-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
Copy pathcopy_SPI_EA_impact_make_book.Rmd
1547 lines (900 loc) · 43.4 KB
/
copy_SPI_EA_impact_make_book.Rmd
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
---
title: "Empathic and Numerate Giving: Donor responses to charity effectiveness and impact information"
date: "`r format(Sys.time(), '%d/%m/%Y')`"
author: "David Reinstein (Exeter, innovationsinfundraising.org), Robin Bergh (Harvard), Donor's Voice advisory board"
output:
revealjs::revealjs_presentation:
self_contained: false
reveal_plugins: ["notes", "chalkboard","zoom"]
theme: white
highlight: pygments
transition: fade
smart: true
css: reveal.css
center: true
options: knitr.table.format = "html"
classoption: table
---
<style>
.reveal section p {
font-size: .90em !important;
}
.reveal section pre code {
font-size: 0.5em !important;
}
.reveal img[src*='#center'] {
display: block;
margin: auto;
text-align: center;
}
</style>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.2.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
$chunks = $('div.sourceCode'); // get all divs containing source code...
// add the button and a wrapping container to each of them...
$chunks.each(function() {
$(this).prepend('<div class=\"but_con\"><div class=\"showopt\">Show Source</div></div>'); // add the button and a wrapping container to each of them...
$(this).find('code').toggle(); // hide them right away...
});
// definition of the function to toggle visibility
// we select all buttons, and add a click function
$('.showopt').click(function() {
var label = $(this).html();
if (label.indexOf("Show") >= 0) {
$(this).html(label.replace("Show", "Hide"));
} else {
$(this).html(label.replace("Hide", "Show"));
}
$(this).parent().siblings('pre').children('code').slideToggle('fast', 'swing');
});
});
</script>
<style>
div.but_con {
margin: auto;
width: 97%;
height: 90%;
padding-bottom: 0px;
}
div.showopt {
font-size: 5%;
background-color: #004c93;
color: #FFFFFF;
width: 100px;
height: 20px;
text-align: center;
vertical-align: middle !important;
float: right;
font-family: sans-serif;
border-radius: 3px;
margin-bottom: 0px;
}
.showopt:hover {
background-color: #dfe4f2;
color: #004c93;
}
.reveal h1 { font-size: 1.4em; }
.reveal h2 { font-size: 1.2em; text-transform: none;}
.reveal h3{ font-size: 1.1em; text-transform: none;}
</style>
<style type="text/css">
.reveal p {
text-align: left;
font-size: .7em !important;
}
.reveal ul {
display: block;
font-size: .7em !important;
text-align: left;
margin-left: 3em;
}
.reveal ol {
display: block;
font-size: .7em !important;
text-align: left;
margin-left: 3em;
}
.reveal ul ul {
display: block;
font-size: .65em !important;
text-align: left;
margin-left: 4em;
}
.reveal ol ol {
display: block;
font-size: .6em !important;
text-align: left;
margin-left: 4em;
}
.reveal ol ul {
display: block;
font-size: .6em !important;
text-align: left;
margin-left: 4em;
}
.reveal section p {
font-size: .90em !important;
}
.reveal section pre code {
font-size: 0.5em !important;
}
.reveal blockquote {
display: block;
position: relative;
width: 97%;
margin: $blockMargin auto;
padding: 13px;
font-size: .70em !important;
font-style: normal;
background: rgba(128,0,0,0.25);
}
.reveal blockquote p:first-child,
.reveal blockquote p:last-child {
display: inline-block;
font-size: .70 !important;
font-style: normal;
}
</style>
```{r setup_S, include=FALSE, warning=FALSE}
library(here)
here <- here::here
library(knitr)
source(here("dr-rstuff","functions","baseoptions.R"))
source(here("dr-rstuff","functions","functions.R"))
purl(here("analysis","analysis_dp.Rmd"), output = here("code","analysis_dp.R"))
source(here("code","analysis_dp.R"))
```
```{r somefunctions, echo=FALSE, results='hide'}
#possibly move these to a separate file
#multi-output text color
#https://dr-harper.github.io/rmarkdown-cookbook/changing-font-colour.html#multi-output-text-colour
#We can then use the code as an inline R expression format_with_col("my text", "red")
