Page 46 - Hard Goals

Heartfelt 37

Now go back to what Mother Teresa said: “If I look at the
mass I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.” I’d say that
lady was scary smart.

Personalize
A group of researchers headed by Deborah Small at the Whar-
ton School of the University of Pennsylvania essentially proved
Mother Teresa’s insight correct. In fact, their research paper
begins with her quote. They designed a series of experiments to
see whether people would donate more money to help an iden-
tifi able victim compared to a statistical victim. 8
Each of the experiments had a few parts. First, participants
completed an irrelevant marketing survey for which they were

paid five one-dollar bills. Their pay was accompanied by a blank
envelope and a charity request letter. (The marketing survey was
just an excuse to get some money into the participants’ hands to
see if they could be induced to part with it.) The letter indicated
they could donate any of their newly acquired fi ve one-dollar
bills to the charity Save the Children (which helps fi ght hunger
in Africa).
In one of the experiments, three versions of the charity let-
ter were distributed to three groups. The fi rst group’s letter gave
statistics about hunger (the “statistical victim”). The statistical
victim pitch went like this (this is just a brief excerpt):

Food shortages in Malawi are affecting more than three million

children. In Zambia, severe rainfall deficits have resulted in a
42 percent drop in maize production from 2000. As a result, an
estimated three million Zambians face hunger . . .