Friends of Victims: Personal Experience and Prosocial Behavior
Deborah A. Small, Uri Simonsohn
Journal of Consumer Research · 2008 · Volume 35 · Issue 3
Abstract
Why do different people give to different causes? We show that the sympathy inherent to a close relationship with a victim extends to other victims suffering from the same misfortunes that have afflicted their friends and loved ones. Both sympathy and donations are greater among those related to a victim, and they are greater among those in a communal relationship as compared to those in an exchange relationship. Experiments that control for information support causality and rule out the alternative explanation that any effect is driven by the information advantage possessed by friends of victims.
Keywords
Affect/Emotions/Mood, Charity and Gift Giving, Judgment and Decision Making, Experimental Design and Analysis (ANOVA)
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