format_with_col = function(x, color){
if(knitr::is_latex_output())
paste("\\textcolor{",color,"}{",x,"}",sep="")
else if(knitr::is_html_output())
paste("<font color='",color,"'>",x,"</font>",sep="")
else
x
}
#do the same for centering etc
```
# Outline
## Outline
0. [Definition of 'effective giving' for our purposes, motivation](#intro)
1. [Barriers to effectiveness in giving (very brief taxonomy/outline)](#barriers)
<!--
2. [Focus: 'Processing of effectiveness information' & dual-system](#effect-info-dual)
<small> [(Concepts/theory)](#concepts) </small>
-->
3. [Prior evidence and gaps](#prior-evidence), [our empirical approach](#empirical-approach)
<!-- Naturalistic, Robustness across setups/frames, Honestly present evidence, allow integration -->
5. [DonorsVoice mailing experiment](#dv-experiment) <small> (many co-authors) i) Setup ii) Results iii) Proposed follow-up </small>
6. [Bergh project (Mturk)](#bergh-mturk-experiment) <small> Setups, Results </small>
7. [Bergh/Reinstein (Essex piggyback)](#essex-piggyback) <small> Setups, [Results](#bergh-results) </small>
8. [Preliminary conclusions, proposed future directions](#conclusion) (time permitting)
<aside class="notes">
This is partially accreted to the work Robin Bergh presented at the 2017 SPI: "Doing the Most Good How and When to Reason about Charity Efficiency"
</aside>
## SPI/AFE abstract
`r format_with_col("Puzzle:","blue")` inefficient giving/little to highest-impact causes
- Conceptual breakdown of 'barriers'
- 'Innumerate empathy': key barrier to promoting effective giving?
- Previous: emotional reactions to suffering $\rightarrow$ helping; but it "doesn't scale" with need (and few ppl 'research effectiveness before giving')
- Dual process: *analytical* impact info may disrupt empathic giving
*7 giving experiments, various contexts*, 2x2, between-subject treatments
- Measures of charity efficiency/effectiveness
- Emotional-empathy-inducing images
*Results:* <small> Analytical info doesn't seem to disrupt emotional-empathic giving (but some lack of power), and may enhance it. The 'right' empathic images can drive effective giving. </small>
<aside class="notes">
A small share of charitable giving goes towards “highly-effective” charities as measured by GiveWell (or to charities in this category: health interventions in poor countries).
*Innumerate empathy* may constitute a major barrier to (promoting) effective giving.
Previous work finds that helping behaviors are strongly driven by emotional reactions to individual suffering, but these do not scale with the magnitude of need. From a dual-process perspective, presenting analytical impact information may even disrupt empathic giving, shifting potential donors towards a system-II deliberative mode. We report on seven charitable giving experiments. Treatments (between subjects, mainly 2x2) present (i) measures of charity efficiency/effectiveness and (ii) empathy-inducing images. Variations across experiments include: subject pools (MTurk, UK students, US regular donors via direct mail), separate vs. joint evaluation, the nature of the effectiveness information, and treatment ordering/timing.
</aside>
# Definition of 'effective giving' for our purposes, motivation {#intro .flexbox .vcenter}
## Definition {#def-impact}
*Impact* aka *effectiveness* of a charity
$B(G_i)$: Beneficial *outcome* achieved by charity $i$ with total donations $G_i$
<br>
- *Ultimate outcome* -- Lives saved, QALY added, etc.
- Not *'output'* -- 'nets provided' nor 'paintings purchased'
<aside class="notes">
(Total or marginal) impact per dollar = output per dollar $\times$ impact per output
</aside>
----
*Impact* of a donation:
$B'(G_i)$ for the marginal donor
- GiveWell and others attempt to measure this
<br>
<center>
*We know:*
$B'(G_i)$ is much larger for most *impactful* vs. most *popular* charities.
</center>
<aside class="notes">
Trust me on this, or at least accept that this seems likely in many cases.
