Giving to what we want instead of to what we should

Cryder, C, Botti, S and Simonyan, Y (2013) Giving to what we want instead of to what we should. [Conference proceeding]

Abstract

Despite participants’ widespread conviction that neediness is the most important consideration when allocating resources, we observe significant preference in actual allocations for appealing, relative to needy, causes. A self-enhancement motive underlies the preference for appealing causes: when donation options are separated from the self, the preference for appealing options disappears