Member-only story
Ignorance and moral wiggle room
Sometimes we prefer not to know something, for example to avoid worry or to escape accountability. But ignorance may also serve our moral identity and reputation
More than 2/3 of all adults in the UK made charitable donations in the UK in 2017 — from regular contributions to specific charities to the occasional small change into a collection box or into the hat of a homeless person on a street corner. If ever there was a violation of standard economic assumptions, then here we have it: generosity would appear to go squarely against our self-interest. We do indeed manifestly end up materially poorer as a result of such donations.
A simple explanation would be that we are not only concerned about our own wellbeing, but also about that of others — including of random strangers. But donating is not always anonymous. We can choose whether or not our name will be visible when making online donations. And while those made in public view may not reveal who we are, we still signal generosity to anyone observing us. That suggests a potential ulterior motive: being seen to be generous improves our social image, and that may yield other rewards over time.