Steinberg & Morris, 2010 wrote about marginal vs average effectiveness.
</aside>
----
## Raises questions {.build}
1. “Why don’t we give more to the most effective charities and to those most in need?”,
<br>
<center> *and* </center>
<br>
2. “Why are we not more efficient with our giving choices?”
<br>
<center>
`r format_with_col("*A 'Puzzle'?*","blue")`
</center>
<aside class="notes">
Ben:
... although people have their pet charity causes (e.g. blindness), even if you buy an argument of incommensurability between causes (which we shouldn’t imo), there are more effective charities within these subsets.
</aside>
# Barriers to effectiveness in giving (very brief taxonomy/outline) {#barriers}
<br>
<center>
<small>
Review/mini-meta-analyses, extending from innovationsinfundraising.org
Collaborators: David Reinstein, Robin Bergh, Nick Fitz, Ben Grodeck, Ari Kagan, Janek Kretschmer, Jason Nemirow
</small>
</canter>
## Barriers: a workable categorization
0. No moral-utilitarian concerns
1. (Psychological) distance $\rightarrow$ (lack of) emotional arousal/awareness
![](anon_donor.jpg){width=40%} ![](cultural-distance.jpg){width=55%}
----
```{r measuringpov, out.width='33%', fig.align='center', fig.cap='2. Identity & self-perception; 3. Inertia and systemic factors; 4. Quantitative biases', echo=FALSE, fig.show='hold'}
knitr::include_graphics(rep(c('rather-fight-than-switch.jpg','fb_supoprtmydaughter.jpg','measuring-poverty.jpg')))
```
<center>
... and...
</center>
<aside class="notes">
*This is a project with many authors: Myself, Robin Bergh, Nick Fitz, Ari Kagan, Jason Nemirow, Paul Smeets, Janek Kretschmer, Ben Grodeck, and others*
1. Psychological distance/emotional arousal: Whether a cause/charity is something people are aware of, feel is important/salient, and feel close to
2. Identity: Things that run against one's self-perception and how one believes others will will see you. (e.g., signaling emotional empathy; avoiding cognitive dissonance from previous ineffective giving)
3. Inertia and systemic/institutional "Factors limiting individual & social *change* in behavior
4. Quantitative biases : Problems dealing with numbers and making logical evaluations involving numbers, values and amounts. Common cognitive errors *or* intuitive and emotional reactions triggered in these contexts. (E.g., Overhead aversion; Proportional dominance)
</aside>
----
5. **Obstacles/aversion to doing evaluations; analytical/empathetic clash**
<center>
![](lifeboat_choice.jpg){width=35%} ![](givewell-sheet.png){width=35%}
</center>
<br>
> - Reluctant to evaluate (taboo tradeoffs, 'social v. market norm', ...)
> - The evaluation process switches off empathy $\rightarrow$ **the present focus**
<aside class="notes">
5. Aversion to *doing* evaluations: "Things that make people reluctant to evaluate and consider the effectiveness of charities, and ways that doing these evaluations reduce generosity." (E.g., taboo tradeoffs; market vs social norm; dual-system)
</aside>
## 'Processing of effectiveness information' and spontaneous/deliberate responses {#effect-info-dual}
<br>
- Heuristic (fast) $\rightarrow$ spontaneous generosity?
- Deliberative (slow) $\rightarrow$ thoughtful giving ... or 'calculated greed'
- Also: relational models theory <small> (Fisk, '91)</small>; Motivated reasoning <small> (e.g., Exley '19) </small> $\rightarrow$ all suggests analytical information $\rightarrow$ less giving
<!-- ## Concepts/theory {#concepts}
-->
<aside class="notes">
Spontaneous Emotions and Deliberation: Dual-Process Perspectives
What happens when we combine emotional and reasoning appeals?
Dual process models of prosocial behaviors:
theoretical arguments for this perspective comes from other research on generosity and cooperativeness, suggesting that people are spontaneously prosocial and more self-serving when they think longer/more (e.g., Rand et al., 2012, Rand, 2016).
cf Fisk: Relational models theory (x1991 ) ... all thinking about social relationships is based on four elementary mental models: communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, and market pricing.
