New Studies on Generosity Get a Generous Grant

Fund raising and charitable giving are the subject of a growing body of research by economists, psychologists, and other scholars.

This emerging line of study got a lift last week, with the announcement of $1.4-million in grants that will pay for four research projects that seek to advance scientific understanding of generosity. The money comes from the University of Notre Dame’s Science of Generosity Initiative, which was created last year with a $5-million grant from John Templeton Foundation and another $200,000 from the university.

Following are the projects that will benefit:

• A $250,000 study of how empathy affects charitable donations by James Andreoni, a behavioral economist at the University of California San Diego.
• A $396,447 project by Nicholas Christakis, a Harvard University sociologist, to examine how generosity spreads in human social networks.
• A $456,906 examination by Ariel Knafo, a psychologist at Hebrew University, to determine what combination of genetic and social factors in families lead to generosity in children.
• A $363,666 study by Carolyn Warner, an Arizona State University political scientist, to examine how religion fosters generosity in Catholics and Muslims.