Anyone who uses Facebook is well aware of the amount of charitable groups on the site attempting to solicit donations from their friends. Most of us have liked various pages over the years to publicly offer support for good causes. But how many of the charitable Facebook groups have you actually benefitted other than your publicly announced support on social media? Scholars at the University of Chicago recently published an article titled, “The Nature of Slacktivism: How the Social Observability of an Initial Act of Token Support Affects Subsequent Prosocial Action,” which found that liking a cause on Facebook reduces the chances that we will donate to it.
The data in the article combined with basic psychology has found that publically endorsing a cause makes us feel like we’ve already contributed, and therefore makes us less likely to financially contribute. People who confidentially sign a petition, however, become more likely to donate. A confidential endorsement is a commitment to contribute, not just an act to look good. Various studies have provided data which show that people do more good if they know other people will notice. It is an unfortunate reality that people are psychologically prone to donate to look good rather than to do good. Luckily, charitable foundations have recognized this and have made public and social events a central part of their fundraising.
http://web.missouri.edu/~segerti/capstone/Slacktivism.pdf
As a big fan of social media, I was instantly interested in your blog. The ideas you expressed about liking pages really made me think back on all of the pages I have liked, and it is true I have not physically donated to any of them. What I am still curious about is how you feel about people making Facebook statuses, rather than pages, in order to support a good cause. For example, before every canning weekend for THON, numerous statuses appear on social media. The dates for canning weekends can be viewed here: http://onwardstate.com/2013/04/30/2014-thon-canning-dates-announced/, but many people check Facebook more than Onward State. Can these statuses help raise money, or do you feel that they are just as useless as liking a page to support a good cause?
Thank you for responding and clarifying, that makes a lot more sense now. I was looking at it in the scope of facebook, but I get what you’re saying. I completely agree with that, public charity events are usually all about people showing off how much they can donate or how “good” they are, which is sad but definitely benefits the charity greatly. The Kony example is perfect, I remember everyone was talking about it but nobody I knew actually made the effort to do something. I found out all about that situation strictly through facebook, which makes sense in regard to your blog why nobody was donating. It looks good to share the Kony video, but if nobody can see that you donated, what’s the point?
I found this article interesting and am curious how far this idea goes. Recently one of my friends got mad because no one texted her for something she posted on her facebook status. It was a silly fight, but she kept saying that she knew we saw it because we liked it so we have no excuse not to text her. I guess for me a like sometimes feels like that’s enough, though I guess it is not. Has facebook made us less emotionally attached to things in general? This article: http://www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/future-tech/is-technology-making-us-less-human–1171002 talks about how technology is making us less human. I know it is stretching out your idea but perhaps this could be a good second part of this post? How not only is facebook making people less likely to donate to charities but also less likely to do all human things.
Let me clarify the conclusion of my blog for you. I was referring to the success of fundraising events such as beef and beers, auctions, and raffles at live events. These activities’ success is consistent with psychologists’ findings that people are more likely to donate if other people notice. By bringing donation opportunities to people in public, charities are taking advantage of people’s propensity to do good to look good. Possible donors perceive their Facebook like as an act of good will, but raising awareness about a cause does not necessarily benefit that cause. A recent example of this is the Kony 2012 movement, which spawned a viral video and millions of Americans supporting the cause on social media but not with their time or money.
I never realized this until reading your blog, but it seems like it’s completely true. I cant tell you how many times I’ve received an invitation to some charity or to like a page, and I click the accept or like button and call it a day. I can say with certainty that I have never donated to something as a direct result of being invited to it on Facebook. You bring up an interesting psychology concept in that we really only do good to look good. I believe this is tragically true for most people. The only upside I can see is that if you like or endorse the page, it will at least help raise awareness of the existence of the cause to your facebook friends. Eventually, somebody down the line may donate. I don’t really understand the last part of your blog, however. If the study found that people were less likely to donate if they liked something on facebook, why would the charities make it a central part of fundraising? That seems counter-productive, but then again any awareness is good awareness. I am definitely interested in seeing what kinds of strategies used by foundations yield the biggest donation rates.
This is a great topic and I especially like what you mentioned towards the end of the article. I also believe people sometimes donate just to look good instead of doing a good deed. They can be personified by the media then as great people when really they don’t care where they are donating too. It is essential in my opinion to give back if you are well off and hopefully people will start out of the good of their heart instead of just doing it because it’s expected.