Alt. channel: Exley, Motivated reasoning: ' ...if participants desire to keep money for themselves and to think of themselves as generous, they may overweight their dislike of less-than-perfect performance metrics as an excuse not to give.'
Note: these
</aside>
# Prior evidence and gaps {#prior-evidence}
## Evidence brief: key findings
- **Small, Lowenstein, Slovic, '07** (Lab char'l giving), prime analytic (vs emotion): `r format_with_col("NEGATIVE","blue")`
<aside class="notes">
S3: Identifiable victim $>$ donation stats, S4: Priming analytic (maths) vs. priming feelings ('impressions') $\rightarrow$ less giving to identifiable victims
</aside>
- **Karlan \& Wood, '17**, field mailing, scientific impact info: NULL, tight-ish bounds; (`r format_with_col("+","red")`/`r format_with_col("-","blue")` for 'prior large/small donors'
- **Parson, '07**, field mailing, numeric overhead info: `r format_with_col("POSITIVE","red")` effect for previous donor subset
- Mixed/null/positive evidence of 'real-world ratings' <small> (Yoruk '16; Brown ea '17; Gordon 'ea '19) </small>
- Mixed evidence (lab; charity/non) of 'excuse-driven information seeking' <small> (Exley '16b; Fong & O, '10; Metzger & G '19) </small>
<aside class="notes">
Karlan & W bounds, table 2: column 1 incidence near-0, se under 1\%, baseline incidence 14\%
Amount donated +2.35, se 1.98, mean 14.17; windsorised -0.074, se 0.82, mean 11.30
</aside>
<!-- Add work on framing of market and social in economics experiments (e.g., Public goods)
Incorporate Sandra Goff's work ... field experiment in Maine)
'Market framing e.g., Cohn ea 2014
Market interactions erode moral values Falk and Sczech '13 .. Mouse study
-->
## Identifiable victims effect/ deservingness vs deliberation
<br>
Claim: Better to portray an individual (child) than convey the total affected <small> Small & Loewenstein (03); Small et al (07); Kogut & R (05) </small>
- Driven by System-1 empathy, switched off by analytic thinking
----
**Small, Lowenstein, Slovic (2007):**
<br>
[Study 3] "individuals who faced an identifiable victim donated more..."
<br>
> - "...than those who faced victim statistics, p < .01,"
<br>
> - ..."than those who faced [both] an identifiable victim [and] statistics, p < .05.""
----
**Small et al, '07, Study 4**
<br>
> Priming analytic thinking reduced donations to an identifiable victim relative to a feeling-based thinking prime.
<br>
> Yet, the primes had no distinct effect on donations to statistical victims, which is symptomatic of the difficulty in generating feelings for these victims.
<br>
<center> <small> `r format_with_col("*Tightly bounded null, but ... nonlinearity?*","blue")` </small> </center>
<aside class="notes">
Note, the latter non-effect appears tightly bounded; but this could simply be driven by nonlinearity. If people gave little to statistical victims, there is less room for this to decrease further. A classic problem when considering interactions.
</aside>
----
**Verkaik (2016)**
<br>
> While previous studies have convincingly shown that providing output information, informing donors of how their donation is used, increases generosity <small> (Cryder & L, '10; Cryder ea '13; Aknin ea '13) </small>
<aside class="notes">
Robin: I personally wouldn't count the Cryder studies as examples of studies demonstrating that effectiveness has a positive effect on giving. There's a fundamental difference between psychological perceptions of impact (and "tweaks" of info to make it seem more impactful to donate) versus evaluating actual evidence of effectiveness. For instance, the fact that donors are more willing to donate when a fundraiser is close to reaching a goal tells us something about how people feel about donating, but it tells us absolutely nothing about the actual effectiveness of a charity and how people process such information. Effectiveness is an attribute of the charity, not a perception of making a difference (if we reduce effectiveness to a subjective impact belief then guide dogs could also argued to be highly effective).
