“One of us”: Outstanding willingness to help save a single identified compatriot

Responsibility: The tie that binds

“…Other prior work suggests that determinedness effects are especially pronounced among in-group members (Kogut & Ritov, 2011; see also Dickert, Sagara, & Slovic, 2011;Kogut & Ritov, 2007), a condition that likely was not met in this experiment.…”

Someone to blame: When identifying a victim decreases helping

“…Although the significant interaction between responsibility and identification points to the different patterns identification produces when the victim is responsible and when s/he is not responsible, the difference between contribution to the identified and unidentified victims in each of the responsibility conditions did not approach significance. Previous research examining donations to sick children (Kogut & Ritov, 2005a,b) or tsunami victims (Kogut & Ritov, 2007) has consistently shown that identified single victims received significantly greater donations than a group of identified or unidentified victims. However, as explained earlier, these victims were not expected to evoke negative perceptions in the perceiver.…”

Saving the masses: The impact of perceived efficacy on charitable giving to single vs. multiple beneficiaries

“…Participants read about Make-A-Wish's mission, followed by pictures of six children and their wishes. To be consistent with earlier work on giving to multiple beneficiaries (e.g., Kogut & Ritov, 2007), we included the children's name and age along with a photograph of the individual children. In addition, we explicitly stated the estimated dollar amount needed, to ensure that the same monetary need was perceived across conditions.…”