A drop in the bucket? The Analytic System and Donations to Identifiable and Statistical Victims

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A drop in the bucket? The Analytic System and
Donations to Identifiable and Statistical Victims

• Zheng (Sharon) Bi
• Psychology and Social Behavior
• University of California, Irvine

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• Baby Jessica
• Received over 700,000 in donations from the
  public, when she fell in a well near her home in
  Texas.

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Identifiable Victim Effect (IVE)

• Society is willing to spend far more money to
  save the lives of single, identifiable victims
  than to save statistical, groups of victims.
• Lives are valued inconsistently.

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The death of a single Russian soldier is a
tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.
----Josef Stalin

• Every dog has its daybut at what price?
• More than 48,000 was contributed to save a dog
  stranded on a ship adrift on the Pacific Ocean
  near Hawaii.

• Food shortages in Malawi are affecting more than
  three million children.
• More than 11 million people in Ethiopia need
  immediate food assistance.

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Why is this happening?

• Affect Heuristic (Slovic)
• Psychophysical (emotional) numbing towards group
  of victims.

• Logical connection (Sharon)
• my donation does not make a significant
  difference. It is just a drop in the bucket.

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My Research Proposal

• Identifiable victim effect is not simply caused
  by emotion or affect, it has logical reasoning
  behind it as well.
• Less money is donated to Statistical victims
  because people perceive their donation as a drop
  in the bucket.

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Research Design

• People read information from charity letters.
• Information on the charity letters was
  manipulated.
• Intervention
• Purpose donation towards statistical victims is
  not a drop in the bucket.

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Research Design Groups and Conditions

• Two groups
• Identifiable versus Statistical Victim groups
• Three conditions
• Control condition
• Two intervention conditions
• Metric condition
• Group effort condition

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Hypotheses

• Control condition
• The identifiable victim effect will be replicated
  
• Intervention conditions
• The identifiable victim effect will be reduced or
  eliminated.

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Control Condition

• Identifiable Victim
• Any money that you donate will go to Shona, a
  7-year-old girl from Mali, Africa. Shona is
  desperately poor, and faces a threat of severe
  hunger or even starvation. Her life will be
  changed for the better as a result of your
  financial gift. Save the Children will work with
  Shonas family and other members of the community
  to help feed her, provide her with education, as
  well as basic medical care and hygiene education.

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Control Condition

• Identifiable Victim
• Any money that you donate will go to Shona, a
  7-year-old girl from Mali, Africa. Shona is
  desperately poor, and faces a threat of severe
  hunger or even starvation. Her life will be
  changed for the better as a result of your
  financial gift. Save the Children will work with
  Shonas family and other members of the community
  to help feed her, provide her with education, as
  well as basic medical care and hygiene education.
  

• Statistical Victim
• Any money that you donate will go to more than
  three million children in Mali, Africa. They are
  desperately poor, and face a threat of severe
  hunger or even starvation. Their lives will be
  changed for the better as a result of your
  financial gift. Save the Children will work with
  these childrens families and other members of
  the community to help feed them, provide them
  with education, as well as basic medical care and
  hygiene education.

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Metric Condition

• Identifiable Victim group
• 5 is enough to feed Shona for a week

• Statistical Victim group
• 5 is enough to feed an African child for a
  week

Oh, I see how much my drop can help.
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Group Effort Condition-- Individual efforts can
be combined into a significant group effort

• The compact fluorescent light bulbs, also called
  the energy saving light bulbs, emit the same
  light as classic light bulbs but use 75 or 80
  less electricity. What that means is that if
  every one of 110 million American households
  bought just one energy saving light bulbs, took
  it home, and screwed it in the place of an
  ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be
  enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. A
  similar group effort could help save African
  children.

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Dependent Measures

• Willingness to Contribute ()
• After you have read the information above, are
  you willing to contribute money to save the child
  (children)? Yes or NO
• If yes, how much money you would like to donate
  at this moment?
• Analytical questionsmeasures logical reasoning.
• Emotional/affective reactions
• Interpersonal Reactivity Index- Mark H. Davis
  (1980)-measurement of empathy.

