the science of generosity

Last night as I was skimming through the latest issue of Newsweek before I drifted off to sleep, I came across a fascinating article about giving. In "The Science Behind Our Generosity," Princeton bioethics professor Peter Singer explains how psychology affects what we give charities. For instance, people are more willing to help a single individual than many, and they are more willing to help someone if they are the only one around. Noting that 27,000 children die every day from diseases that are easily treatable or preventable, Singer laments that too many people are influenced by the bystander effect - we assume someone else will help those in need. The trouble is, too few people are doing anything at all to address global poverty.

Singer is the author of The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty, and on the book's website, www.thelifeyoucansave.com, he challenges people to take a pledge to give a minimum amount of their income (based on a scale) to an organization that helps people who are living in extreme poverty. In doing so, Singer seeks to "change the public standard of what is involved in living an ethical life in a world that contains both great affluence and extreme poverty." 

Will you take the pledge?