When Knowing More About a Crisis Decreases Charitable Aid: Victim Statistics Causes Lower Anticipated Warm Glow and Help Efforts for Specifically Single Identifiable Victims.

Abstract: Prior research indicates that the increase in help towards 1 identified victim (identifiable victim effect) is partly driven by affective reasoning. When negative affective information is salient, help towards victims that can be helped decline, an effect known as pseudoinefficacy. However, the affective component has not been clearly defined, and help efforts has been used interchangeably with measures of affect. In 2 studies, I measured 1. An affective component clearly defined as anticipated warm glow for hypothetically donating toward victims, 2. Help efforts (help intention and donation). The experiments manipulated victim stories and negative affective information in the form of victim statistics. Field experiments were conducted using pen-and-paper packages where participants rated humanitarian aid advertisements. Victim statistics caused lower help intention and anticipated warm glow for specifically 1 identified victim. However, these results were not replicated in the follow-up. The second study demonstrated lower donations for 1 identified victim presented with victim statistics. Anticipated warm glow had a slightly stronger relation to help intention and donations for specifically 1 identified victim compared to 9 statistical victims. Results indicate that evaluating the help efforts toward a victim is related to anticipated warm glow. Introducing victims that cannot be helped can lead to lower anticipated warm glow. Differences in anticipated warm glow might be one of the underlying factors for both pseudoinefficacy and the identifiable victim effect.