Avoiding the Ask: A Field Experiment on Altruism, Empathy, and Charitable Giving

@article{Andreoni2017AvoidingTA,
  title={Avoiding the Ask: A Field Experiment on Altruism, Empathy, and Charitable Giving},
  author={James Andreoni and Justin M. Rao and Hannah Trachtman},
  journal={Journal of Political Economy},
  year={2017},
  volume={125},
  pages={625 - 653}
}
If people enjoy giving, then why do they avoid fund-raisers? Partnering with the Salvation Army at Christmastime, we conducted a randomized field experiment placing bell ringers at one or both main entrances to a supermarket, making it easy or difficult to avoid the ask. Additionally, bell ringers either were silent or said “please give.” Making avoidance difficult increased both the rate of giving and donations. Paradoxically, the verbal ask dramatically increased giving but also led to… 
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312 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
18
Background Citations
115
Methods Citations
16
Results Citations
11

312 Citations

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Citation Type

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1 WHO GIVES ? ON EMPATHY AND IMPULSIVENESS
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Who Gives? On Empathy and Impulsiveness
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The Impact of a Surprise Donation Ask
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ABSTRACT Charities are non-profit services that address diverse social needs. As securing financial donations is critical to their continued operation, they engage in a range of fund-raising…
Seasonal altruism: How Christmas shapes unsolicited charitable giving
Sidestepping the rock and the hard place: The private avoidance of prosocial requests
The Manifestations of Generosity: From Cooperation to Social Justice
  • P. Herzog
  • Sociology
    The Science of Generosity
  • 2019
Using findings from the Science of Generosity Initiative and other studies, this chapter details the various manifestations of generosity, such as giving money, possessions, time, attention, aid,…
Altruism and Self Control
We extend the dual-self model to include altruistic preferences. This lets us explain (1) why people appear to have preferences for equality in the laboratory, while not giving much to obviously…
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References

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If being asked to give to charity stimulates an emotional response, like empathy, that makes giving difficult to resist, a natural self-control mechanism might be to avoid being asked in the first…
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TLDR
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