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Dependent Measures

• Willingness to Contribute ()
• After you have read the information above, are
  you willing to contribute money to save the child
  (children)? Yes or NO
• If yes, how much money you would like to donate
  at this moment?
• Analytical questions
• Emotional Reactions
• Interpersonal Reactivity Index- Mark H. Davis
  (1980)-measure of empathy.

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Sample

• 203 UCI students completed the survey online
• Randomly assigned to each group and condition.

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Results

• Failed to replicate Identifiable victim effect
  (IVltSV)
• Significant condition difference (p.002)
• Group effort manipulation increased donations
• Metric manipulation anchored responses to 5

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More Results

• Emotional reactions
• 7-point scale 5 questions
• No significant differences among groups and
  conditions.

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More ResultsAnalytical Questions

• To what extent do you feel that it is effective
  to give money to aid this cause?
• Positive correlation (r.37, plt.01)

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More ResultsAnalytical Questions

• Do you think that your contribution can make a
  significant difference in these childrens
  lives?
• Positive correlation (r.33, plt.01)

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Follow-up Study

• No evidence for the identifiable victim effect in
  the present study.

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Follow-up Study

• Identifiable Victim
• Any money that you donate will go to Shona, a
  7-year-old girl from Mali, Africa. Shona is
  desperately poor, and faces a threat of severe
  hunger or even starvation. Her life will be
  changed for the better as a result of your
  financial gift. Save the Children will work with
  Shonas family and other members of the community
  to help feed her, provide her with education, as
  well as basic medical care and hygiene education.
  

• My version of Statistical Victim
• Any money that you donate will go to more than
  three million children in Mali, Africa. They are
  desperately poor, and face a threat of severe
  hunger or even starvation. Their lives will be
  changed for the better as a result of your
  financial gift. Save the Children will work with
  these childrens families and other members of
  the community to help feed them, provide them
  with education, as well as basic medical care and
  hygiene education.

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• Identifiable Victim
• Any money that you donate will go to Shona, a
  7-year-old girl from Mali, Africa. Shona is
  desperately poor, and faces a threat of severe
  hunger or even starvation. Her life will be
  changed for the better as a result of your
  financial gift. Save the Children will work with
  Shonas family and other members of the community
  to help feed her, provide her with education, as
  well as basic medical care and hygiene education.

• Slovics version of Statistical Victim
• Food shortages in Malawi are affecting more than
  three million children.
• In Zambia, severe rainfall deficits have resulted
  in a 42 percent drop in maize production from
  2000. As a result, an estimated three million
  Zambians face hunger.
• Four million Angolansone third of the
  populationhave been forced to flee their homes.
• More than 11 million people in Ethiopia need
  immediate food assistance.

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Study Design

• Three groups
• Identifiable Victim
• My version of statistical victim
• Slovics version of statistical victim
• Two conditions
• Control
• Group effort

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Sample

• N122
• Randomly assigned to each group and condition.

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Findings

• Group effort manipulation increased the donation
  for all groups.
• In control condition, donation for IV almost
  equal to donation for Slovics version of
  Statistical Victim.
• Consistent with the first study, donations for my
  SV is much higher compared to other groups
  (p.033)

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More findings

• Emotional reactions
• Replicated the result from study one
• Analytical questions (effectiveness significant
  difference)
• Replicated the result from study one

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Conclusions

• Metric information tends to anchor peoples
  donations.
• 5 is enough to feed an African child for a
  week
• Donation 5
• Group effort information really makes people
  realize that their contributions do make
  difference.
• It increased peoples donation in both studies.

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Conclusions

• Making a donation to individual is not just an
  emotional reaction, it has logical reasoning
  behind it.
• Implications on how charities should approach
  people

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Acknowledgment

• Prof. Peter H. Ditto
• Prof. Valerie Jenness
• Members of Ditto Lab
• Graduate students
• David Tannenbaum
• Sena Koleva
• Andrew Mastronarde
• Undergraduate students
• Cassie Diaz
• Yvette Jaramillo
• Goldie Chan
• Members of Social Ecology Honors Program