DR: True; But I wouldn't say it is completely unrelated. For actual cost-effectiveness/impact information to be used to increase/improve giving we presumably need both
1. Individuals care about their own impact per \$, as they perceive it (Cryder speaks to this),2. Individuals can reasonably draw conclusions about effectiveness per \$ from the information properly presented, and 3. The presentation of this information does not itself substantially reduce the actualized motivation to give,
</aside>
<br>
> ...the evidence on the effects of impact information are more mixed, with mainly null effects <small> (Metzger & G '15; Karlan & W, '14; Baron & S, '10; Caviola ea '14, Berman ea '15) </small>
<aside class="notes">
</aside>
<!-- Check more closely
See also Frumkin & Kim, 2001
[MORE on how this is claimed to be via system 1/2]
Some limitations/caveats: (Ein-Gar and L, '12; Kogut and R '07)
-->
## Ratings and information in general: mixed evidence
- Yörük (2016, JEMS): RD w/ Charity Navigator; significant for 'small' charities only
- See also Brown ea (2017), Gordon ea (2009)
<aside class="notes">
- Charity Navigator stars based on continuous score across categories (not EA criteria)
- Identification via RD: Impact of crossing a 'star' threshold on amounts raised
*Results:* Significant impact for small charities only: finds a nearly 20\% effect of a one star increase
</aside>
## "Effectiveness" info
**Karlan and Wood (2017)**
Add scientific impact text to appeal (& remove emotional text):
$\rightarrow$ little net effect
$\rightarrow$ reduced (increased) giving among small (large) prior donors `r format_with_col("(not a preregistered hypothesis)","grey") `
<br>
`r format_with_col("*Potential confounds, specificity*","blue")`
<aside class="notes">
- Yale/institution effect (seemed negative)
- Nature of 'impact' information (not exactly quantitative)
- ex-post splitting
- two things changed at once (impact in, emotional out)
</aside>
----
**Details of Karlan first wave: SCIENCE vs EMOTION**
> According to studies on our programs in Peru that used rigorous scientific methodologies, women who have received both loans and business education saw their profits grow, even when compared to women who just received loans for their businesses. But the real difference comes when times are slow. The study showed that women in Freedom from Hunger's Credit with Education program kept their profits strong–ensuring that their families would not suffer, but thrive.
<br>
> Because of caring people like you, Freedom from Hunger was able to offer Sebastiana a self-help path toward achieving her dream of getting “a little land to farm” and pass down to her children. As Sebastiana's young son, Aurelio, runs up to hug her, she says, “I do whatever I can for my children.”
----
**Parsons (2007)**
2 x 2 mailing appeal for People with Aids Coalition-Houston,
- Add "Service efforts and accomplishment info"(SEA)
- Add favorable "FINANCIAL" spending/overhead ratio info
FINANCIAL (alone) $\rightarrow$ 180\% increase in odds of donating *among prior donors* ($p<0.05$)
(Other effects mainly insignificant, underpowered)
<aside class="notes">
Unsure if it's a logit or LPM -- confusing writing
Not effect-coded; no measure of *overall* impact of FINANCIAL across both SEA treatments
Probably not preregistered
I'd like to see CI's
</aside>
----
<small> Details from Parsons </small>
```{r parsons, out.width='40%', fig.align='center', echo=FALSE}
knitr::include_graphics(c('parsons_fin_treat.png'))
```
```{r parsons_logit, out.width='40%', fig.align='center', echo=FALSE}
knitr::include_graphics(c('parsons_logit.png'))
```
## Information as an 'excuse' not to give; allows motivated reasoning
**Exley, 2016b:** Greater discounting of 'less-efficient' charity in charity-charity decision-making than in charity-self d-m
<br>
**Fong & O, '10:**
> "Dictators [charitable giving] who acquire information mostly use it to withhold resources from less-preferred types, leading to a drastic decline in aggregate transfers"
`r format_with_col("But...","blue")`
<br>
<aside class="notes">
Exley issues: Experimenter demand (M-turk focus), not really 'impact' information
Fong: Selection effects. In their tables, exogenous provision of information seems to *increase* donations overall.
Also ... it's evidence on the deservingness of the recipients, not on impact of a charity itself.
