Eberhardt Hiabu, Inka and Smeets, Paul and van den Assem, Martijn and Van Dolder, Dennie (2026) Impact or Responsibility? Giving Behaviour in a Televised Natural Experiment. Economic Journal. (In Press)
Eberhardt Hiabu, Inka and Smeets, Paul and van den Assem, Martijn and Van Dolder, Dennie (2026) Impact or Responsibility? Giving Behaviour in a Televised Natural Experiment. Economic Journal. (In Press)
Eberhardt Hiabu, Inka and Smeets, Paul and van den Assem, Martijn and Van Dolder, Dennie (2026) Impact or Responsibility? Giving Behaviour in a Televised Natural Experiment. Economic Journal. (In Press)
Abstract
We directly compare the influences of impact and responsibility considerations on giving behaviour. In moral philosophy, utilitarianism emphasizes the importance of the former, whereas theories of equity and desert argue for the importance of the latter. Our data are from a television show where an audience of one hundred people divides ten thousand euros among three candidates who face financial difficulties, and from independent raters who evaluated attributes of the candidates and their predicaments. We find that the well-being benefit of donations (“impact”) outweighs the degree to which the candidate had control over the cause of their situation (“responsibility”). Giving increases more with impact than it decreases with responsibility, and the contribution of impact to the explanatory power of our regression models is approximately twice that of responsibility. Additionally, our analysis shows no evidence of discrimination based on age, gender, or physical attractiveness.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics, Department of |
| SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
| Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Mar 2026 10:01 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Mar 2026 10:01 |
| URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/42996 |
Available files
Filename: Impact or Responsibility - February 2026 EJ.pdf
Embargo Date: 1 January 2100