Because of the salvation army bell-ringers and the money they collect, the salvation army is able to raise money to buy thousands of people clothes, food, shelter and social services during the holiday season, and also throughout the year. Last year in 2014, Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign collected almost $136 million nationwide. After visiting NYC during the holidays, I saw many Salvation Army volunteers stand out in the cold for hours ringing bells and asking for donations. I wondered how their volunteerism helped increase the amount of money raised, and what they could do to make people want to donate to an organization that assists people in their local communities.
Since the largest amount of Red Kettle volunteers are located in New York City, I will be evaluating the amount of helping, in terms of money donated, in the NYC salvation army. There are many different factors that increase the likelihood that people donate money to the Red Kettle Volunteers, starting with the notion of altruism. Altruism is a form of prosocial behavior which involves the desire to help another person even if it comes with a cost to the helper and doesn’t give them any kind of reward in return. Altruism gives us personal gratification in the sense that it can increase our feelings of self-worth, can increase our approval from people that may be with us, and can relieve our distress. In this case, the distress could be if our friend were to donate money with us around, we may simultaneously feel some discomfort if we don’t also donate some money. Therefore altruism is beneficial here in two ways; for making the giver feel good and increase their positive mood, and for helping a charity.
In order to explain why people may donate, the empathy-altruism hypothesis is one theory. Empathy is a motivator for altruism, because when we feel empathy for another person, we want to help them. On the other hand, when we don’t have empathy for someone, we help only if the rewards outweigh the costs. Upon seeing all the volunteers standing out in the cold and asking for donations, I felt empathy towards them because the weather was extremely cold in the city. Therefore if people take the time to put themselves in the shoes of those volunteers, and try to experience their volunteerism from their eyes, that person will be much more likely to donate to the salvation army. Without empathy for the volunteers or even the homeless and starving people in New York who are in need of the Salvation Army’s support, people will then evaluate the cost and rewards to see if they should help.
This empathy-altruism hypothesis is influenced by the type of attachment style a person has, because a person’s style of attachment is based on the amount of empathy they are able to feel for others. A person with an avoidant attachment style is characterized by a suppression of attachment needs due to failed attempts to be intimate with people in the past. People with this type of attachment style may find it more difficult to engage in long-term and intimate relationships, therefore may have a more difficult time feeling empathy for others. In a study conducted at Westminster college, Prof. Richman studied the likeliness that an avoidantly attached person was willing to help others in the form of donating money. She concluded from her study that avoidantly attached people are less likely to help because of their fear of emotional closeness. Helping another includes having empathy and being close to another, even if only temporarily, which may cause that person to fear closeness. Furthermore, avoidantly attached people help less than securely attached people, when asked to donate to animal and people related charities. The correlational study tested a sample of avoidantly attached people who donated less money to human and animal related charities, but not to charities that did not include some type of emotional closeness (such as charities that help the environment). Therefore by increasing the emotional cost of helping amongst people who are avoidantly attached, decreases their amount of helping.
In short, the red kettle campaign is a worthy cause in order to raise money to assist the homeless and the hungry, especially during the holiday season. Despite any situational factors the environment may have, if the people of NYC feel empathy for the volunteers ringing the Salvation Army bells, then they will donate to this worthy cause.
By: Maggie Strunk
Richman, Stephanie B. "Avoiding Affection, Avoiding Altruism: Why Is Avoidant Attachment Related to Less Helping?" (n.d.): n. pag. Rpt. in Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 76. N.p.: Netherlands : Elsevier Science, 2014. 193-97. PsycInfo. Web. 28 Nov. 2015. <http://ezproxy.holycross.edu:5615/ehost/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=66df872f-dc1e-4b90-9222-11593c0ad768%40sessionmgr120&hid=128&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=2015-04217-040&db=psyh>.
I like this article, especially since the holidays are coming up. I like how the empathy-altruism hypothesis correlates to the topic, although I believe that many decide to donate for egoistical reasons rather than altruistic reasons. Primarily due to the fact that altruism includes the feeling of empathy (not to be mistaken with that of compassion), and that entails feeling angst when you walk by Red Kettle volunteers and do not donate. By assuming that in order for altruistic people to relieve this sense of personal grief or guilt, they feel somewhat compelled to donate. What also must be taken into account is how easy it is to escape from the scenario or whether or not the individual was in a rush. An easy escape would make it easier for those with low empathy to escape donating, being in a rush would not allow for them to process the situation and not allow for the feeling of empathy to take place. Overall great article, goes in depth about empathy and how it correlates to altruistic moods.
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