"How we can help" rather than "Give us your money." Some implications of psychological research for increasing charitable giving
Author(s)
Farsides, Tom
Abstract
Motives for giving may differ across people, across situations, and across time. Such motives can be thought of as being either exclusively egoistic (i.e., essentially directed only at benefiting the self) or at least partially altruistic (i.e., essentially directed at benefiting someone or something other than the self). People with each of these motives tend to respond favourably to one type of approach from charities and also tend to respond negatively to the alternative type of approach. When egoistically motivated, people are likely to respond favourably to exchange opportunities that they think work in their favour. When altruistically motivated, people are likely to respond favourably to communal opportunities, i.e., opportunities to work co-operatively with others who share their altruistic motives. Charities and the organisations that support them can attempt to increase giving either by more effectively exploiting markets or by fostering and supporting altruism and cooperation. Attempts to do both are likely to be unsuccessful. This paper suggests that it is in charities’ interests to do more to foster people’s altruistic motives.
