The "identified victim" effect: An identified group, or just a single individual?

Tehila Kogut*, Ilana Ritov

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

589 Scopus citations

Abstract

People's greater willingness to help identified victims, relative to non-identified ones, was examined by varying the singularity of the victim (single vs. a group of eight individuals), and the availability of individually identifying information (the main difference being the inclusion of a picture in the "identified" versions). Results support the proposal that the "identified victim" effect is largely restricted to situations with a single victim: the identified single victim elicited considerably more contributions than the non-identified single victim, while the identification of the individual group members had essentially no effect on willingness to contribute. Participants also report experiencing distress when the victim is single and identified more than in any other condition. Hence, the emotional reaction to the victims appears to be a major source of the effect.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)157-167
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Behavioral Decision Making
Volume18
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2005

Keywords

  • Affect
  • Emotion
  • Individuating information
  • Victims

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