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In defence of charity which benefits both giver and receiver

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Selfless motivations for charitable giving are often represented as being superior to selfish ones. But, we argue, evidence from the behavioural sciences suggests that such a ‘hierarchy of charity’ may stand in the way of what ultimately matters: generating the most impactful giving overall.

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Fig. 1: The world’s most generous countries.
Fig. 2: US charitable giving over time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Geary Institute for Public Policy and the School of Economics, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Kate M. Laffan

  2. The Psychological and Behavioural Science Department, The London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Kate M. Laffan & Paul H. Dolan

Authors
  1. Kate M. Laffan
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  2. Paul H. Dolan
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Correspondence to Kate M. Laffan.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Laffan, K.M., Dolan, P.H. In defence of charity which benefits both giver and receiver. Nat Hum Behav 4, 670–672 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0855-4

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