Empathy versus Anonymity: The influence of the Identifiable Victim Effect on donation behavior in humanitarian fundraising

The thesis dealt with the influence of the identifiable victim effect on the willingness to donate in the context of humanitarian and human rights collections. The aim was to analyze whether and how different forms of identification of the recipient of aid influenced donating behavior, especially in situations where full identification of the victim was not possible for ethical or security reasons. The theoretical part of the thesis summarized current knowledge about the identifiable victim effect, the psychology of giving, and the key emotional and cognitive mechanisms involved in donation decisions. The empirical part was based on a mixed research design combining experimental quantitative research with qualitative interviews. The experiment tested the influence of four types of victim presentation (full identification, identification by symbol, identification by story, and non-identification) on respondents' willingness to donate and their emotional responses. The research was conducted on a case study of the SOS Freedom collection by the organization People in Need. The results indicated that full victim identification increased emotional involvement and declared willingness to donate, but forms of quasi-identification were able to partially compensate for the absence of a specific identity....