The identifiable victim effect: Causes and boundary conditions

Why do people engage in charitable giving? Certainly there are many reasons for this. Social norms, social perceptions, religious convictions, and other considerations may all play a role. However, beyond all those reasons, the wish to help other people, particularly when those people are in need of external help, is the core motivation for charitable giving and helping behavior. Thus, in order to better understand the psychological motivation of charitable giving, it is important to explore the factors that may increase or decrease the fundamental wish to extend help. One of the main factors that affects the wish to aid is the characteristics of the target-the recipient of the help. Why do some targets elicit outpourings of sympathy and aid, while other targets do not? This chapter focuses on an important characteristic of the targets that affect people’s willingness to help: the identifiability of the recipient.