Giving (in) to help an identified person

Abstract

People give more to a person in need when this person's identity is known. Such altruistic behaviors may arise from a genuine concern for the person, leading people to give. Alternatively, altruistic behavior may also arise from one's attempt to reduce the guilt of not giving, leading people to give in. Is the increased altruism towards an identified (vs. unidentified) charity recipient driven by a genuine concern for the person or by guilt? The current registered report addressed this question in two experiments (N = 3671), in which participants made allocation decisions in transparent vs. ambiguous settings with a predetermined (versus undetermined; Study 1) or an identified (versus unidentified; Study 2) child in need as the recipient. Consistent with our pre-registered hypothesis, results revealed that participants gave significantly less to undetermined/unidentified children in an ambiguous, compared with a transparent setting. However, in contrast to our predictions, predetermined/identified children did not receive more than undetermined/unidentified children in transparent settings in which they know how their choice impacts the children. Accordingly, the predicted interaction between identification and ambiguity was not significant. Exploratory analyses revealed that participants who willingly resolve the ambiguity surrounding the impact of their choice gave more compared to those who were given transparent information by default. The results suggest that some people give in when making their donation decisions, but the tendency to give in is independent of whether the recipient is identified or not.