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Sinclair S, Blomberg I, Ling S. Effects of portraying an innocent versus non-innocent identified victim on intentions to donate organs post-mortem. Scand J Psychol 2024; 65:639-644. [PMID: 38402529 DOI: 10.1111/sjop.13014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2023] [Revised: 02/14/2024] [Accepted: 02/15/2024] [Indexed: 02/26/2024]
Abstract
The need for more people to register as organ donors is a pressing concern. This preregistered experiment examined whether portraying a patient in need of an organ transplant as leading a healthy lifestyle (an "innocent victim") can serve to increase people's intentions to register as post-mortem organ donors. Participants not previously registered as organ donors (N = 348) were randomly assigned to an innocent identified victim, non-innocent identified victim, or statistical victims condition. The identified victim was a 42 year-old woman in need of a liver transplant. The experimental manipulation produced marginally significant effects on self-reported intentions to register as an organ donor. Moreover, participants in the innocent victim condition were more likely relative to those in the non-innocent victim condition to sign up on an e-mail list to receive additional information about organ donation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ida Blomberg
- Department of Psychology, Linnæus University, Växjö, Sweden
| | - Samuel Ling
- Department of Psychology, Linnæus University, Växjö, Sweden
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Moche H, Karlsson H, Västfjäll D. Victim identifiability, number of victims, and unit asking in charitable giving. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0300863. [PMID: 38547164 PMCID: PMC10977801 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2023] [Accepted: 03/06/2024] [Indexed: 04/02/2024] Open
Abstract
This study examines the identifiable victim effect (being more willing to help an identified victim than an unidentified), the singularity effect (i.e., being more willing to help a single identified victim than a group of identified victims), and unit asking (first asking donors for their willingness to donate for one unit and then asking for donations for multiple units) in charitable giving. In five studies (N = 7996), we vary the level of identifiability, singularity, and group size. We find that unit asking is making people more sensitive to the number of people in need. Further, while the level of identifiability influences affective reactions, this effect does not extend to donations and, thus, is not affected by unit asking. We do, however, find an "emotion asking effect" where asking donors to rate their affect before donating increase donation levels (compared to donors asked to rate affect after). Emotion asking was attenuated when combined with unit asking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hajdi Moche
- Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- JEDI-Lab, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Hulda Karlsson
- Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- JEDI-Lab, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Daniel Västfjäll
- Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- JEDI-Lab, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Decision Research, Eugene, OR, United States of America
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Lee KJ, Setoh P. Early prosociality is conditional on opportunity cost and familiarity with the target. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
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Hagman W, Tinghög G, Dickert S, Slovic P, Västfjäll D. Motivated Down-Regulation of Emotion and Compassion Collapse Revisited. Front Psychol 2022; 13:801150. [PMID: 35911053 PMCID: PMC9326354 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.801150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2021] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Compassion collapse is a phenomenon where feelings and helping behavior decrease as the number of needy increases. But what are the underlying mechanisms for compassion collapse? Previous research has attempted to pit two explanations: Limitations of the feeling system vs. motivated down-regulation of emotion, against each other. In this article, we critically reexamine a previous study comparing these two accounts published in 2011 and present new data that contest motivated down-regulation of emotion as the primary explanation for compassion collapse.
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Affiliation(s)
- William Hagman
- JEDILab, Division of Economics, Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- JEDILab, Division of Psychology, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Division for Human-Centered Systems (HCS) at the Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Gustav Tinghög
- JEDILab, Division of Economics, Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- JEDILab, Division of Psychology, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Department of Medical and Health Sciences, The National Center for Priority Setting in Health Care, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Stephan Dickert
- Department of Psychology, University of Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria
- School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Paul Slovic
- Decision Research, Eugene, OR, United States
| | - Daniel Västfjäll
- JEDILab, Division of Economics, Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- JEDILab, Division of Psychology, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Decision Research, Eugene, OR, United States
- *Correspondence: Daniel Västfjäll,
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Thinking, good and bad? Deliberative thinking and the singularity effect
in charitable giving. JUDGMENT AND DECISION MAKING 2022. [DOI: 10.1017/s1930297500009001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Abstract
Can deliberation increase charitable giving when giving is impulsive
(i.e., a one-time small gift in response to an immediate appeal)? We conduct
two studies in Israel and Sweden to compare two forms of deliberation,
unguided and guided, in their ability to decrease the singularity effect
(i.e., giving more to one than many victims), often evident in impulsive
giving. Under unguided deliberation, participants were instructed to simply
think hard before making a donation decision whereas participants in the
guided deliberation condition were asked to think how much different
prespecified decision attributes should influence their decision. We find
that both types of deliberation reduce the singularity effect, as people no
longer value the single victim higher than the group of victims.
Importantly, this is driven by donations being decreased under deliberation
only to the single victim, but not the group of victims. Thus, deliberation
affects donations negatively by overshadowing the affective response,
especially in situations in which affect is greatest (i.e., to a single
victim). Last, the results show that neither type of deliberation
significantly reversed the singularity effect, as people did not help the
group significantly more than the single victim. This means that deliberate
thinking decreased the overall willingness to help, leading to a lower
overall valuation of people in need.
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Moche H, Västfjäll D. Helping the child or the adult? Systematically testing the identifiable victim effect for child and adult victims. SOCIAL INFLUENCE 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/15534510.2021.1995482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Hajdi Moche
- Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Daniel Västfjäll
- Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- Decision Research, Eugene, OR, USA
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