 1, participants induced to post a public communication subsequently allocated less money to anonymous strangers in the dictator game than did control participants. In Experiment 2, participants directing a post about participation in an experiment to their Facebook friends volunteered to help code fewer data sheets than did controls. Moreover, an egocentric state was shown to mediate the relationship between indiscriminate one-to-many communication and helping behavior. We provide the first demonstration that indiscriminate one-to-many communication on online social networks may be associated with a tendency toward self-interest. Our results suggest that the prevalence of monologue communication on SNSs may induce an egocentric tendency that undermines the likelihood of prosocial behavior.
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Kirk Kristofferson, Katherine White & John Peloza
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Prior research offers competing predictions regarding whether an initial token display of support for a cause (such as wearing a ribbon, signing a petition, or joining a Facebook group) subsequently leads to increased and otherwise more meaningful contributions to the cause. The present research proposes a conceptual framework elucidating two primary motivations that underlie subsequent helping behavior: a desire to present a positive image to others and a desire to be consistent with one’s own values. Importantly, the socially observable nature (public vs. private) of initial token support is identified as a key moderator that influences when and why token support does or does not lead to meaningful support for the cause. Consumers exhibit greater helping on a subsequent, more meaningful task after providing an initial private (vs. public) display of token support for a cause. Finally, the authors demonstrate how value alignment and connection to the cause moderate the observed effects.
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Donald Sacco, Kurt Hugenberg & Elizabeth Kiel
Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
On a between-subjects (Experiment 1A) and within-subjects (Experiment 1B) basis, participants indicated a belief that attractive and unattractive targets engage in less actual helping behavior than moderately attractive targets. In Experiment 2, attractive and moderately attractive targets were seen as more capable of helping than unattractive targets; attractive and unattractive targets were seen as less willing to help than moderately attractive targets. Multilevel modeling indicated that perceptions of helping capability and willingness mediated perceptions of how much targets actually help and should help. Whereas unattractive targets are seen as unhelpful due to both a lack of ability and motivation to help (negativity halo), attractive targets are also seen as unhelpful, but due uniquely to a perceived unwillingness to help.
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Helping Fellow Beings: Anthropomorphized Social Causes and the Role of Anticipatory Guilt
Hee-Kyung Ahn, Hae Joo Kim & Pankaj Aggarwal
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
People are often reluctant to comply with social causes because doing so may involve personal sacrifices of time, money, and effort for benefits that are shared by other members of society. In an effort to increase compliance, government agencies and public institutions sometimes employ financial tools to promote social causes. However, employing financial tools to induce prosocial behavior is expensive and often ineffective. We propose that anthropomorphizing a social cause is a practical and inexpensive tool for increasing compliance with it. Across three prosocial contexts, we found that individuals exposed to a message from an anthropomorphized social cause, compared with individuals exposed to a message relating to a nonanthropomorphized social cause, were more willing to comply with the message. This effect was mediated by feelings of anticipatory guilt experienced when they considered the likely consequences of not complying with the cause. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
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James Edwards & John List
NBER Working Paper, November 2013
Abstract:
People respond to those who ask. Within the charitable fundraising community, the power of the ask represents the backbone of most fundraising strategies. Despite this, the optimal design of communication strategies has received less formal attention. For their part, economists have recently explored how communication affects empathy, altruism, and giving rates to charities. Our study takes a step back from this literature to examine how suggestions – a direct ask for a certain amount of money – affect giving rates. We find that our suggestion amounts affect both the intensive and extensive margins: more people give and they tend to give the suggested amount. Resulting insights help us understand why people give, why messages work, and deepen practitioners’ understanding of how to use messages to leverage more giving.
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Jose Canals-Cerda
Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using a unique panel data set of art auctions on eBay, we conduct an empirical analysis of the impact of charity status on the outcome of an auction and find it to be substantial. Charity status increases the probability of sale by 46%, the observed number of bidders by 111% and the sale price by 45%. In addition, charity status substantially lowers the auction's opening price. Interestingly, the effect of charity status declines over time indicating that charity auctions may be susceptible to donor fatigue.
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Alexandra Freund & Fredda Blanchard-Fields
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Four studies utilizing different methodological approaches investigated adult age-related differences in altruism (i.e., contributions to the public good) and the self-centered value of increasing personal wealth. In Study 1, data from the World Values Survey (World Values Survey Association, 2009) provided 1st evidence of a negative association between age and the self-reported wish to be rich. Ecological concerns, a form of contributing to the public good, were positively related to age. Study 2 investigated whether these values are expressed behaviorally when participants solved a complex problem that allowed striving for monetary gains or contributing to a public good. Confirming hypotheses, young adults’ strategies were consistent with the aim of optimizing personal financial gain, and older adults’ strategies with the aim to contribute to the public good. Studies 3 and 4 showed that older adults were more likely than younger and middle-aged adults to donate money to a good cause than to keep it for themselves. Study 4 manipulated participants’ future time perspective as a factor potentially contributing to age-related differences. Partly confirming hypotheses, a longer time perspective reduced donations by older adults, but a shorter time perspective did not increase donations by younger adults. These studies suggest that older adults not only report valuing contributions to the public good more highly but also are more likely to behave altruistically than younger adults. All studies used cross-sectional designs that prevent a strict test of developmental trajectories but rather provide age-related differences at 1 point in time, representing a 1st step in investigating adult age-related differences in altruism.
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Intervene to be Seen: The Power of a Camera in Attenuating the Bystander Effect
Marco van Bommel et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Security cameras became such a part of everyday life that their presence may escape from our conscious attention. The present research examines the impact of cameras on intervening in crime, a situation in which the classic bystander effect has been uncovered. In our experimental set up, participants witnessed how another participant (a confederate) stole money, in the presence of either two or no other bystanders. Moreover, we used a security camera to make people feel watched. We expected to replicate the bystander effect without security camera’s presence and an attenuation of the bystander effect with a security camera present. As expected, the findings revealed that without a camera, participants were less likely to stop our confederate from stealing money when other bystanders were present. However, when there was a camera present this effect was attenuated: The camera increased intervention when people are otherwise least likely to help — when other bystanders are present.
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Working for “Warm Glow”: On the Benefits and Limits of Prosocial Incentives
Alex Imas
Journal of Public Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We study whether using prosocial incentives, where effort is tied directly to charitable contributions, may lead to better performance than standard incentive schemes. In a real-effort task, individuals indeed work harder for charity than for themselves, but only when incentive stakes are low. When stakes are raised, effort increases when individuals work for themselves but not when they work for others and, as a result, the difference in provided effort disappears. Individuals correctly anticipate these effects, choosing to work for charity at low incentives and for themselves at high incentives. The results are consistent with warm glow giving and have implications for optimal incentive design.
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Accepting zero in the ultimatum game does not reflect selfish preferences
Gianandrea Staffiero, Filippos Exadaktylos & Antonio Espín
Economics Letters, November 2013, Pages 236–238
Abstract:
We show that subjects who set their minimum acceptable offer to zero in an ultimatum game are the most generous players in a dictator game. This finding challenges the interpretation of the acceptance of low offers as payoff-maximizing behavior.