Why We Donate To Charity? Because It Feels Good!
The Chicago Tribune reports on a study, which scanned the brains of volunteers as they donated money to a food bank, showed that the pleasure centers of the brain were activated by the act of giving. Even more interesting, not all people responded in the same way. The study showed that people whose brain reacted more to being given money were less willing to make donations, from the Consumerist.
"In the study, female college students were given $100, then told either that a mandatory transfer would go from their account to a local food bank or that they could make a voluntary donation to the same charity. At the end of the study, the women were allowed to keep the remainder of the money.Using MRI, the investigators found that both mandatory and voluntary transfers increased activity in brain areas called the nucleus accumbens and the caudate nucleus. These areas have previously been associated with the brain's response to rewarding stimuli, such as taking street drugs or viewing pictures of loved ones.
The reward reaction was more intense with the voluntary giving, which the authors argue supports the notion of a "warm glow" phenomenon."
Fraudulent distributorships often this effect, when pushing their scam. They will arranged to have a fake or dubious charity "attached" to the product, typically vending, kiosks or internet terminals. The purchaser is told to donate some of the earnings from the machine to the charity -this device deflects doubt about the seller's integrity. It is also a huge red warning flag. Don't let your warm glow stand in the way of due diligence.
