The Arithmetic of Compassion: Confronting the Challenge of Pseudoinefficacy in Charitable Giving

同情心的算术：面对慈善捐赠中的伪无效的挑战

• 批准号: 1427414
• 负责人: Paul Slovic
• 金额: $ 45万
• 依托单位: Decision Science Research Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-15 至 2017-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1427414&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Arithmetic; Compassion; Confronting; Challenge; Pseudoinefficacy

In a great many situations where we are asked to aid persons whose lives are endangered, we are not able to help everyone. What do we then do? Research has shown that people often feel less good about helping those they can help and they help less when their attention is drawn to those who cannot be helped. The demotivation exhibited by these people may be a form of pseudoinefficacy that is nonrational. We should not be deterred from helping whomever we can because there are others we are not able to help. This research aims to provide a better understanding of the cognitive and emotional underpinnings of pseudoinefficacy and test strategies to combat it. Specifically, the research team examines pseudoinefficacy in the context of decisions about whether to aid people whose lives are endangered. Laboratory experiments and online surveys illuminate the interplay between the scope and framing of the humanitarian need, the type of thinking it stimulates, and the distinct emotional responses associated with such thinking and with pseudoinefficacy.The importance of this project comes from the fact that, domestically and internationally, millions of people struggle to survive in the face of poverty, disease, food insufficiency, natural disasters, and human malevolence. Those individuals and governments fortunate to have the ability and desire to help those in need are inundated with requests for vital aid. Many do respond. Humanitarian aid provided by individuals, NGOs, and governments, though large in some sense, is but a fraction of what is needed and what could be provided. For those in a position to help, decisions are strongly motivated by perceived efficacy. Inefficacy, real or perceived, shrivels response, even among those who have the desire and the means to protect and improve lives. It is tragic, indeed, when efficacy goes unrecognized and vital aid that could be provided is withheld due to the illusion of ineffectiveness that the research teams has labelled "pseudoinefficacy." This research projecct explores and documents the root psychological causes of pseudoinefficacy and develops ways to mitigate its harmful consequences. Although the proposed studies are set in the context of humanitarian aid, the problem of pseudoinefficacy is central to a wide range of important personal and societal decisions motivated by perceived efficacy, such as actions to mitigate climate change or other threats to human health and the environment.

在很多情况下，我们被要求帮助生命受到威胁的人，我们无法帮助每个人。我们该怎么办？研究表明，人们在帮助他们能帮助的人时往往感觉不太好，当他们的注意力被吸引到那些无法帮助的人时，他们帮助的人就少了。这些人表现出的动力减退可能是一种非理性的伪无效。我们不应该因为我们无法帮助其他人而阻止我们帮助我们所能帮助的人。这项研究旨在更好地理解伪无效的认知和情感基础，并测试对抗它的策略。具体来说，研究小组在决定是否帮助生命受到威胁的人的背景下检查伪无效。实验室实验和在线调查阐明了人道主义需求的范围和框架之间的相互作用，它激发的思维类型，以及与这种思维和伪无效相关的独特情感反应。这个项目的重要性来自这样一个事实，即在国内和国际上，数百万人在贫困，疾病，粮食不足，自然灾害，和人类的恶意那些有幸有能力和愿望帮助那些需要帮助的人的个人和政府被淹没在对重要援助的请求中。许多人回答。个人、非政府组织和政府提供的人道主义援助虽然在某种意义上很大，但只是所需和所能提供的一小部分。对于那些有能力提供帮助的人来说，决策的强烈动机是感知到的功效。无效，无论是真实的还是感觉到的，都会使反应萎缩，即使是那些有愿望和手段保护和改善生活的人也是如此。事实上，当效力得不到承认，并且由于研究小组称之为“伪无效”的无效幻觉而拒绝提供本可提供的重要援助时，这是可悲的。“这个研究项目探索和记录了假性无效的根本心理原因，并制定了减轻其有害后果的方法。虽然拟议的研究是在人道主义援助的背景下，伪无效的问题是中央的一系列重要的个人和社会决策的动机感知的功效，如行动，以减轻气候变化或对人类健康和环境的其他威胁。