</aside>
<br>
----
**Metzger & G, '19 **
Lab donations to high/low-performing NGO
- More purchasing of 'recipient type' than 'impact' info
- Mixed & weak evidence on excuse-driven information-seeking
<br>
<center>`r format_with_col("Caveats...","blue")` </center>
<aside class="notes">
Opportunity to buy info on 'recipient type' increased giving, on 'admin costs' decreased giving (marginal significance for both), no effect of 'aid impact' but wide CI
'Free info' on each of these had insignificant effects (underpowered!)
Lots of caveats; e.g., recipient type (artists vs children) may have been seen as a proxy for impact
</aside>
<!--
In a laboratory experiment, we analyze individuals’ demand for information about a donation’s welfare impact, and compare it with demand for information on recipient types and administrative costs. We find the least demand for information about aid impact, indicating that individuals either do not understand, do not trust, or do not care about the specific information we provide. Average donations increase in response to information about the recipient type and decrease in response to information about administrative costs. Information about aid impact does not significantly change average donations: donors who demand information respond positively to high impact projects and negatively to low impact projects, resulting in a zero net effect on donation levels. Our results further show that information has the same effect on donation behavior regardless of whether it is provided for free or at a cost.
-->
<!-- "Making an impact? The relevance of information on aid effectiveness for charitable giving. A laboratory experiment.":
>...the demand for information about aid impact is lowest, and it is highest for information about the recipient type.
> ... exact information about aid impact did not lead to a significant change in average donation levels, while information about the exact recipient type and administrative costs led to a significant change in donation levels.
> In the recipient type group, informed participants donated significantly more than uninformed participants because they "rewarded" the preferred recipient with higher-than-average transfers. In the administration costs group, informed participants donated significantly less than uninformed participants because they used the information to "punish" NGOs with high administration costs.
DR: It is not clear to me when they are reporting on the self-selected groups and when they report on the sample overall, or in a way that deals with the self-selection.
Looking at their one clearer result, we see a lack of power.
Average don: 2.45 CHF
Aid impact group coef: -.231 (.45)
This looks like an underpowered study. They can perhaps rule out an effect greater than around half of the average donation, but no more precisely.
-->
## Our empirical approach {#empirical-approach}
- Naturalistic environments
- Robustness across setups/frames
- Honest presentation of evidence, allowing integration
<aside class="notes">
This is a project and not just a (set of) papers.
The general project is a practical one (although Bergh's project aims to explore into specific mechanisms).
By measuring the impact of several types of efficiency information, across several contexts, we aim to produce a fairly robust picture. We expect heterogeneity and sensitivity to frames; thus results may vary, and we will carefully examine the overall picture as well as this variation in a 'mini-meta-analysis'.
To limit various types of experimenter demand and arbitrary coherence, these experiments are *between* participant, and (largely) run in contexts where the donation is not the focus of the interaction.
We have preregistered our studies, hypotheses and analyses.
We will share all of our data to enable future reanalyses.
</aside>
# DonorsVoice mailing experiment {#dv-experiment}
<small>
Co-authors: David Reinstein, Elizabeth Keenan, Ayelet Gneezy, Hengchen Dai, Enrico Rubaltelli, Stephan Dickert, Kiki Koutmeridou, and Peter Ayton
</small>
## Plans from prereg [OSF---link](https://osf.io/ucwm3):
> What is the impact of including 'information about the per-dollar impact' of a charity (in terms of services provided) on the average donation (equivalently, total amount raised) and the donation incidence rate?
----
> We are running this subject to the final say of the charity. We have proposed that the Treatment emails (but not the control emails) will include a sentence/fragment such as the following in both a captioned photo in the email, and the email text:
> "Last year, we were able to provide [general provision of an outcome here relevant to the charity] to a [recipient unit] with just $[small amount of money]."
----
<center> (from prereg) </center>
> We plan to perform standard nonparametric statistical tests of the effect of this treatment on
- Average gift amount (including zeroes)
- Incidence/number of people making a gift, [and]
- Incidence of gifts of exactly $10.
