Reducing overhead aversion in charitable giving through information and introspection

Abstract

Donors are less likely to donate to charities with high overhead levels. Can giving information about what the overhead covers and its effect on charity effectiveness, combined with deliberating on that information (introspection) reduce such overhead aversion? To answer this, two experiments were performed (1: N = 1017; 2: N = 814), comparing the proportion of donations to one of two charities that varied in overhead levels (0 % or 50 %). Experiment 1 aimed to replicate the overhead aversion effect and examine if it may be mitigated with information and/or introspection. Experiment 2 explored the impact of information content. We find overhead aversion in both experiments. Combining nuanced information about overhead with introspection reduced overhead aversion. Moreover, the results indicate that donors are responsive to the content of the overhead information.