Pacific Standard May-June 2013 Cover

Bloodthirsty Charities

March 14, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
(PHOTO: WELLPHOTO/SHUTTERSTOCK)

Have you given blood lately? Donated to a local non-profit? Do you remember the appeal that moved you to open your vein or pocketbook? Odds are, it was a dire message (“Help prevent a needless death”) rather than a cheerful one (“Help save an innocent life”). That’s the key finding from a collaborative study between the Red Cross and researchers at Northwestern and the University of Virginia. The emotional psychology of a charitable call to action has everything to do with its efficacy, authors Eileen Chou and J. Keith Murnighan report, and humanity’s well-documented “loss ... Read More

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Please Give? Sure, So Long as My Guy Wins

November 4, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
politicalgiving

Many important outcomes hinge on the results of Tuesday’s election. The fate of health-care reform. The makeup of the Supreme Court. And, of course, the amount of money you’ll be giving to charity next year. The latter conclusion is found in a paper prepared by MIT political scientists Michele Margolis and Michael Sances for a recent conference of the American Political Science Association. Their research caught the attention of the Washington Post a couple of weeks back for its refutation of Arthur Brooks’ oft-repeated claim that conservatives are more generous donors than ... Read More

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Liberal, Conservative, or Charitable: Politics Underpins How We Give

August 10, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Liberal, Conservative, or Charitable

To all the battles, big and small, between Democrats and Republicans, add this one: Who gives more to charity? Arthur Brooks, president of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, tried to tackle the question several years ago in his book Who Really Cares: America’s Charity Divide and concluded that the answer was Republicans—a finding which, depending on how you feel about AEI, is either obvious or dubious. Brooks’ thesis, bandied about the blogosphere and the op-ed pages of New York’s respective partisan rags, the Times and the Journal, was essentially this: while ... Read More

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Help Black Children? Sure! Teens? Not So Much.

February 20, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

Many a mailbox is clogged with fervent appeals for charitable donations. Often, these imploring letters and brochures feature heart-tugging images of black children in need. Newly published research suggests this strategy may be quite effective at getting people to open their wallets — so long as those deprived youngsters have yet to reach adolescence. “Charitable behavior toward African American children decreases — and negative stereotypical inferences increase — with the age of those children,” reports a research team led by Deborah Small of the University of ... Read More

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Not All Suffering Prompts Equal Generosity

January 7, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

The appeals arrive in the mail on a regular basis, often in envelopes featuring images of sad-eyed children. They inform us that a crisis has occurred somewhere in the world, disrupting the lives of a great many people and plead for a generous donation to help alleviate their suffering. Why are some of these campaigns far more effective than others? Research just published in the European Journal of Social Psychology suggests one reason is the inherent bias of potential donors. It seems we are significantly more likely to contribute when the crisis in question is the result of a natural ... Read More

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Jewish Americans Win Alms Race

September 9, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

Giving money to the poor is a doctrine of pretty much every religion, but a new study suggests some faiths are better than others at inspiring their followers to actually open their wallets. Specifically, Jewish families in the U.S. are more likely than their Christian counterparts to contribute to charities focusing on providing basic necessities. That’s the conclusion of a study by economist Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm, just published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. After controlling for various factors that influence giving, such as income, education and family size, he ... Read More

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