> In particular, we will focus on Fisher's exact test (for incidence) and the standard rank sum and t-tests for the donation amounts.
----
**Power calculations**
> Response rates in previous such emails were extremely low: approximately 1 per 3,000 emails. Our power calculations suggest that we have .29 power to detect a 50% effect, and 0.90 power to detect approximately a 100% (doubling) on incidence...
> Because of this limited power, we will ask the charity to run this trial a second time with an equivalent-sized sample.
----
**Stopping rule**
> We aim to continue this treatment in future charity appeals until we can statistically bound (with 95% confidence) the impact of the treatment on both incidence and average donation within a margin of 1/3 of the incidence and average donation in the control condition.
----
## Context
*Charity:* A large US religiously-associated international poverty relief charity
*Timing:* All emails sent out at the same time, 21-Nov-2018 'Thanksgiving email'
Sample size and composition:
- Charity's standard email list (previous donors with emails)
- Approx 182,600 emails sent out, 91.3k in each condition
<!--
----
<center>
![dv_crs_prereg](dv_crs_prereg1.png){width=1000px}
</center>
-->
## Setup
<div id="left">
``` {r crs_ctrl_top, out.width='140%', echo=FALSE}
knitr::include_graphics('crs_ctrl_top.png')
```
</div>
<div id="right">
``` {r crs_test_top, out.width='140%', echo=FALSE}
knitr::include_graphics('crs_test_top.png')
```
</div>
----
<div id="left">
```{r crs_ctrl_bottom, out.width='140%', echo=FALSE}
knitr::include_graphics('crs_ctrl_bottom.png')
```
</div>
<div id="right">
```{r crs_test_bottom, out.width='140%', echo=FALSE}
knitr::include_graphics('crs_test_bottom.png')
```
</div>
## Results
<!-- summarised data input
-->
```{r dv-input-cross, echo=FALSE, results='hide'}
#input donation crosstabs (summary data we can analyse)
dv_cross <- read_excel("other_experimental_data/DV_work/Stats-for-DV-Formula_TYVid_dr_editing.xlsx",range="moved_from...!R11:V41") %>%
mutate(
range = ordered(range, levels = c("<$50", "$50-$99", "$100-$499","$500-$999", "$1000+")),
mode = ordered(mode, levels = c("email-link", "not-email","any" ))
)
```
```{r dv-input-ranks, echo=FALSE, results='hide'}
#input rank data and add zeroes
dv_ranks <- read_excel("other_experimental_data/DV_work/Stats-for-DV-Formula_TYVid_dr_editing.xlsx",sheet="ty_video_ranks")
dv_ranks_pos <- dv_ranks %>%
mutate(
treatment=as.factor(Treatment),
rev_rank = rank(-Rank)
) %>%
rename(rank=Rank) %>%
select(-Treatment)
#Add 91298-27 zeroes for control, add 91296-71 zeroes for treatment
zcontrol <- as_tibble(dv_ranks_pos[1,]) %>%
mutate(
rank=max(dv_ranks_pos$rank)+1,
rev_rank=min(dv_ranks_pos$rev_rank)-1,
treatment=as.factor("Control")
) %>%
slice(rep(1:n(), each = 91298-27))
ztreat <- as_tibble(dv_ranks_pos[1,]) %>%
mutate(
rank=max(dv_ranks_pos$rank)+1,
rev_rank=min(dv_ranks_pos$rev_rank)-1,
treatment=as.factor("Test")
) %>%
slice(rep(1:n(), each = 91296-71))
dv_ranks_all_em <- as_tibble(bind_rows(dv_ranks_pos,zcontrol,ztreat))
```
```{r fisher-dv, echo=FALSE, results='hide'}
#Fisher tests (could adjust to integrate input data i.e. softcode)
fisherme <- function(g1=91298, g1pos = 16816, g2 = 91296, g2pos= 16105) {
mat <- matrix(c(g1-g1pos, g1pos, g2-g2pos, g2pos),
nrow = 2,
