Victim’s identification and social categorization: first- and second-order effects on altruistic behavior

Abstract We explore in laboratory how donations to a charity can be influenced by the identifiability and the social categorization of the recipients. We find that donors give more, on average, to unidentified than to identified beneficiaries, since the latter are more likely to receive small donations than the former. Average donations are the same for in- and out-group beneficiaries; however, an in-group recipient is more likely to receive a top donation than an out-group one, whereas the latter is more likely than the former to receive an intermediate donation. Both first- and second-order effects are associated to the Dynamic Identity Fusion Index elicited from participants toward the ‘Multicultural World’.