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Compassion Fade: Affect and Charity Are Greatest for a Single Child in Need

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  • Daniel Västfjäll
  • Paul Slovic
  • Marcus Mayorga
  • Ellen Peters

Abstract

Charitable giving in 2013 exceeded $300 billion, but why do we respond to some life-saving causes while ignoring others? In our first two studies, we demonstrated that valuation of lives is associated with affective feelings (self-reported and psychophysiological) and that a decline in compassion may begin with the second endangered life. In Study 3, this fading of compassion was reversed by describing multiple lives in a more unitary fashion. Study 4 extended our findings to loss-frame scenarios. Our capacity to feel sympathy for people in need appears limited, and this form of compassion fatigue can lead to apathy and inaction, consistent with what is seen repeatedly in response to many large-scale human and environmental catastrophes.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Västfjäll & Paul Slovic & Marcus Mayorga & Ellen Peters, 2014. "Compassion Fade: Affect and Charity Are Greatest for a Single Child in Need," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-10, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0100115
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100115
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    1. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
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    Cited by:

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    5. Arvid Erlandsson, 2021. "Seven (weak and strong) helping effects systematically tested in separate evaluation, joint evaluation and forced choice," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 16(5), pages 1113-1154, September.
    6. Kim, Minseong & Koo, Dong-Woo, 2020. "Visitors’ pro-environmental behavior and the underlying motivations for natural environment: Merging dual concern theory and attachment theory," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    7. Erlandsson, Arvid & Västfjäll, Daniel & Sundfelt, Oskar & Slovic, Paul, 2016. "Argument-inconsistency in charity appeals: Statistical information about the scope of the problem decrease helping toward a single identified victim but not helping toward many non-identified victims ," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 126-140.
    8. Marta Caserotti & Enrico Rubaltelli & Paul Slovic, 2019. "How decision context changes the balance between cost and benefit increasing charitable donations," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 14(2), pages 187-198, March.
    9. Sudeep Bhatia & Lukasz Walasek & Paul Slovic & Howard Kunreuther, 2021. "The More Who Die, the Less We Care: Evidence from Natural Language Analysis of Online News Articles and Social Media Posts," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(1), pages 179-203, January.
    10. Hajdi Moche & Tom Gordon-Hecker & Tehila Kogut & Daniel Västfjäll, 2022. "Thinking, good and bad? Deliberative thinking and the singularity effect in charitable giving," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 17(1), pages 14-30, January.
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    12. Branden B. Johnson & Adam M. Finkel, 2023. "Sensitivity to scope in estimating the social benefits of prolonging lives for regulatory decisions using national stated preference tradeoffs," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 509-528, September.
    13. Butts, Marcus M. & Lunt, Devin C. & Freling, Traci L. & Gabriel, Allison S., 2019. "Helping one or helping many? A theoretical integration and meta-analytic review of the compassion fade literature," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 16-33.
    14. Njeri Chege, 2018. "Children’s Personal Data: Discursive Legitimation Strategies of Private Residential Care Institutions on the Kenyan Coast," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-19, July.
    15. Emil Persson & David Andersson & Lovisa Back & Thomas Davidson & Emma Johannisson & Gustav Tinghög, 2018. "Discrepancy between Health Care Rationing at the Bedside and Policy Level," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 38(7), pages 881-887, October.
    16. Abhishek Bhati & Ruth K. Hansen, 2020. "A literature review of experimental studies in fundraising," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 3(1).
    17. repec:cup:judgdm:v:14:y:2019:i:2:p:187-198 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Shreedhar, Ganga & Mourato, Susana, 2019. "Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Biodiversity Conservation Videos on Charitable Donations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 180-193.
    19. Jan Schmitz, 2021. "Is Charitable Giving a Zero-Sum Game? The Effect of Competition Between Charities on Giving Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(10), pages 6333-6349, October.
    20. Stephan Dickert & Janet Kleber & Daniel Västfjäll & Paul Slovic, 2016. "Mental Imagery, Impact, and Affect: A Mediation Model for Charitable Giving," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(2), pages 1-15, February.
    21. Andrews, Mary E. & Mattan, Bradley D. & Richards, Keana & Moore-Berg, Samantha L. & Falk, Emily B., 2022. "Using first-person narratives about healthcare workers and people who are incarcerated to motivate helping behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    22. Heizler, Odelia & Israeli, Osnat, 2021. "The identifiable victim effect and public opinion toward immigration; a natural experiment study," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    23. repec:cup:judgdm:v:16:y:2021:i:5:p:1113-1154 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Yossi Hasson & Einat Amir & Danit Sobol-Sarag & Maya Tamir & Eran Halperin, 2022. "Using performance art to promote intergroup prosociality by cultivating the belief that empathy is unlimited," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    25. Jonathan B. Wiener, 2020. "Learning to Manage the Multirisk World," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(S1), pages 2137-2143, November.

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