Abstract
People’s preference to help single victims about whom they have some information is known as the identifiable victim effect. Previous research suggests that this effect stems from an intensive emotional reaction toward specific victims. The findings of two studies consistently show that the identifiability effect is attenuated when the subject is in a positive mood. Study 1 (along with a pilot study) demonstrate causal relationships between mood and identifiability, while using different manipulations to induce moods. In both studies, donations to identified victims exceeded donations to unidentified people—in the Negative Mood manipulations—while participants in the Positive Mood conditions showed no such preference. In Study 2, individual differences in people’s moods interacted with the recipient’s identifiability in predicting donations, demonstrating that the identifiability effect is attenuated by a positive mood. In addition, emotional reactions toward the victims replicate the donation pattern, suggesting emotions as a possible explanation for the observed donation pattern.
Highlights
Imagine that your country’s national team is competing against another country’s national team in the World Cup finals
Research on the identifiable victim effect demonstrates that people are more generous toward single, identifiable victims than toward unidentifiable, abstract ones [1,2,3,4]
Since the Identifiable Victim Effect has been found in previous research to pertain irrespective of the prospective donors’ mood [1, 2], we expect people who are in a comparatively neutral mood to exhibit it. This is because, in the absence of the motivation to avoid the sad stimulus, a single identified victim tends to elicit a spontaneous response of closeness and empathy [3, 44]. Taking all these considerations into account, we suggest that mood may moderate the identifiability effect, such that the effect is attenuated under a positive mood
Summary
Imagine that your country’s national team is competing against another country’s national team in the World Cup finals. Research on the identifiable victim effect demonstrates that people are more generous toward single, identifiable victims (about whom they have some information) than toward unidentifiable, abstract ones [1,2,3,4]. This line of research suggests that feelings evoked by considering the victim’s plight play a major role in explaining this effect [3].
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