The paradox of being good
Via TrueSlant/Neuroworld:
You may remember from the other day, the Al Gore’s Giant Fraggin’ Mansion Effect. Or, as it’s alternately known, moral self-regulation.
This is a concept where people who are satisfied that they are “good,” will act bad. People primed to think positive thoughts about themselves will give less to charity; perhaps those pleased with their “green” Earth Day activities won’t feel bad about polluting a couple days later.
As I said before, basically, we’re constantly calculating the trade-off between being able to see ourselves as good people and the cost of engaging in all that non-advantageous goodness.
And, so, here’s a new permutation of this idea: A couple new studies suggests that white people who voted for Barack Obama may be so satisfied with their anti-racist credentials that they… act more racist.
Here’s what may be happening – too many people are weak in the face of peer pressure to give to causes they don’t believe in. Their contribution, in that case, is a bribe/ransom/blackmail payment. They go away from that transaction conflicted and, so goes the theory – less ready to engage and donate more meaningfully to the causes that actually stand a chance of getting under our skin.
Perhaps the government ought to ban street collectors for charities – those well-intentioned maniacs who will bear down on you, handshake extended, even as you desperately (and pathetically) pick up the pace and try to look away – at the nearest shop or at your phone.
This would, in the short term, vastly hurt the many charities that rely on this method of fundraising. But ultimately it would preserve goodwill for the social endeavours sector, and thus be a net benefiter.
With the rise of the internet and the work of good people such as Peter Dietz over at socialactions, niche causes (the Long Tail) are within easy access to all netizens – suggesting that the increased goodwill ought to rapidly spread to the sector in the form of hard-forged engagement with causes for all but the most bastardly amongst us!
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