How does social information affect charitable giving?: Empathic concern promotes support for underdog recipient.

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Economics
• Social Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Charitable giving is a key human cooperative behavior.
• Social media influences charitable decisions through social information, like project popularity.
• Understanding psychophysiological responses to social information in giving is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine human reactions to social information about charitable endeavors.
• To investigate the psychophysiological underpinnings of these reactions.
• To determine if social information influences donation decisions.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments involving donations to UNICEF projects (Africa vs. Syria).
• Participants received social information (project fundraising amounts) and could change their initial donation choice.
• Eye-tracking (gaze bias, pupil dilation) and decision-making data were collected.

Main Results:

• Participants showed a robust anti-conformity pattern, switching to less popular charity projects.
• "Changers" exhibited greater physiological arousal and differential valuation compared to "Keepers".
• Social information about popularity triggered distinct psychophysiological responses.

Conclusions:

• Social information on popularity can lead to anti-conformity in charitable giving.
• This behavior may stem from empathic concern for less popular (worse-off) causes.
• Findings align with human tendencies to avoid unequal distributions.