ALTRUISTIC RESPONSES TO THE SEPTEMBER 11 TERRORIST ATTACKS: SOME EVIDENCE FROM DICTATOR GAMES

INTRODUCTION

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Americans answered with an unprecedented outpouring of contributions to charitable organizations dedicated to helping the victims of the attacks. In the following six month the American R Cros assembleed $930 million [American Red Cros 2002] and a number of of recent origin charities were established with the only aim of providing aid to the victims. Internet sites were place up to help channel contributions to organizations that supported the victims. Contributions were not just monetary; life-blood donations exceeded the capacity of the American R Cros and viands and time were donated at surface of land zero to help in the deliver and clean-up effort. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, individuals make opened their homes and provided other aid to those affected by the agency of the terrorism. The extent to which similar altruism will persist remains an make open question.

This paper uses economic experiments to compare altruistic behavior before and immediately after the terrorist attacks. Before September 11 we had guidanceed dictator games in which scholars were given the option of donating their earnings from the experiment to the American R Cross1 We repeated the experiment in late September after the attacks. This paper compares giving before and after the terrorist attacks and evaluates the amplitude to which altruistic responses before and after the attack differ by dint of gender, major, religious practice and income horizontal

In our initial experiment, we were interested in in what way giving differs with personal characteristics. Because a number of studies display that women are more "other-directed" than men2 we hypothesized that women would give more than men We awaited that business majors would give les than learners in other majors. Because religious teaching advocates compassion and helping the destitute we postulated that individuals who practice a religion would donate more than those who do not practice a religion. Finally we anticipated that income would be a determinant of giving on the contrary the direction of the event seemed uncertain. Economic reasoning predicts that higher income individuals would give more to charity either because of the declining marginal utility of income or because charitable giving is a normal serviceable On the other hand, if lower income individuals identify more closely with the disadvantaged, they may act more compassionately and give more. We hypothesized that the income events would be larger than this latter result and higher income individuals would give more in absolute limits to charity than lower income individuals.

We awaited the dictator experiments to reveal a large increase in charitable giving after September 11 for all demographic assemblages particularly since the charity to which the donations were made was the American R Cros the greatest in quantity prominent charity channeling aid to the victims of the attacks. We postulated that those who were the greatest in quantity generous prior to the facts of September 11 might increase giving more because they might be more responsive to the suffering of others. If more generous nation increase giving by a greater amplitude then, given our hypotheses above, we would await women to increase giving more than men non-business majors to increase giving more than business majors, those practicing a religion to increase donations more than those not practicing, and high income make subordinates to increase giving more than lower income make submissives We also hypothesized that nation who had closer connections with the victims would increase giving more than those who did not. Therefore, we wait fored that the increase in giving would be larger for tribe with hometowns near the site of the attacks. Similarly, we postulated that business majors might increase their donations more than other majors because they identified with the victims of the attacks, who were in greatest in quantity cases employed by corporate and financial institutions, the career path greatest in quantity business students might be wait fored to follow. Business majors might also exhibit a stronger rejoinder if they perceived the attacks upon the World Trade Center to be an assault upon a symbol of western capitalism. This predisposition for a greater increase in giving could slip the potentially lower increase in giving through business majors due to their initially les generous giving behavior.

The issues above can be addressed in a number of ways. An alternative to the experimental design we have undertaken is the more traditional analysis of take a view of data on institutions or upon individuals before and after September 11 Each alternative technique has its be in possession of strengths and weaknesses. In our experiments, because we have data upon demographic characteristics of the individuals, we can assess whether tribe responded differently depending on their sex profession or major, religion, or income. Institutional observes only give aggregate giving figures before and after the fact Individual surveys would also have information upon demographics, but married couple's giving masks the issues of gender on giving since decisions upon gifts are made jointly with equal reason that the relative influence of each partner is not known. Differences in giving behavior through men and women is an important issue we wish to address. While our experiment cannot determine by what means much the increase in giving to the American R Cros thronged out other giving, a pattern which might be determined with individual reviews it is more focused upon the impact of September 11 upon giving than individual surveys because of its timing and its use of the American R Cros as the recipient of all donations.3