Social distance and quality ratings in charity choice Academic Article

abstract

• 2016 Elsevier Inc. We conduct a laboratory experiment to examine how third-party ratings impact charity choice and donative behavior, particularly in regards to preferences for local charities. Subjects are given a menu of ten charities, with a mix of local and non-local organizations included. We vary whether third-party ratings are displayed on this menu. Subjects perform an effort task to earn money and can choose to donate to their selected charity. We find evidence that subjects choice of charity is impacted by third-party evaluations but, somewhat surprisingly, there are no obvious preferences for local charities. These third-party assessments have some impact on the percent of earnings that subjects allocate to their selected charity; local charities also accrue more donations, though these results are imprecise.

authors

• Brown, Alexander
• Meer, Jonathan

published proceedings

• JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS

altmetric score

• 0.5

author list (cited authors)

• Brown, A. L., Meer, J., & Williams, J. F.

citation count

• 44

complete list of authors

• Brown, Alexander L||Meer, Jonathan||Williams, J Forrest

publication date

• January 2017

publisher

• Elsevier  Publisher

published in

• Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics  Journal

keywords

• Altruism
• Charitable Giving
• Experiments
• Philanthropy
• Quality Ratings
• Social Distance

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1016/j.socec.2016.04.006

start page

• 9

end page

• 15

volume

• 66

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2016.04.006