The decision to donate to a charity is often driven by emotion rather than by calculated assessments based on how to make the biggest impact. In a review article published on April 29 in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, researchers look at what they call “the psychology of (in)effective altruism” and how people can be encouraged to direct their charitable contributions in ways that allow them to get more bang for the buck—and help them to have a larger influence.
