Should We Fight Poverty or Reduce Its Harm? How the Language of Moral Foundations Theory Affects Donations to Poverty‐Relief Charities

Depending on group identity, people tend to use different language when discussing poverty and relate to different moral values. We design an experiment to study how the language and moral values identified by moral foundations theory affect donations to poverty relief charities. One treatment uses language and moral values that progressives tend to use; one treatment is congruent for conservatives. We observe higher donations when the solicitation uses progressive themes such as caring and fairness. Conservatives drive our main result. Conservatives donate significantly more when presented with language and values that, in other contexts, tend to be used by progressives.