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There is an ongoing debate about whether rational or emotional appeals have a greater influence on moral behavior. The opportunity to donate to a charity provides an applied case to test this influence. Previous studies confirm the power of emotional appeals. For rational appeals, the results are mixed. We present the results of a pre-registered experiment (N=1056) comparing how much participants donate via cash transfers when exposed to five conditions. Three are vignette-based: Narrative presents the testimony of an identified recipient, Argument presents a Singer-style argument for charitable giving, and Facts lists the results of an evaluation of a cash transfer program. The other two conditions are based on perspective-taking exercises with a reasonable donor or a suffering recipient. As predicted, the average amount donated was significantly lower in the control condition than in each of the other five conditions (all ps .05). Narrative performed best, significantly better than all other conditions except Facts. The success of Facts is surprising given the poor performance of numerical information conditions in other studies. We discuss what features of our design may have contributed to its success, paving the way for a better understanding of how numerical information can influence altruistic behavior.
Vieira et al. (Fri,) studied this question.