Hidden Brain

How to Make a Difference: Part 1

Most of us know that we should give to causes we care about, but we rarely stop to ask whether the charities we support are actually effective. When psychologist Paul Bloom looked at how people make charitable decisions, he found something troubling: we are far more moved by a single identifiable victim than by statistical evidence of mass suffering.

Hidden Brain

How to Make a Difference: Part 1

Most of us want to make a difference in the world. But when we try to figure out how to do that — how to direct our time and money — we often fall prey to a predictable set of biases. We're swayed by emotional appeals rather than evidence. We give to causes that are visible rather than causes that are most in need. And we vastly underestimate how much good we can do.