The Science of Giving: Experimental Approaches to the Study of Charity
Why do people give to charity? What makes some appeals succeed and others fail? And what do rigorous experiments — rather than fundraisers’ intuitions or correlational surveys — actually tell us about the psychology of giving? This landmark collection brings together leading researchers to provide the most authoritative scientific account of charitable giving yet assembled.
Fundraising has always been as much art as science. Practitioners develop intuitions about what works – the right story, the right ask, the right moment. But these intuitions are rarely tested in controlled conditions, and the research that does exist often relies on surveys that can establish correlation but not cause. The Science of Giving sets out to change that.
Edited by psychologists Daniel Oppenheimer and Christopher Olivola, the book gathers experimental research from leading academics across psychology, economics, and behavioural science. Focusing on US nonprofit sector statistics, each chapter reports findings from studies in which variables were deliberately manipulated, such as donation amounts, framing, social cues, identifiability of beneficiaries, and payment mechanisms. In this way it makes it possible to draw genuine causal conclusions about what drives giving, rather than merely describing patterns.
The chapters are organised into four parts: the value of giving (including the psychological benefits to donors); the impact of social factors (peer effects, social norms, scrutiny); the role of emotion and cognition; and practical implications for fundraising strategy. Highlights include findings on the power of identifiable victims over statistical lives, the counterintuitive effects of matching gifts, the role of guilt and moral licensing, and the conditions under which public recognition increases or decreases donations.
The book is not a practitioner manual: it is a work of academic social science, and readers should be prepared for methodological rigour alongside the practical insights. But for any serious fundraiser, communications director, or charity leader who wants to understand the evidence base behind donor psychology, it is invaluable.
As one Amazon.co.uk reviewer put it simply: “Best book I ever spent my money on. I would recommend it for those looking to create fundraising ideas.”
About Daniel M. Oppenheimer and Christopher Y. Olivola
Daniel M. Oppenheimer is a professor at UCLA with a joint appointment at the Anderson School of Management and the Department of Psychology, where he researches charitable giving, metacognition, and decision-making. He was previously on the faculty at Princeton. He won the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in Literature for his research demonstrating that simpler writing makes authors appear more intelligent than complex writing.
Christopher Y. Olivola is an assistant professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, whose research focuses on behavioural economics, social influence, and charitable giving.
Reviews
“The Science of Giving will be of interest to psychologists and economists interested in understanding how people decide whether, when, and how much to donate to charitable causes. This book will also give all readers much to consider about their own charitable giving.”
Catherine A. Sanderson, Amherst College, in PsycCRITIQUES
“The Science of Giving is full of information that may help a fundraiser make better decisions about how to approach donors. The book is a fine reference for the science of charitable giving as it stands today and will yield many insights that can be applied to any organisation’s fundraising approach.”
Joanne Fritz, About.com
