’Moral identity’ key to charitable time giving

Charities want your time and not just your money: new study identifies factors that lessen 'time aversion' in charitable giving. There is a strong connection between moral identity and the willingness to donate time - Eric Levy Charities have long wrestled with the issue of persuading people to donate their time to worthy causes. Many potential time-givers donate money instead due to the perceived psychological costs of giving their time - which is by definition limited. But new research co-authored at the University of Cambridge finds that 'moral identity' can overcome time aversion because it affirms and reinforces this identity, especially when the cost of giving time rises - and charities can use this key insight in recruiting people for time-giving tasks. Significantly, the study found that charities can issue 'moral cues' that trigger such moral identity and make people more likely to donate their time to good causes - a key practical finding for the charitable sector. Defining 'moral identity' around a set of nine traits including kindness, caring and generosity, the study found that moral identity can be activated by showing people images of 'moral exemplars' such as Gandhi and Mother Teresa, and quotations focused on the same idea such as: "Wherever there is a human being, there is a chance for kindness." According to the study, a strong moral identity may reduce time aversion not despite the higher cost of giving time, but rather because of it.