Thanks for writing this piece. Do you have any non-anecdotal evidence to support this argument? For example, does an intervention to get people to donate more also cause them to be more likely to give blood? I think this is one area where it’s very difficult to have correct intuitions so outside evidence, even with all the problems of the psychology literature, can be especially helpful.
I would like to point out that this is one of those things where n=1 is enough to improve people’s lives (e.g., the placebo effect works in your favor), in the same way that I can improve my life by taking a weird supplement that isn’t scientifically known to work but helps me when I take it.
For what it’s worth, my life did seem to start going better (I started to feel more in touch with my emotional side) after becoming vegan.
Off the top of my head, it seems like “foot in the door” factors could support the OP’s thesis (people are more likely to go along with larger requests after already doing smaller ones for the same person/cause, apparently related to cognitive dissonance reduction). Moral licensing effects would seem to go the other way. It would be interesting to hear from an expert in the social sciences which effect tends to be stronger.
Thanks for writing this piece. Do you have any non-anecdotal evidence to support this argument? For example, does an intervention to get people to donate more also cause them to be more likely to give blood? I think this is one area where it’s very difficult to have correct intuitions so outside evidence, even with all the problems of the psychology literature, can be especially helpful.
I would like to point out that this is one of those things where n=1 is enough to improve people’s lives (e.g., the placebo effect works in your favor), in the same way that I can improve my life by taking a weird supplement that isn’t scientifically known to work but helps me when I take it.
For what it’s worth, my life did seem to start going better (I started to feel more in touch with my emotional side) after becoming vegan.
Less anecdotal but only indirectly relevant and also hard to distinguish causation from correlation:
Ctrl+f for “Individuals who participate in consumer action are more likely to participate in other forms of activism” here
https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/fair-trade#consumer-action-and-individual-behavioral-change
Off the top of my head, it seems like “foot in the door” factors could support the OP’s thesis (people are more likely to go along with larger requests after already doing smaller ones for the same person/cause, apparently related to cognitive dissonance reduction). Moral licensing effects would seem to go the other way. It would be interesting to hear from an expert in the social sciences which effect tends to be stronger.