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

TL;DRAbstract

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-

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