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Five pounds – do children spend it on chocolate or charity?
Howard Lake | 22 September 2015 | News
If you gave a child £5 to spend on what they wanted, would they spend it on some chocolate for themselves, or donate it to charity? As part of Child Safety Week, the Child Accident Prevention Trust found out.
To highlight the fact that accidents are the second biggest cause of death for children in the UK, the charity undertook a social experiment to see if children would choose chocolate or charity.
Twenty children aged between 5 and 14 years old were given a £5 note. They were then told they could spend it on whatever they wanted. Not surprisingly they started thinking of all the nice things they could buy. Chocolate, whether as a bar or cake, cropped up quickly for most of them.
They were then asked whether they would spend it on themselves or give it to The Child Accident Prevention Trust to help stop accidents from happening to children.
Sophie Maunder-Allan, CEO of VCCPme and mother of two boys herself, said:
“Our children went from angelic beauties to huffing and puffing divas demanding time to think about it.”
Charity beats chocolate
All but one child decided to give the money to charity. Even the girl who didn’t said off-camera that she might share her toys instead.
But their good sides won out as all but one child handed over their five pounds to charity – and even she said off camera that perhaps she’d share her toys instead.
Maunder-Allan added:
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“I’m not sure the results would be the same if we tested adults.”
The Trust is inviting parents to test their own children’s reactions “and either gloat about their reaction or sheepishly share their child’s preference at #FiveQuidKids”.
[youtube height=”450″ width=”800″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmdNkrzf0gk[/youtube]
Sound familiar?
You might have seen a similar experiment by Action Against Hunger Spain, in which children were given the choice of keeping all the food offered to them, or sharing it with a child that didn’t receive any food. The sharing impulse won in this too.
[youtube height=”450″ width=”800″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUwhVUy2uTo[/youtube]
Main image: chocolate bar by MskPhotoLife on Shutterstock.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.