Giving to What We Want Instead of to What We Should

There is a puzzling phenomenon in charitable giving that people give a lot of money to seemingly low-priority causes (e.g., sports fundraisers) while other highly pressing causes remain severely underfunded (e.g., water sanitation in destitute countries). In this project, we hypothesize that a fundamental reason why needy causes are ignored is because of a need to self-enhance via others’ positive attributes. Therefore, despite a strong and widespread belief that the neediest causes should receive priority, causes that are attractive or appealing can triumph over more needy alternatives.