dimnames = list(control = c("no", "yes"), treat = c("no", "yes")))
fisher.test(mat, or=1, alternative="t", conf.int)
}
dv_d_don_gte_100 <-
matrix(c(91298-241-72-63, 241-72-63, 91296-267-69-67, 267-69-67),
nrow = 2, dimnames = list(control = c("no", "yes"), treat = c("no", "yes")))
dv_d_don_open_gte_100 <-
matrix(c(16816-241-72-63, 241-72-63, 16105-267-69-67, 267-69-67),
nrow = 2, dimnames = list(control = c("no", "yes"), treat = c("no", "yes")))
(ft_dv_d_open <- fisherme())
(ft_dv_d_click <- fisherme(16816,412,16105,371))
(ft_dv_d_don_all <- fisherme(91298,26,91296,71))
(ft_dv_d_don_open <- fisherme(16816,26,16105,71))
(ft_dv_d_don_7day <- fisherme(91298,241,91296,267))
(ft_dv_d_don_open_7day <- fisherme(16816,241,16105,267))
(ft_dv_don_gte100 <- fisherme(91298,241-72-63,91296,267-69-67))
(ft_dv_don_open_gte100 <- fisherme(16816,241-72-63,16105,267-69-67))
```
```{r input-dv-ranks, echo=FALSE, results='hide'}
dv_ranks_all_em %>% group_by(treatment) %>% summarise(mn = mean(rank))
dv_ranks_pos %>% group_by(treatment) %>% summarise(mn = mean(rank))
#dv_ranks %>
#liftedWilcox(rev_rank,treatment)
#Ranksum test - CoP
(dv_ranksum <- wilcox.test(rev_rank ~ treatment, data = dv_ranks_pos, exact = FALSE, conf.int=TRUE))
#Ranksum test - include zeroes
(dv_ranks_all_em_t <- wilcox.test(rev_rank ~ treatment, data = dv_ranks_all_em, exact = FALSE, conf.int=TRUE))
```
```{r input-don, echo=FALSE, results='hide'}
#FOR ALL (email openers?) donations over 7 days; see fullcomp_DR
```
<!-- dv-ttest-ranksum-all -- see fullcomp branch -->
**Cost (Impact/\$) information treatment $\rightarrow$**
1. Slightly lower rate of opened emails:
- 16816/91298 (18.4%) in control vs 16105/91296 in treatment (17.6%)
- Highly significant in Fisher's exact test ($p<0.001$)
<br>
2. Slightly (insignificantly) lower rate of click-through after opening
- 2.3% vs 2.5% (95% OR: 0.81, 1.08)
<aside class="notes">
Headers were identical but people may 'peek' at content in some email systems, I believe.
Spam filtering may have also been affected by the different messages.
See 'https://www.hipb2b.com/blog/email-opens-measuring-actually' for the issue of how email opens are tracked.
<\aside>
----
... Cost info $\rightarrow$
**3. Greater donation incidence:**
*Via email click-through:* **66 > 25**
- Highly significant in Fisher's exact test ($p<0.001$, 95% CI OR: (1.7, 4.5); (1.8,4.5) conditional on opening email)
<br>
*Next 7 days, all channels, for email-openers:* **267 > 241 **
- "Marginally insignificant" in Fisher's exact ($p=0.1$, 95\% CI OR: (0.97,1.39))
<aside class="notes">
Some intertemporal substitution?
But I'm not sure yet whether the latter is 'all modes' or 'modes other than the original email'.
</aside>
----
```{r dv-histo, echo=FALSE, results='hide'}
smalltext <- element_text(size = 7)
dv_hist_email <- dv_cross %>%
dplyr::arrange(desc(mode)) %>%
ggplot() + geom_col(aes(x=range, y=gifts, fill=treatment), position = position_dodge(width=.5), width=.5) + facet_grid(mode ~ .) + theme(axis.text.x = smalltext)
dv_hist_email_stack <- dv_cross %>%
filter(mode!="any") %>%
dplyr::arrange(desc(mode)) %>%
ggplot() + geom_col(aes(x=range, y=gifts, fill=mode), position = position_stack(reverse = TRUE)) + facet_grid(. ~ treatment)
```
4. **Mixed results on avg. donation (overall \& CoP), amount raised**