Psychology of Altruism

February 25, 2010 12:51 PM

I (think) I have read on a few different occasions that research shows that people are far more likely to want to help (and/or donate money to) specific individuals than to blanket causes. Have you read the same thing? If so, where?
posted by blapst to Science & Nature (5 answers total)

In one of Slovic's experiments, people were asked to donate to Rokia or, in other cases, to a similar hungry boy, Moussa. In each case, research subjects were quite willing to help and donated generously either to Rokia or to Moussa. But when people were asked to donate to Rokia and Moussa together, with their photographs side by side, donations decreased. Slovic found that our empathy begins to fade when the number of victims reaches just two. As he puts it: "The more who die, the less we care."

From Nicholas Kristof: How to Save the World (seen here)
posted by Partial Law at 12:58 PM on February 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

I know I read on some PR listserv about a similar study. It claimed that people are less moved by widespread suffering than they are by individual success stories.
posted by thelastenglishmajor at 1:05 PM on February 25, 2010

Related, Joseph Stalin's observation (which served him well): "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."
posted by availablelight at 1:53 PM on February 25, 2010

Yes, I read or heard something about this too and what I heard was in reference to the organization Kiva. I found this article from the radio program 'Marketplace' but I think saw something from a newspaper website as well - I just can't find it now.
posted by nnk at 2:23 PM on February 25, 2010

Recent article about this, with example of the case of the dog lost at sea, snipped from book The Hidden Brain by Shankar Vedantam.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:44 PM on February 25, 2010