Study tests gender differences in charitability and finds that "when it's easy to avoid making a donation, such as not responding to a door-to-door solicitor, women are less likely than men to give"

TRPsubmitter · 2013-08-25T08:49:28+00:00

About three percent of women and men gave money when the visit was unannounced. When allowed to opt-out, men's giving dropped slightly, while women's giving fell to about half of the level of previous giving.

So the % of men who gave to charity was equal to that of women in the "difficult/confronted" situation and was actually higher than that of women in the "easy/opt out" situation.

Yet, the hamster scientists go on to claim:

"We need more study on this issue, but it could be that women are more sensitive to social cues than are men, and that is why they are more likely to give in situations where they don't have an easy way to avoid a donation, such as when they are asked for a donation face-to-face," List said.

Keep in mind that in NO situation did women give more frequently than men. However, a woman's increase in giving when confronted is somehow supposed to be a good thing because it indicates that she is more in tune socially? [hamster alert] They're providing this as an explanation of the large disparity in charitable giving in women between the two conditions (whereas men were very consistent with their charity, so no further explanation/discussion needed apparently).

There's a more realistic RP explanation for the disparity in women's giving: Lack of character. Lack of firmly held values. Lack of consistency in behavior. Susceptibility to peer pressure. Willingness to change your behavior solely due to what other people will think/say/write about you.

Traz_Onmale · 2013-08-25T15:19:20+00:00

It's better to also take possible mediating factors into account:

What type of relationship is found between gender and giving depends strongly on the other variables included in the empirical analyses. The more socio-economic variables, such as age, income and educational level, are included in the models examining charitable giving, the smaller the reported gender differences in giving are. It is thus no surprise that the findings on gender differences in giving vary between empirical studies.

A group of survey studies conducted in the United States (U.S.), Australia, the United Kingdom (U.K.) and the Netherlands examining giving to all types of (both religious and secular) organisations find that while women are more likely to give, men give higher amounts (Andreoni, Brown, and Rischall, 2003; Bekkers, 2004; CAF, 2005; Lyons and Nivison-Smith, 2006; Lyons and Passey, 2005; Sokolowski, 1996). Examining only the likelihood of giving, Feldman (2007) and Reed and Selbee (2002) find that females are more likely to donate than males. Bekkers (2006) finds no gender difference in likelihood of giving, but his results do confirm larger donations by men compared to women. While on the other hand Chang (2005b) finds women donate higher amounts than men in Taiwan.

Results from both experimental and survey studies show that women have stronger prosocial values than men, including concern and responsibility for the wellbeing of others (Beutel and Marini, 1995), religious values (De Vaus and McAllister, 1987; Miller and Hofman, 1995), and empathic concern (Davis, 1994; Einolf, 2011; Eisenberg and Lennon, 1983). According to primatologist Frans de Waal (2010), empathic concern can be traced back to early primate evolution and was developed simultaneously with parental care. Females that expressed empathic concern for their offspring had greater reproductive success than their counterparts without this prosocial trait.

Bekkers, R., & Wiepking, P. (2011). Who gives? A literature review of predictors of charitable giving part one: religion, education, age and socialisation. Voluntary Sector Review, 2(3), 337-365.

haterandhypocrite · 2013-08-25T13:04:14+00:00

This reminds me of an article I read that said a study showed that women are more likely, when dividing up a candy bar, to take the bigger piece.

It's a habitual, perhaps even innate selfishness. They're entitled, selfish little children.

VZPurp · 2013-08-25T15:50:16+00:00

Women are selfish narcissists. You couldn't convince them to make sacrifices, but you can program men to, even to the extent that men will put their lives on the line for a cause. When would you see a woman do that? They operate on deception for self-preservation and the preservation of their genetic lineage.

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