Avoiding The Ask: A Field Experiment on Altruism, Empathy, and Charitable Giving / James Andreoni, Justin M. Rao, Hannah Trachtman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Andreoni, James.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Rao, Justin M.

Trachtman, Hannah.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w17648.

NBER working paper series no. w17648

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2011.

Summary:

If people get joy from giving, then why might they avoid fundraisers? We explore this in a randomized natural field experiment during the Salvation Army's annual campaign. The familiar bell-ringers were placed at one or both of two main entrances to a supermarket, making the ask for a charitable donation either easy or difficult to avoid. Additionally, solicitors either simply rang the bell, or asked "please give" to passersby. Verbally asking dramatically increases the number of givers and the amount of giving, as does having solicitors at both main entrances. However, we also found dramatic avoidance of verbal solicitation, between 26.2% and 32.6%, but negligible avoidance of non-verbal solicitation. Asking has a powerful effect on both giving when asked, and on avoidance. We argue that this pattern likely illustrates givers' sophisticated awareness of the empathy-altruism link, rather than pernicious social costs of fundraising.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2011.